By Monserrat Solis, SJV Water
Agricultural water district representation has always been a bit “clubby,” as most directors are also farmers in those districts. Connections get more complicated for directors with land in adjacent districts that may have opposing policies.
Adding groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) has only multiplied the many cross connected lines, in some cases creating conflicts.
Joe Neves, who serves as a Kings County Supervisor, as well as a director on both the Mid-Kings River and South Fork Kings GSAs decided that was his case and announced Jan. 15 he was offloading his position on the Mid-Kings board.
Serving on both boards was “incompatible,” Neves said at South Fork’s Jan. 15 meeting.
His resignation came after Neves voted to approve a letter from South Fork opposing Mid-Kings’ draft pumping allocation policy, though he had approved the policy as a member of Mid-Kings’ board.
“I think the only reason I would vote is because there were only three members and I don’t like taking no action,” Neves told SJV Water of approving the opposition letter from South Fork at the GSA’s Nov. 6 meeting.
Neves was one of only three directors who attended South Fork’s Nov. 6 meeting. Three directors is the minimum needed for a quorum.
He didn’t regret voting for the opposition letter, which attacked a Mid-Kings policy he also approved.
“It needed to be sent,” Neves said. “I had to support it because we just barely met a quorum.”
Neves’ departure from the Mid-Kings GSA board means one of the board’s six seats is now open. He said he hopes the board shrinks to five members, which would give it an odd number, negating possible tie votes.
Mid-Kings Secretary Chuck Kinney told SJV Water that it would be up to the board to decide what happens to the vacant seat. But it could mean the joint powers agreement, which includes Mid-Kings, Kings County and the City of Hanford will have to be revised, Kinney said.
Pumping allocation policies, which mandate how much farmers can pump under different conditions, are at the heart of SGMA compliance. SGMA requires overdrafted regions to bring aquifers into balance by 2040.
Allocations are based on the area’s “safe yield,” or the amount that can be pumped without causing negative effects, such as drying up domestic wells or causing land to sink.
Though local GSAs are allowed to come up with their own pumping allocations, they must all agree on the methodology and numbers behind those plans, per SGMA. And pumping allocations have to be in sync.
The letter to Mid-Kings from South Fork objected to the methodology Mid-Kings used to arrive at its pumping allocation.
South Fork issued a safe yield pumping allocation of .66 of an acre foot per acre of land while Mid-Kings’ policy would allow 1.43 acre feet per acre of land.
While Mid-Kings is allowing more than twice the safe yield pumping as South Fork, South Fork’s policies would allow a larger amount of “transitional” pumping than Mid-Kings. Transitional pumping is a temporary amount that goes beyond safe yield.
Neither pumping allocation policy set well with other GSAs in the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers most of Kings County.
“The main concern is that the draft allocations are not limitations at all,” El Rico GSA wrote in a letter commenting on the proposed policies.
Neves told SJV Water he decided to resign from Mid-Kings and stick with South Fork because his supervisor district encompasses more South Fork land than Mid-Kings.
“It’s never an easy decision but I had to take where I live and where my roots are,” he said.
