By Monserrat Solis, SJV Water
Keeping on the state’s good side was paramount in the decision by a southwestern Kings County groundwater agency to cut pumping allocations to less than one acre foot per acre of land.
The new allocation was one of a flurry of policies enacted by the Southwest Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) over the last few weeks, after the GSA had not met in six months.
Effective immediately, growers in Southwest Kings will only be allowed to pump .66 acre feet per acre. Growers who go over that amount will be fined $500 per acre foot over the allotment starting Oct. 1, according to the policy approved by the board at its Feb. 13 meeting.
There will be no extra pumping allowed during a transition period, as other GSAs have done.
The Southwest Kings GSA arrived at its .66 acre feet allotment by using its historic pumping average for 2020-21, the last drought. That amount was 21,000 acre feet. It then divided that 21,000 acre feet among Kettlement City, which was allotted 500 acre feet annually, and landowners with a minimum 100 acres.
The historic pumping average is substantially less than what’s considered the GSA’s sustainable yield of 58,732 acre feet. Sustainable yield is considered the maximum that can be pumped from a region without causing negative effects such as subsidence, or land sinking.
Setting pumping allotments based on a lower historic average didn’t sit well with some landowners.
“You should take everything you can defend,” Ceil Howe Jr. said during the meeting.
Howe Jr., who sits on the South Fork Kings GSA and Empire Westside Irrigation District board, said subsidence in Southwest is below the minimum threshold of 3 feet and could withstand more pumping without the state Water Resources Control Board stepping in.
“I think you want to make sure that you don’t give up something that you don’t need to give up,” Howe Jr. explained.
Southwest’s chair John Vidovich felt the allotment was the right size for the GSA.
“We believe we can, with this 21,000 feet and no extra pumping, that would put us where we would not be on probation,” he said.
The Water Board placed the entire Tulare Lake subbasin on probation in 2024 for lacking an adequate groundwater plan. That came with requirements for farmers to meter and register wells at $300 each and pay $20 per acre foot pumped.
A lawsuit tied up those sanctions until last year when the Fifth District Court of Appeal let them move forward. In that decision, though, justices also said the state erred when it did not exempt two GSAs from probation that were in compliance with the groundwater law.
Those GSAs were Southwest kings and Tri-County Water Authority.
Now that the state has restarted compliance discussions with water managers in the Tulare Lake subbasin, GSAs are hoping to be exempted from probation.
Even so, some Southwest Kings landowners complained that the new pumping policies were rushed and didn’t include all growers.
“We received this (policy) this morning and so we haven’t had a chance to sit around and talk about it just a little bit to really think about it,” Howe Jr. said and asked the board to table the policy another month.
Riley Jones, a representative of L.A. Sanitation, which farms but does not pump within Southwest, agreed.
“This is why we’re having multiple meetings,” Vidovich responded.
Jamie Howe, Ciel how Jr.’s daughter, noted that while the policy only gives a pumping allocation to growers with 100 acres or more, there is at least one grower with about 18 acres in Kettleman City.
“If you pass this today, as it’s written, there is no ability to amend it,” Jamie Howe said. “So, you’re essentially stripping their land, their water right, which is essentially a taking.”
The 100 acres is a placeholder, Southwest Kings board member Craig Andrew said.
Engineering Consultant Amer Hussain said the board has the ability to change policy as needed, including adding landowners with less than 100 acres.
Other features of the pumping allocation policy included:
- Landowners may transfer their sustainable yield within the Tulare Lake subbasin subject to approval by Southwest and the receiving GSA.
- Landowners will be allowed to generate recharge credits with an annual cap of two acre feet per acre of land.
The next Southwest meeting will be on March 6 at 11 a.m. at 19813 Madison Ave in Stratford.
