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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
The Butte, Colusa, Tehama, and Vina Groundwater Sustainability plans make it clear that groundwater exploitation is planned and accepted in the counties of Butte, Colusa, Glenn, and Tehama. The Plans accept the dewatering of up to 20 percent of domestic wells and groundwater collapse of over 80 feet before any action must be taken to protect the groundwater basins for all users and ecosystems. Domestic well damage and sinkholes became prominent in Glenn County in 2021, indicating that serious abuse of the groundwater under existing oversight has already harmed the people and environment of the region. Additional degradation with implementation of the Plans most stop!
This significantly large area in the Sacramento Valley has been the target for this form of abuse for decades, but it is being formalized in the Plans without the benefit of any environmental review and analysis. Consequently, AquAlliance has filed three lawsuits to stop implementation of the Butte, Colusa, and Vina subbasins’ plans.
Sinkhole Existence Buried in Meeting Minutes On January 11, 2022 AquAlliance become aware of sinkholes in the mid-Sacramento Valley through minutes from the Glenn Groundwater Authority1 and the Corning Sub-basin GSA Committee2. We requested additional information from Glenn County by e-mail and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) at the Red Bluff office by e-mail and voice message. There were no responses over 13 days hence we resorted to formal Public Records Act requests.
Preliminary review of records released to date indicates that
There are multiple properties east of Orland with sinkholes (see Exhibit A).
Glenn County and DWR have known about reports of sinkholes since August 2021.3
“Several holes were observed ranging from 1-ft in diameter to 6-ft in diameter with varying depths ranging from 1 ½ feet to 3 feet deep. Mr. S…* stated that one of the holes that he already repaired required six dump trailer loads (about 3 yds each) to refill. The question that is being asked is where is the dirt going? Since there is the suspicion of being related to groundwater pumping, we are bringing this to your attention.”4 [emphasis added] [*name altered for privacy]
It appears to be unexpected to find sinkholes in the soils of Glenn County. “I researched this topic and found only one publication on sink-hole like features in alluvial soils not in karst terrain, and that was in Italy.”5
Turkey Sinkholes Attributed to Groundwater Overuse In Turkey, 2020 reporting found that drought and overuse of groundwater created massive sinkholes.6 “Giant sinkholes, large enough to swallow a house, are plaguing farmers in central Turkey. The past two years have brought a crippling drought, and farmers are using wells to tap even deeper into groundwater reserves.”7
Sinkholes Cause Health, Safety & Economic Concerns The growing number of sinkholes in Glenn County is clearly alarming. The health and safety issues may be significant and the economic costs enormous. The cause has not been revealed yet, but whatever the reason, Glenn County and DWR need to enforce a moratorium on new wells and stop all groundwater substation transfers within its jurisdiction.
More Data Needed AquAlliance will attempt to keep the public and the press informed as more records are obtained and reviewed.
Background on Sinkholes in California
U.S. Geological Survey: “It is a frightening thought to imagine the ground below your feet or house suddenly collapsing and forming a big hole in the ground. Sinkholes rarely happen, but when they strike, tragedy can occur. Sinkholes happen when the ground below the land surface cannot support the land surface. They happen for many reasons; read on to educate yourself about sinkholes.” https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/sinkholes
Public Records file from Glenn County and DWR: Sinkholes_east_of_Orland_Sept-2021_(1).
1 “Ms. Hunter also stated that staff was made aware of sink holes developing in the Colusa and Corning subbasins, and that a site visit has been conducted with Department of Water Resources.” Glenn Groundwater Authority December 14, 2021 minutes p. 2 (packet pdf p. 8).
2 “A new monitoring well was installed through the DWR Technical Support Services (TSS) program. Staff are considering utilizing the TSS program to apply for potential geophysical work to better understand basin conditions, particularly in areas of concern and/or data gaps (e.g., around Stony Creek where there have been reports of the ground “sinking” in the area). This effort will be coordinated with the Colusa Subbasin where the anomaly is also occurring.” Corning subbasin minutes December 8, 2021 p.2 (packet pdf p. 7)
3 Massa, Rick August 16, 2021 e-mail to Lisa Hunter of Glenn County. “We have learned of orchardists that are experiencing sink holes in their orchards.”
4 Id.
5 Loy, Ken e-mail October 10, 2021.
6 Taylor, 2021. Drought and Sinkholes Threaten Farmers in Turkey. The Atlantic. “Chris McGrath, a photographer with Getty Images, recently spent time in Turkey’s Konya province, where extreme drought conditions have been taking a heavy toll on farmers and the land. For farmers, the lack of rain gives them little option but to tap into the groundwater supplies to sustain their crops, forcing some to turn to installing illegal ground wells. However, the reliance on groundwater has seen underground water levels drop by more than two meters in the past five years, contributing to an increase in massive sinkholes across the province, worrying farmers as they spread closer to residential areas. The number of sinkholes in the region has doubled in the past year. Gathered below are images of some of the farmers and shepherds as they cope with the extremely dry conditions and unstable land.” https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2021/06/photos-drought-and-sinkholes-threaten-farmers-turkey/619121/
Contact: Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance: 530-895-9420
Chico, CA. AquAlliance filed three lawsuits against the Butte, Colusa, and Vina subbasins’ Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) in the last ten days with two co-plaintiffs, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the California Water Impact Network. The GSPs are the result of state mandates from the 2014 Groundwater Sustainability Act,[1] which requires some protection of groundwater after allowing unregulated use since California’s formation.
The GSPs encompass large portions of Butte, Colusa, and Glenn counties and each present specific threats to the unsuspecting public dependent on groundwater and to the streams, rivers, trees, and species that are supported by healthy aquifers. Some of the dangerous policies and parameters include:
Butte subbasin GSP (Figure 1. Mostly Butte County with portions of Colusa and Glenn counties)
Discloses that groundwater levels will drop by up to 100% of historic range.
Accepts failure of at least 7 percent of the domestic and very deep aquifer supply wells.
Allows groundwater pumping to increase that will result in stream flow loss from 90 to 277 percent.[2]
Colusa subbasin GSP (Figure 2. Colusa and Glenn counties)
Permits the failure of at least 20 percent of domestic wells in the Colusa Subbasin, despite the requirement under SGMA that domestic wells be given priority.
Accepts the loss of almost 1,000,000 acre feet of groundwater storage by 2070.
Allows unreasonable and undesirable amounts of land subsidence.
Vina subbasin GSP (Figure 3. Butte County)
Provides parameters that will cause hundreds of wells to fail, yet fails to disclose the quantity and percentage.
Accepts monitoring well thresholds that are unreasonably low, including some that are approximately 200% below normal operating ranges.
Inadequately mitigates the loss of wells by small farmers and residents.
The lawsuits find many failures in common. AquAlliance Executive Director Barbara Vlamis explained, “The three GSPs as written make it impossible to reach sustainability in the required 20-year horizon. In addition to specific failures noted above, they all identify projects and management actions that are ambiguous and unenforceable. They may cause serious harm, and none of them will protect groundwater dependent ecosystems as explicitly required by SGMA.”
“Despite common knowledge and some analysis, the Butte, Colusa, and Vina subbasin GSPs fail to adapt to serious impacts from expected climate change,” Vlamis continued. “This deficiency alone in the plans leaves them unenforceable and invalid,” she added.
Plaintiffs are represented by the Law Office of Adam Keats.
Additional Contacts: Bill Jennings, CSPA: 209-464-5067 Adam Keats: 415-430-9403
[2] AquAlliance, 2021. Comments on the Colusa GSP: “This shows that the overall percentage of groundwater being pumped will be recharged from the streams in the Butte Subbasin (i.e. stream depletion)… In fact, with the Historical baseline, the loss exceeds the volume of groundwater being pumped, suggesting that the subbasin may be at a tipping point where the impacts from future pumping increases are amplified, causing significantly more harm than just taking 100 percent of the groundwater recharge from surface waters.” pp. 15-16.
AquAlliance is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit public benefit corporation established to defend northern California waters and to challengethreats to the hydrologic health of the northern Sacramento River watershed to sustain family farms, communities, creeks and rivers, native flora and fauna, vernal pools and recreation. www.aqualliance.net
Water drips from a faucet near boat docks sitting on dry land a the Browns Ravine Cove area of drought-stricken Folsom Lake in Folsom, Calif., on May 22, 2021. The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest it has been in at least 1200 years and a worst-case scenario playing out live, a new study finds. (AP Photo/Josh Edelson, File)
The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds.
A dramatic drying in 2021 — about as dry as 2002 and one of the driest years ever recorded for the region — pushed the 22-year drought past the previous record-holder for megadroughts in the late 1500s and shows no signs of easing in the near future, according to a study Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study calculated that 42% of this megadrought can be attributed to human-caused climate change.
“Climate change is changing the baseline conditions toward a drier, gradually drier state in the West and that means the worst-case scenario keeps getting worse,” said study lead author Park Williams, a climate hydrologist at UCLA. “This is right in line with what people were thinking of in the 1900s as a worst-case scenario. But today I think we need to be even preparing for conditions in the future that are far worse than this.”
Williams studied soil moisture levels in the West — a box that includes California, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, most of Oregon and Idaho, much of New Mexico, western Colorado, northern Mexico, and the southwest corners of Montana and Texas — using modern measurements and tree rings for estimates that go back to the year 800. That’s about as far back as estimates can reliably go with tree rings.
A few years ago, Williams studied the current drought and said it qualified as a lengthy and deep “megadrought” and that the only worse one was in the 1500s. He figured the current drought wouldn’t surpass that one because megadroughts tended to peter out after 20 years. And, he said, 2019 was a wet year so it looked like the western drought might be coming to an end.
But the region dried up in late 2020 and 2021.
All of California was considered in official drought from mid-May until the end of 2021, and at least three-quarters of the state was at the highest two drought levels from June through Christmas, according to the U.S. drought monitor.
“For this drought to have just cranked up back to maximum drought intensity in late 2020 through 2021 is a quite emphatic statement by this 2000s drought saying that we’re nowhere close to the end,” Williams said. This drought is now 5% drier than the old record from the 1500s, he said.
The drought monitor says 55% of the U.S. West is in drought with 13% experiencing the two highest drought levels.
This megadrought really kicked off in 2002 — one of the driest years ever, based on humidity and tree rings, Williams said.
“I was wondering if we’d ever see a year like 2002 again in my life and in fact, we saw it 20 years later, within the same drought,” Williams said. The drought levels in 2002 and 2021 were a statistical tie, though still behind 1580 for the worst single year.
website. Climate change from the burning of fossil fuels is bringing hotter temperatures and increasing evaporation in the air, scientists say.
Williams used 29 models to create a hypothetical world with no human-caused warming then compared it to what happened in real life — the scientifically accepted way to check if an extreme weather event is due to climate change. He found that 42% of the drought conditions are directly from human-caused warming. Without climate change, he said, the megadrought would have ended early on because 2005 and 2006 would have been wet enough to break it.
The study “is an important wake-up call,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of environment at the University of Michigan, who wasn’t part of the study. “Climate change is literally baking the water supply and forests of the Southwest, and it could get a whole lot worse if we don’t halt climate change soon.”
Williams said there is a direct link between drought and heat and the increased wildfires that have been devastating the West for years. Fires need dry fuel that drought and heat promote.
Eventually, this megadrought will end by sheer luck of a few good rainy years, Williams said. But then another one will start.
Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist who wasn’t involved in the study, said climate change is likely to make megadrought “a permanent feature of the climate of the Colorado River watershed during the 21st century.”
Protecting California Water Through Song
