Kern pistachio farmer ordered to pay $30 million in back fees to high desert groundwater agency
An Orange County court on Friday approved an injunction mandating that Mojave Pistachios LLC pay $30 million in back fees owed to the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority for pumping groundwater without an allocation in Kern County’s eastern desert. That $30 million is the accumulation of a $2,130-per-acre-foot fee for non-allocated pumping that was established by the authority in its groundwater sustainability plan and approved by the state back in 2022. … Under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, groundwater agencies are mandated to stem over pumping and maintain a balanced aquifer, meaning more water isn’t perpetually taken out than goes back in. The agencies are empowered to set fees and enforce pumping allotments in order to achieve that balance by 2040. The Indian Wells Valley is severely overdrafted with only about 7,600 acre feet of natural inflow every year and 28,000 acre feet of annual demand. Mojave Pistachios and others dispute those numbers, claiming there’s far more water in the basin than the authority has acknowledged.
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