- Editor’s note: Monserrat Solis covers Kings County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative.
Kings County farmers will have more time to fight requirements from the State Water Resources Control Board to meter their wells and pay extraction fees.
A temporary restraining order blocking those measures was extended to Sept. 13 by Kings County Superior Court Judge Kathy Ciuffini during a hearing Aug. 20.
The meters and other measures were handed down by the Water Board after it placed the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers most of Kings County, on probation April 16 for lacking an adequate plan to replenish and maintain the region’s groundwater as required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
Under probation, growers must register their wells at $300 each, install flow meters, report extractions to the state and pay $20 per acre foot of water pumped. Probation is the first step toward a possible state pumping take over if water managers and state officials can’t develop an adequate groundwater plan by April 2025.
Before the state’s probationary measures went into effect, however, the Kings County Farm Bureau sued the Water Board citing violations of the California Code of Civil Procedures and Water Code and sought a preliminary injunction. Ciuffini issued a temporary restraining order on July 15.
Ciuffini was expected to make a ruling on the preliminary injunction at the Aug. 20 hearing, but instead extended the restraining order.
“We’re glad that we got the extension,” Dusty Ference, executive director of the Kings County Farm Bureau said in a statement. “We were hopeful we were going to know her thoughts on the (preliminary injunction) yesterday; Not having her thoughts and having the (temporary restraining order) extended is the best outcome.”
Edward Ortiz, public information officer for the Water Board said the board is looking forward to the court’s future decision.
Grower and Vice President of the Farm Bureau, Garrett Gilcrease said he didn’t have an extension of the restraining order on his bingo card of court options but was pleased.
“The judge is doing exactly what a judge should be doing; looking at all angles,” he said.
Ference said growers now have more time to fight against the reporting requirements and fees.
“I think they’ll appreciate the relief,” he said of area growers. “Even if it is temporary, we all get antsy without answers.”
agencies (GSAs) in the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers Kings County.
The probationary status and state involvement stem from SGMA, passed in 2014, which mandates critically overdrafted areas bring their aquifers into balance by 2040.
Five other San Joaquin Valley regions also had their groundwater plans deemed inadequate and are set for probationary hearings before the Water Board. The Tule subbasin, which covers the southern half of Tulare County’s flatlands will come before the board Sept. 17.
Next up, will be the Kaweah subbasin, which covers the northern half of Tulare County’s valley portion. It is scheduled for a hearing on Jan. 7, 2025. Then the Kern subbasin will come before the board on Feb. 20, 2025.
The Chowchilla, Delta-Mendota subbasins are expected to have hearings later in 2025.
Though Judge Ciuffini’s restraining order only applies to growers in the Tulare Lake subbasin, growers and water managers in the other regions set for probationary hearings are closely watching the court’s actions.
The next court date will be Sept. 13 for a case management conference.
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