- Editor’s note: Monserrat Solis covers Kings County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative.
Most Kings County farmers will begin metering and registering their wells by the end of this year even though a court order is holding those exact same requirements by the state at bay pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
The state Water Resources Control Board had tried to impose well metering and registration – among other requirements – on farmers after it placed the Tulare Lake subbasin on probation April 16. The Kings County Farm Bureau sued the state arguing those requirements exceeded the Water Board’s authority under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
A Kings County judge agreed.
She issued a preliminary injunction halting the requirements citing a lack of transparency and a host of other problems with the Water Board’s enforcement process.
But local groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) in Kings County are moving ahead with their own well metering and registration policies.
The South Fork Kings GSA adopted its well metering and registration at its Sept. 19 board meeting. All wells in South Fork Kings will need to be registered with the GSA by Dec. 1.
Flow meters will need to be installed on wells that produce more than 500 acre feet of water a year by March 1, 2025, according to the new policy. Wells that pump between two and 500 acre feet a year must be metered by March 1, 2026.
“We want to know where these wells are and once we get a good handle on where the wells are, where the pumping is at, then we can start seeing these trends on what the water table is doing,” South Fork Kings GSA General Manager Johnny Gailey said during the meeting.
There are five GSAs that cover the Tulare Lake subbasin. Three others have also adopted well metering and registration policies.
The Tri-County Water Authority, which covers patches of ground in the southeast corner of Kings County and into Tulare County, adopted a policy on Sept. 11 that requires wells pumping two or more acre feet a year be registered with the authority by Dec. 15.
Additionally, ag wells that pump two or more acre feet annually must install and maintain water meters.
The Mid Kings River GSA, which covers Hanford and parts of Lemoore, has had a registration policy in place since Oct. 2022. It requires all groundwater wells within its jurisdiction to be registered.
The El Rico GSA, which covers most of the old Tulare Lake bed, also requires well registration.
The remaining GSA, the Southwest Kings GSA, does not currently have a well registration policy, but has plans to draft one, Executive Assistant and Board Secretary Staci Wilkins said. The policy states that all groundwater wells that pump more than two acre feet per year must be metered.
The Water Board declined to comment on what this flurry of registration policy enactments may mean for the probationary process due to the ongoing litigation.
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