Kings County groundwater managers frustrated, enlightened by state actions

• Editor’s note: Monserrat Solis covers Kings County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative. 

One Kings County groundwater agency will send an emissary to Sacramento to ask for more time before its farmers are charged fees while other agencies pour over a recent state report for guidance.

At its March 24 meeting, the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) approved sending Doug Verboon, also a Kings County Supervisor, to Sacramento April 7 to appear before the Water Resources Control Board.

The Water Board placed the region on probation, which comes with reporting and fee requirements, in 2024 for lacking an adequate groundwater plan. After the Kings County Farm Bureau sued and obtained a preliminary injunction holding off those sanctions, Water Board staff ceased meeting with Tulare Lake managers.

The injunction was reversed and farmers now face a May 1 deadline to begin reporting extractions and paying the state $20 per acre foot pumped.

That’s not fair, Verboon said at the March 24 meeting. After more than a year of silence from Water Board staff, Mid-Kings needs more time to “catch up,” he said. He plans to ask that Mid-Kings farmers be excluded from paying the $20-per-acre-foot fee while the GSA gets its new plan ready.

“The 18 or 22 months they didn’t talk to us really hurt us,” Verboon said. “What do they collect the money for when they wouldn’t work with us?”

Water Board staff declined to comment since Mid-Kings has not officially asked for the reprieve. 

Meanwhile, other GSAs are reacting to a recent Water Board report on the neighboring Tule subbasin and some are looking to it for guidance. Tule was also placed on probation in 2024.

That report recommended none of the Tule GSAs requesting exemptions from reporting and fees be granted the so-called “good actor” exclusions. The Water Board will consider the recommendation at its April 21 meeting.

Deanna Jackson, executive director of the Tri-County Water Authority was especially disappointed by the Water Board staff’s recommendation.  Tri-County has land in both subbasins and was one of the Tule subbasin GSAs that staff gave a thumbs down to. 

“The actions taken in the Tule Subbasin, including (Tri-County’s), are the most aggressive management actions to date in the San Joaquin Valley, and there was very little acknowledgment of that fact in the report,” Jackson wrote in an email March 26.

The recommendation against any probation exclusions also flies in the face of how Fifth District Court of Appeal justices ruled in the Farm Bureau preliminary injunction reversal in the Tulare Lake subbasin.

Justices said the Water Board had erred by issuing a blanket denial for exemptions and should have considered exclusion applications by the Tri-County and Southwest GSAs separately from the rest of the subbasin.

Other Tulare Lake subbasin water managers saw guidance in the recent Water Board staff recommendations.

“This document from Tule is the hammer we needed to say, ‘Hey guys, let’s get coordinated,’” Consultant engineer Amer Hussain said during a March 26 South Fork Kings GSA grower advisory meeting.

South Fork’s General Manager Johnny Gailey said the report was the insight the region needed. 

“This is the first time that they’ve actually put words on paper – black and white – and what their applications really are,” Gailey said. 

The 47-page report cites a lack of coordination between the Tule subbasin groundwater agencies and continued subsidence to be the biggest issues.

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