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<\/a><\/p>\nThe problem, they say, is a groundwater allocation policy that Anderson instituted after he came on the board in January.<\/p>\n
That policy gives water credits to land parcels based on historical use versus a per-acre, equal spread as is common in other GSAs. That gave large landowners, like Anderson, more credits regardless of how the land is now being used.<\/p>\n
Anderson is a cattle rancher with a feedlot that isn\u2019t irrigated. He also has some land planted in pistachios and has grown row crops such as garlic and wheat, which use less water than permanent crops.<\/p>\n
Anderson Gets New Water Credits<\/p>\n
The new policy, which he pushed through after getting on the board in January, gave Anderson an abundance of credits that he didn\u2019t have before.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s true, he said. And fair.<\/p>\n
He calls growers upset with the new allocation \u201cgreedy crybabies\u201d who over planted permanent crops and now don\u2019t want to face the consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old board told me that a feed yard that\u2019s been there since 1952 wasn\u2019t gonna get any water, and\u00a0that\u2019s why I got on the board<\/a>, to be honest with you,\u201d Anderson told SJV Water.<\/p>\n \u201cIt boils down to inherent conflict of interest between people making policy decisions and their own individual situation.\u201d \u2014 Brad Gleason<\/p>\n He said he was astounded that the previous board, led by former president Brad Gleason, gave him no credits for his feedlot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt blew me away that he said that.\u201d<\/p>\n But Gleason said Anderson\u2019s solution won\u2019t work for the subbasin.<\/p>\n \u201cIt boils down to inherent conflict of interest between people making policy decisions and their own individual situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He argues that farmers who invested millions in wells, irrigation systems, trees and cultivation of a crop should get a bigger piece of the groundwater pie than someone with open land \u201cwho could walk into a windfall of groundwater credits\u201d that they could sell privately.<\/p>\n Anderson said continuing to allow excessive pumping ignores the reality of the state\u2019s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which is more than 10 years old.<\/p>\n Former Pleasant Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency president Brad Gleason, right, listens to attorney Lauren Layne, top left, during a board meeting April 22, 2025. (SJV Water\/Lisa McEwen\/File)\u201cAnyone who says they didn\u2019t know SGMA was coming is either stupid or lying,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they decided \u2018I\u2019m gonna gamble and plant 100 percent of my acreage,\u2019 well, they are getting what they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of pointing fingers, growers upset with the allocation policy should work together to find other sources of water, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat aquifer has to be protected for many, many, many generations, not these individual landowners who are complaining right now. There are no free rides in Pleasant Valley,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n \u00a0To resolve the differences fairly, Gleason said he would like to see Pleasant Valley head for an\u00a0adjudication process<\/a>. A court decree defines who has rights and how much groundwater they can extract.<\/p>\n That would require a lawsuit, which has not been filed.<\/p>\n Will State Place the Subbasin on Probation?<\/p>\n This is all playing out as the state Water Resources Control Board is considering whether to place the 48,000-acre subbasin on\u00a0probation<\/a>, which comes with fees and greater scrutiny, for lacking an adequate groundwater plan. A new plan was reworked under Anderson\u2019s board and submitted to the state in April.<\/p>\n \u201cThat aquifer has to be protected for many, many, many generations, not these individual landowners who are complaining right now. There are no free rides in Pleasant Valley.\u201d \u2014 Jimmy Anderson <\/p>\n But\u00a0grumbling<\/a>\u00a0in the subbasin has grown, including a recent letter sent to all 32 parcel owners in the basin complaining about other recently enacted policies, including a plan to charge growers $750 an acre foot for pumping more than they\u2019re allowed.<\/p>\n Those policies were discussed at the board\u2019s June 23 meeting at Harris Ranch in Coalinga.<\/p>\n The grower who sent the letter and asked to not to be named for fear of retribution, told SJV Water that Anderson, the largest landowner in the subbasin, is \u201ccalling all the shots\u201d on the board.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody can tell him no. Farmers will tell you, it\u2019s the \u2018Jimmy s***t show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Growers are upset about other board actions, including:<\/p>\n Lack of a basin-wide groundwater accounting platform. Growers say groundwater purchases should be routed through the GSA, with proceeds going toward land repurposing programs that pay growers to retire land, or surface water infrastructure. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard way of doing business,\u201d said the grower who sent the letters. \u201cLandowners are looking at selling because they can\u2019t afford this.\u201d<\/p>\n Pleasant Valley GSA Map<\/p>\n About the Reporter<\/p>\n SJV Water Reporter Lisa McEwen grew up in Tulare County. She has reported on agriculture and other issues for a wide variety of publications, including, Ag Alert, Visalia Times-Delta, the Fresno Bee and the Tulare and Kings counties farm bureau publications.<\/p>\n About SJV Water<\/p>\n SJV Water<\/a>\u00a0is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley,\u00a0www.sjvwater.org<\/a>. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growers in a small western Fresno County region are falling out over groundwater, specifically who should be entitled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-376329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7947-1024x442-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe $750 penalty pumping fee.
\nLack of a transparent budget that shows how penalty fees will be used.<\/p>\n![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PleasantValleyBasin_WebsiteGraphic-791x1024-1.png\")
<\/p>\n