Clock is ticking for Kings County groundwater agencies to control their own fate

Kings County groundwater agencies are now in a race to head off mandatory state pumping limits, which could be imposed by the end of 2027.

Water managers are scrambling to get a new, unified groundwater plan to the state Water Resources Control Board by April 2027 that they hope regulators will approve. But Water Board staff  has already begun writing its own mandatory pumping plan for the region expected to be released next summer. 

Given the severe subsidence, or land sinking, in the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers most of Kings County, the state plan will likely include stringent pumping limits. Or even pumping moratoriums, as a recently released state plan could impose on farmers in the neighboring Tule subbasin. 

Is it too late for Kings County farmers to escape a similar fate?

No, said one Water Board spokesperson.

“However, it’s been over six years since adequate plans were required by SGMA, groundwater conditions are worsening, and this window of opportunity is closing quickly,” Edward Ortiz wrote in an email.

Amer Hussain, engineering consultant for four of the five Tulare Lake subbasin groundwater agencies, said he’s been assured that if the region submits its plan by April 2027, Water Board staff would review it, even as they make their own plan.

“If either basin (Tule or Tulare Lake) develops and implements an adequate plan, (state pumping) plans will not be necessary.  We hope the GSAs will fix their plans and implement quickly,” Ortiz wrote.

Tulare Lake was placed on probation April 2024 by the Water Board for lacking an adequate groundwater plan that would stem subsidence and protect domestic drinking wells, among other issues.

Probation requires farmers to meter and register their wells annually at $300 each, report their pumping to the state and pay the state $20 per acre foot pumped. Under a state pumping plan, that fee would go up to $35 per acre foot.

Farmers in Kings County have already reported pumping data to the state and are awaiting invoices, which may arrive as soon as October.