Tuesday October 1, 2024
SJV Water —
The state Water Resources Control Board announced Monday it is appealing a Kings County judge’s preliminary injunction that has forced the state to hold off on measures intended to corral excessive groundwater pumping in the region.
The Water Board filed a notice to appeal Kings County Superior Court Judge Kathy Cuiffini’s Sept. 13 ruling. The appeal will be considered at the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno.
According to a Water Board statement, the appeal “…seeks to rectify a broad injunction that prevents it from taking action stemming from the probationary designation of the critically overdrafted Tulare Lake Subbasin – delaying state oversight and exacerbating the harmful impacts experienced by local communities, California Native American tribes, farmers and the environment due to excessive groundwater pumping.”
“I don’t know if we expected it. We knew it was a possibility,” said Dusty Ference, executive director of the Kings County Farm Bureau, which sued the Water Board and sought the injunction after the state placed the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers most of Kings County, on probation April 16.