NEWS

A pair of lawsuits focused on trespass and environmental issues surrounding construction of a 48-inch water pipeline in Kings County are, in many ways, just a token of a much larger issue: Groundwater leaving the county, a judge noted on Friday. “The fact that groundwater is an issue in this county isn’t disputed,” Judge Valerie…
A Kings County Superior Court Judge will decide April 1 whether a large water pipeline barreling from Lemoore southwest past Stratford must be reviewed under the state’s California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Regardless of that decision, the full-blown water war that has erupted between Sandridge Partners or J.G. Boswell Company, who are behind this and…
An ongoing tiff over construction of a large water pipeline in Kings County has gone airborne, according to a lawsuit filed by Sandridge Partners. Sandridge, controlled by John Vidovich, is accusing the J.G. Boswell Company of purposely “buzzing” cattle on its lands using a large helicopter. The actions have been ongoing since late January through…
Heavy equipment blockading a pipeline project from cutting through a canal was ordered removed on Friday and the pipeline project was halted temporarily by a Kings County Superior Court judge. The fight between the Tulare Lake Canal Company, controlled by the J.G. Boswell Company, and Sandridge Partners, controlled by John Vidovich, will be back in…
Last we left off, Kings County’s two biggest farming companies were at impasse over a pipeline with heavy equipment and work crews standing guard atop the Tulare Lake Canal to keep a trench from being cut through its banks. Attorneys for the Tulare Lake Canal Company, controlled by the giant J.G. Boswell Company, and Sandridge…
The fallout and recriminations in Kings County continue over the state Water Resources Control Board’s historic decision to place the Tulare Lake subbasin on probation for failing to come up with a cohesive plan to protect the region’s groundwater. The Kings County Farm Bureau, which has already sued the Water Board over the probationary designation,…
The controversial Delta Conveyance Project may have bigger problems than legal action over its recently approved environmental impact report.  Who’s going to pay the estimated $16 billion price tag? The concept, a tunnel to take Sacramento River water beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to thirsty towns and farms further south, relies on the end users…
SJV Water was selected as a finalist host newsroom for the California Local News Fellowship. This is a state-funded two-year fellowship administered through UC Berkeley for early career journalists. It pays a generous salary of $60,000 to $65,000 depending on experience, plus benefits. It is open to all California early career journalists, not just UC Berkeley…
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