This past Friday, February 7th, the Court denied the County’s attempt to get a new trial to re-try our case. A case that we won based on a robust record that was intensely reviewed by the Court when making their decision. The County has failed to comply with the Public Trust Doctrine and its CEQA obligations, by basing its Amended Well Ordinance on unsupported assumptions and expectations instead of completing the necessary evidence review and analysis.

Throughout oral and written public comments to the County, both Russian Riverkeeper and California Coastkeeper Alliance iterated the need for the County to complete a review and analysis to comply with legal requirements. We were not alone in raising these concerns before the County. In fact, several Well Amendment Working Group members, including state and federal resource agencies, all raised similar concerns to the County as observed in the publicly available meetings and through documents obtained via the Public Records Act. Though we were not allowed to be part of the Working Group process itself, the records show there was concern over existing data gaps and a complete lack of analysis on key issues like: effectiveness of conservation measures, limited metering, cumulative impacts, ministerial well class impacts (e.g., what should a low-use well be defined as) and the impact of increased pumping, and the omission of any verifiable or quantifiable measures to determine efficacy. Similar concerns were raised by other members of the public as well in their own oral and written comments—from residential users concerned about the loss of their own wells and wanting additional protections to small farmers and other concerned members of the public that understand groundwater is not an unlimited resource and that it must be managed responsibly.

From the beginning, Russian Riverkeeper and California Coastkeeper Alliance have been committed to finding a reasonable path forward with the County to address these concerns; and subsequently, to find a path forward for the County to comply with the Court’s Order without putting undue burden on those in the County that are reliant on wells for their only water supply.

One such example being our decision to agree to a Stipulation (i.e., a legal agreement) with the County that temporarily stays the Judgment (i.e., the Court Order restricting well permitting to only emergency water wells until the County complies with its legal obligations) from our case until two weeks after the Court enters their decision on the County’s motion for a new trial. In other words, we discussed and ultimately agreed with the County to temporarily allow well permits to continue again while their efforts for a new trial moved forward, while simultaneously allowing the County time to request a formal stay of Judgment from the Court pending appeal. The County has not filed for this request yet and must do so if they want well permitting to continue while they continue to challenge the Court’s August Decision. We have zero interest in getting to a place where well permitting is allowed one day, stopped, and then allowed again while this case continues to play out in the courts.

Unfortunately, our other efforts to work with the County on finding a reasonable solution forward have largely been disregarded.

We will continue our fight for the protection of our public trust resources, like our endangered salmon, for all to enjoy and appreciate. A changing climate that is regularly requiring us to do more with less demands that our limited water resources be managed based on evidence and not continuing of the status quo which is not in our community’s best interest.

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See the below links regarding Russian Riverkeeper’s work on this important issue:

Russian Riverkeeper, What’s Next

Russian Riverkeeper, We Won!

Russian Riverkeeper, Why You Should Care

Russian Riverkeeper, Well Ordinance Challenge

California Coastkeeper Alliance, A Landmark Victory

LA Times, Court Ruling Could Limit Sonoma Groundwater Pumping

Press Democrat Editorial, Time to Revisit Groundwater Rules

EcoNews Report, Podcast Episode

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