Tuscan Water District a Trojan Horse for Water Marketeers

Long History of Planning to Manipulate Tuscan Aquifer for Profit

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In 2011 the Glenn Colusa Irrigation District’s study (funded by DWR and USBR) described how the Tuscan Aquifer should be exercised aggressively to meet California-wide water demand through water transfer markets. The report envisions groundwater recharge in Butte County and extraction in Glenn and Colusa Counties.

The report promises that the Tuscan, if integrated into California’s water supply system, would provide major water supply reliability benefits. BUT, “it will take decades before we know enough about the aquifer dynamics to devise … a risk- free regime, and yet it would be foolish to require that the aquifer remain an underperforming asset in the interim. Fortunately, there is an approach that can permit more aggressive use of the Lower Tuscan Formation while we improve our understanding of how best to manage it. We can do that by providing current Tuscan groundwater users a risk-free water supply alternative in the form of a supplemental surface water supply.”

The Tuscan Water District is instrumental in the water grab by “Formation of a new water district with the primary purpose, power to import, transfer and recharge water within the Vina and a portion of the Butte Sub-basins.” Senior water diverters in the Sacramento Valley are using Sustainable Groundwater Management Plans (GSPs) as a Trojan Horse to conduct experimental recharge/extraction projects, capturing ownership of Valley aquifers, entrenching their participation in the California water market. AquAlliance.net has mounted a legal challenge to the Vina/Butte/Colusa GSPs which provide the roadmap for water marketers to privatized groundwater banks.

– Jim Brobeck
AquAlliance Water Policy Analyst

We Beat Westlands Again!

A state appeals court just ruled in favor of AquAlliance and partners against Westlands Water District. The court denied Westlands’ attempt to move forward with a permanent contract as opposed to its renewable contracts that reflect the district’s junior status in the water seniority system. The proposed 2019 contract was a biased attempt by a former Westlands’ lawyer and lobbyist, Interior Secretary David Bernhard, to require the federal government to provide unreasonable, unsustainable, and unattainable amounts of water to the district.

The contract would also have cut monies owed to the federal government by over $200,000,000 and subverted obligations held by Westlands to implement drainage studies and solutions for the pollution caused by irrigation in certain parts of its service area. The LA Times reported at the time of the contract proposal that “The size of Westlands’ water contract has long been controversial in light of the soil problems that plague the 600,000-acre district. Much of it sits atop a clay layer, which prevents water from draining easily and concentrates toxic metals, including naturally occurring selenium.” By making permanent the delivery of Delta water to Westlands through the Central Valley Project (CVP), the contract would have placed unreasonable pressure on the federal government to provide water in perpetuity that the CVP cannot sustainably or responsibly deliver, violating numerous laws including the Public Trust Doctrine.

AquAlliance is thrilled at the victory.

Remembering Barbara Castro

by B. Vlamis

Barb Castro on Mother’s Day 2022. She shared this photo with one of her valuable medical updates she would e-mail many friends.

A lovely spirit, sweet friend, dedicated colleague, and environmentalist took flight on December 4, 2022 in Chico. Barbara Castro’s tenacious attempts to beat back cancer once again, reached an end with family and friends around her.

I knew Barb first as a colleague who was part of the vernal pool committee formed in the early 2000s. She worked for the Red Bluff office of the California Department of Water Resources, at the time, using her botanical skills and education.

Barb brought an unequaled enthusiasm to every meeting, field trip, conference, and stroll.

She was an instrumental part of four vernal pool conferences held in Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Big Room and the field trips that followed. Barb and Rob Schlising’s 2018 conference presentation, The Vernal Pool Landscape At The Nature Conservancy’s Vina Plans Preserve, was a marvelous history of the work done at The Nature Conservancy’s Vina Plains Preserve over 35 years.

Our vernal pool committee was later named the vernal pool landscapes committee, which then added a Vernal Pool Recovery Implementation Working Group designation to its tasks and planning. Barb took this new responsibility to heart and brought her GIS skills to the discussion about preserving valuable vernal pool landscapes.

In March 2022, Barb and I took a vernal pool field trip. She was juggling health challenges, but we both were determined to make our trip happen. We wandered around Stilson Canyon Road looking for late signs of Butte County meadowfoam, which we found. It was such a dry and warm start to 2022 that plants came and went quickly. We looked at the Schmidbauer land in southeast Chico from the fence, also home to BCM, and discussed the planned litigation to protect the habitat and species there. It was a treasured time.

I am grateful for the many ways that Barb and I shared time together. What a joy and a privilege.

I love this photo of the vernal pool conference team in 2006 at the Vina preserve. Happy times and a job well done. From L to R: Barb Castro, Rob Schlising, Doug Alexander, Betty Warne, Jenny Marr, Joe Silveira, and Barbara Vlamis

State Undermines Laws

Friday March 10, 2023:
On Wednesday, AquAlliance and a coalition warned the State of California about potential litigation if it didn’t reverse its negligent and illegal activity to accelerate the private takeover of common groundwater basins and lay waste to struggling fish populations.

Barbara Vlamis, the Executive Director of AquAlliance, said Governor Newsom’s recent order extends a long record of disregard for watershed connectivity and groundwater dependent homes and small farms.

The State Water Resources Control Board’s order follows the Governor’s February extension of his drought emergency that designated stored water for groundwater recharge. This “…demonstrates the underhanded way the state keeps trying to take over groundwater basins. Recharge in concept sounds easy and positive especially when you leave out the fact that ownership of the groundwater changes hands over time – taking a public good and turning it into a private cash cow,” Vlamis said.

The coalition’s notice of intent charges the State Board with violating a lawsuit settlement that constrained the agency from issuing certain suspensions to water quality, the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Endangered Species Act, California’s “state of emergency” codes, and the public trust doctrine, a body of law that confirms critical resources such as water and fisheries must provide primary benefit to the people in common.

To read more about the issue, please see the attached coalition letter.

Lawsuit Challenges Sprawl Development in Northern California Wildfire Zone

View the final complaint:
Verified Petition for Writ of Mandate

Chico Project Would Put Thousands in Harm’s Way

For Immediate Release, February 2, 2023

CHICO, Calif.— A coalition of environmental groups sued the city of Chico today for approving a development with nearly 2,800 housing units without properly assessing or mitigating wildfire and other environmental risks. The Valley’s Edge project would bring nearly 5,700 residents to an area that has burned repeatedly and is adjacent to the town of Paradise, which was devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire.

“Tragically, Butte County knows far too well how destructive and unpredictable a fast-moving wildfire can be. Unfortunately, city leaders didn’t apply that knowledge when approving this risky project,” said J.P. Rose, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s too dangerous to wait until the next wildfire to test out evacuation plans. We have to make smart, science-based decisions now.”

Today’s lawsuit argues that the city failed to adequately analyze wildfire conditions and evacuation routes when it approved Valley’s Edge last month. The 1,400-acre project site is prone to wildfires, having burned in 1999, 2007 and 2018. The Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in state history, spread to the eastern part of Chico, causing widespread evacuations and dangerous air pollution.

The lawsuit also asserts that the city failed to provide an adequate study on how the groundwater supply will be affected by this project and did not consider the harms to imperiled wildlife, including the Butte County meadowfoam, an endangered flower. The project, located in vernal pool habitat, would also harm the conservancy fairy shrimp, vernal pool fairy shrimp and vernal pool tadpole shrimp.

“We’re quickly losing what little remains of precious vernal pools to encroaching development and climate change,” said Barbara Vlamis, executive director of AquAlliance. “Since the early 1990s, the city of Chico, activists, and resource agencies sought to protect vernal pools in Butte County, but here we are today with a city council ignoring past commitments and efforts. Without more foresight and better planning, we’ll lose these Butte County gems forever and we’ll deeply regret it.”

“The lesson from past wildfires is that we need to plan and build much smarter,” said Don Mooney, an attorney for Sierra Club. “Bringing a sprawling development to a fire-prone area without considering the consequences is not smart planning. Chico deserves a safer project that doesn’t decimate the vernal wetlands we still have.”

Today’s lawsuit was filed in Butte County Superior Court by the Center, AquAlliance and Sierra Club. The coalition is challenging the city for violating the California Environmental Quality Act when approving this project.

Contact:

J.P. Rose, Center for Biological Diversity, (408) 497-7675, jrose@biologicaldiversity.org
Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance, (530) 895-9420, barbarav@aqualliance.net
Don Mooney, Sierra Club, (530) 758-2377, dbmooney@dcn.org

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

AquAlliance is a non-profit public interest corporation based in Chico, California that was formed to protect waters in the northern Sacramento River’s watershed to sustain family farms, communities, creeks and rivers, native flora and fauna, vernal pools and the sensitive species that rely on them, and recreation.

The Sierra Club is one of the largest and most influential grassroots environmental organizations in the U.S., with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action.

River Under the River (The AquAlliance Song)

The celebrated Chico folk duo MaMuse has written a special song for AquAlliance. Karisha Longaker & Sarah Nutting are Chico women who understand the water of this region and of California. Sarah’s understanding of the Owens Valley background resonated with AquAlliance members who worked with them on this important song. MaMuse proudly presents River Under the River (The AquAlliance Song) and humbly requests that you donate generously to AquAlliance, enjoy their music and share this song with friends and family.

Listen to River Under the River

LYRICS

River Under the River : AquAlliance Song
By MaMuse (Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker)

There is a River under the River, moving in darkness, fertile life giver.
There is a river under the river, steadily feeding us all. (2x)

What is hidden, what can’t be seen? This water that lives beneath….
The Source of Everything, the Source of Everything.

There is a River under the River, moving in darkness, fertile life giver.
There is a river under the river, steadily feeding us all.

In the San Joaquin where are the trees? Why all the dust in the Owen’s Valley?
Waters once flowed wildly. This war causes so much tragedy.

Water Underground, into the cracks with you we go.
Keeper of the deeps, your life too precious to be sold, to be sold.

We have witnessed firsthand the draining of the aquifers leading to the desertification of what are now called the “Owens” and “San Joaquin” valleys in California. Due to extreme extraction, the Sacramento Valley is in danger of this same dry fate. The trees, the salmon, the people, are all at stake. As water protector Maude Barlow says, “When you extract water from a fertile place to feed a desert, you do not end up with two fertile places, you end up with two deserts.” We know this now and we can’t un-know it. What will be our legacy? Will we continue to extract waters from the North? Or choose to make amends for where we have gone South?

We sing out for our lives, sing out in these times for those who cannot speak.
Reclaiming our lives, defending the rights of the waters that flow beneath.

Run River, Run River, Run Water, Run. Run River, under the River, Run River Run.
There is a River under the River, moving in darkness, fertile life giver.
There is a river under the river, steadily feeding us all.

Water underground, into the cracks with you we go.
Keeper of the deeps, your life too precious to be sold, to be sold.

What is hidden, what can’t be seen? This water that lives beneath.
The source of everything. The source of Everything.

Dispelling Delta Tunnel Myths with the Facts

The Delta Tunnel: Still Not a 21st Century Water Strategy.

The state is now making a third attempt since 2008 to build a massive, multi-billion, ratepayer-funded Delta Conveyance Project (a.k.a. Delta Tunnel) to supposedly “modernize” water transport infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

CLICK THE DOWNLOAD LINK BELOW to view a fact sheet that dispels many of the myths and misrepresentations made by state entities in describing the objectives and impacts of the proposed Delta Tunnel.

DeltaTunnelMythsandFacts Download

For more information:
Website: savethedelta.saccounty.gov
Email: savethedelta@saccounty.net

First Victories for AquAlliance in NorthState Groundwater Lawsuits

AquAlliance received fantastic news in the last week from three different judges in Colusa and Butte counties who agreed that our three challenges to Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) were legitimate. The defendants claimed our lawsuits inappropriately used a “reverse validation action” to oppose the Butte, Colusa, and Vina GSPs. Defendants’ primary argument is that the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) “expressly activates” the validation statutes only as to actions brought by groundwater sustainability agencies, thus implicitly prohibiting reverse validation actions from being brought by any other party – like AquAlliance.

“A validation action is a unique remedy that provides a conclusive determination as to the validity of a public agency’s actions.” [1] Here, the action is the approval of GSPs by Groundwater Sustainability Agencies made up of local government and many districts that market water. The GSPs encompass large valley portions of Butte, Colusa, and Glenn counties, and each plan presents specific threats to the unsuspecting public dependent on groundwater and to the streams, rivers, trees, and species that are supported by healthy aquifers.

After a negative tentative ruling against us in one case, all three judges listened to our attorney during hearings and affirmed that our lawsuits seeking to invalidate the GSPs were sound.

See press articles about the rulings:

Chico Sol 9.11.22: Lawsuits over groundwater plans can proceed
Sacramento Valley Mirror 9.3.22: Judges rule groundwater lawsuits allowed to proceed

To read more, see the attached document that includes maps:

Action Alert GSP Lawsuits 8.5.22.

We thank all our supporters and members who make it possible for AquAlliance to take on the water elites and local governments that follow them to the detriment of over 90 percent of the population!

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Sac-Valley-Mirror-9.3.2022 Download

Action Alert GSP Lawsuits 8.5.22 Download

MaMuse Sponsors GoFundMe Campaign for AquAlliance!

The celebrated Chico folk duo MaMuse has written a special song for AquAlliance and launched a GoFundMe campaign to help fund AquAlliance’s three new lawsuits provoked by NorthState groundwater pumping threats. Karisha Longaker & Sarah Nutting Karisha & Sarah are Chico women who understand the water of this region and of California. Sarah’s understanding of the Owens Valley background resonated with AquAlliance members who worked with them on this important song. MaMuse proudly announces the launch of River Under the River (The AquAlliance Song) and humbly requests that you donate generously, enjoy their music and share the campaign and song with friends and family.

Learn more of MaMuse’s Water Story at their GoFundMe page.Protecting California Water Through Song