Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 12, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Judge rules entire AV aquifer linked
By ALISHA SEMCHUCK
LOS ANGELES -
Superior Court Judge Jack Komar handed down his ruling last week during the second phase of the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication lawsuit, which began in October 1999 when Kern County-based Diamond Farming Co. filed suit against the city of Lancaster, Palmdale Water District, Quartz Hill Water District and other entities regarding groundwater rights.
Since then, the case has grown to involve hundreds of parties throughout the Valley - governmental agencies, mutual water companies, farmers and landowners.
"We think this ruling is going to make it easier to determine the outcome of the rest of the case," said attorney Thomas Bunn, who represents Palmdale Water District. "There will only be one safe yield to determine, the amount that the basin can supply over the long term."
"The court determined the
"Because the basin is larger, presumably there will be more water for the customers of Quartz Hill Water District. The more supply, the lower the cost," Weeks said.
While water purveyors for the most part took the judge's decision as good news or at least saw it as some support of their contention that the
Valley contains one large underground water basin, some land developers and a large farming operator disagree, saying that the Valley aquifer consists of sub-basins.
Tejon Ranch Co. officials argued that a ridge of bedrock starting at the Antelope Buttes, in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, runs north to Rosamond and creates a barrier to underground water flowing east, Weeks said.
"The consequence would have been less water for everybody to the east of that," Weeks said.
"All the court determined is hydrologic connectivity between the areas," Weeks said.
William C. Kuhs, the attorney representing Tejon Ranch, reacted differently to the judge's decision.
"Tejon Ranch did not initiate this litigation," Kuhs said. "Tejon is involved in expensive litigation, not by choice.
"I am disappointed that the judge did not make a ruling on the question of whether there was one basin or multiple basins," Kuhs added.
A decision by the California Supreme Court in a 1975 case between
Developers of the Ana Verde master-planned community in southwest Palmdale also were attempting to have its area carved out as a separate groundwater basin south of the
Attorneys for Ana Verde could not be reached for comment.
Representatives for Crystal Organic Farms LLC, affiliated with Grimmway Farms, also describe the Valley as an aquifer of sub-basins and wanted an area of farmland north of the Willow Springs Fault declared as a sub-basin, according to Weeks.
The attorney for Crystal Organic could not be reached.
Weeks said the judge's decision essentially concludes the Valley contains "one basin for the purpose of adjudication," the court
process that will determine who has pumping rights to groundwater and will set maximum amounts each entity can pump in a given year.
"We also think it would have been wrong for the judge to separate out areas that are contributing recharge to where we are," said Bunn, the attorney for the Palmdale Water District. "We rely on recharge for the entire basin."
Gene Nebeker, a longtime Valley alfalfa rancher, and John Ukkestad, president of the Antelope Valley United Mutual Group, have been sitting through court hearings in the ongoing lawsuit and consider it a waste of time and money.
"I feel I could have told the judge what he needed to know in 10 to 15 minutes," Nebeker said. "I really object that all these people had to hire lawyers and technical experts to tell the judge something that was so technically obvious - that there is connection between these sub-areas and the main basin."
Ukkestad concurred.
"Anybody that's been in this Valley any length of time that deals in water always believed the sub-basins were inter-tied," Ukkestad said. "We knew from past studies."
"To see the amount of lawyers and experts there, to see the amount of financial waste to the Valley, I feel we have to stop this madness," Nebeker said.
Ukkestad said the United Mutual Group, a collaboration of 15 mutual water companies, already spent more than $300,000 in attorney fees.
"It's a drop in the bucket, compared to what the public agencies have spent, and nothing has been accomplished with the exception of the adjudicated basin boundaries and the certification of the nonpumpers and small pumpers classes," Ukkestad said, referring to landowners with smaller parcels that pump groundwater or have that potential.
Nebeker said the next trial date is set for Nov. 25, most likely in
Even some attorneys have said they are anxious to see this decade-long case decided.
"I hope we'll be in a position to come to some settlements before too long," Bunn said.#
http://www.avpress.com/n/11/1111_s4.hts
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