By Monserrat Solis, SJV Water
Kings County growers in and around the Hanford area will be required to register their wells, report how much they pump and register private recharge areas under three new policies enacted by the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).
The policies were approved during a May 13 special meeting.
Only a year after imploding and then re-forming, the agency has been getting up to speed with other GSAs in the region thanks to a landowner advisory group, according to board member and Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon.
“They (the advisory group) have gone above and beyond my expectations,” Verboon said. The group has continued to build trust within the community by including their input in the conversation.
The advisory group, made up of growers, dairy farmers and ag processors, started meeting weekly in January to play catch-up with neighboring GSAs, which have already approved similar sanctions.
The Tulare Lake subbain, which covers most of Kings County, was placed on probation by the state Water Resources Control Board in 2024. Under probation, farmers would have had to meter and register wells with the state, paying a $350 annual registration fee, plus report extractions and pay $20 per acre foot pumped.
Those sanctions were paused under a preliminary injunction obtained by the Kings County Farm Bureau. The Water Board appealed the injunction and is awaiting a hearing at the 5th District Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, GSA’s have been placing somewhat similar requirements on growers at the local level.
The Mid-Kings well registration policy requires that all wells within its boundary, which includes the city of Hanford, be registered, including locations and pumping depths and capacities, with the GSA by April 2026.
Amer Hussain, the Mid-Kings’ engineering consultant said this policy was the first step under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) for addressing overpumped aquifers.
“For SGMA to be successful and the GSA to be successful, we need to understand where the pumping is occurring and at what depth the pumping is occurring,” Hussain said.
The pumping measurement policy is built to be flexible – for now, Hussain said during the meeting.
“So, the idea here is that eventually, at some point in the future, we would move to meters, but between now and then, would still allow other (pumping measurement) methods to be used,” Hussain told the board.
The policy requires a well owner that pumps more than two acre-feet of groundwater a year to report their extractions to the GSA. Well owners are given a choice of whether to meter their wells or use evapotranspiration (ET) – how much water is used and expired by plants. The policy will be in effect until June 1, 2027.
Well and ET data would need to be collected on the first day of the month and reported quarterly.
If a well owner fails to register and report pumping within those deadlines, a 90-day written notice will be issued, then a $500 fine will be imposed. If the well owner refuses to comply after that, the GSA coil impose up to a $1,000 fine.
The registration and measurement policies will take effect June 13.
Under the third policy, growers must register the fields or facilities they use to recharge surface water in order to get groundwater credits that can be used to increase the amounts they’re allowed to pump.
The initial policy will most likely come back to the board for amendments, Hussain said.
“I fully expect this, of all of our policies, this is definitely one that’s going to be updated on a fairly regular basis, because we’re gonna get a lot more information on how people are actually operating their recharge facilities and what makes sense for them.”
A landowner can receive credits for 90% of the measured water that’s recharged onto a designated recharge facility.
Those credits can be carried over for a maximum of five years and can be transferred to other landowners within the GSA boundaries.
Growers can also receive credits for 75% of measured water that’s recharged on fallow ground not being farmed but that hasn’t been formally designated for recharge.
The policy will retroactively take effect May 1, 2023 to provide credits to growers who recharged under the former policy and to encourage more recharge.
To qualify for the credits, recharge facilities must be approved by Mid-Kings. The following will be needed:
- Favorable land for passive recharge
- A geotechnical investigation report
- Installation of a water meter
- Proof of water source, location and amount of recharge
If requirements are not met, future pumping will not be justified for recharge.
The policies can be viewed in the meeting’s agenda packet.
