Farmers in Madera County successfully blocked a key groundwater fee that could upend plans to bring that region’s aquifer into balance per a state mandate. A Madera County Superior Court judge issued a temporary injunction on the county’s fee of $246 per farm unit acre on Dec. 7. That fee was the underpinning for a number of projects to curb groundwater pumping outlined in a plan by the Madera County Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). The GSA was formed under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires aquifers in overpumped subbasins be brought into balance by 2040.

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