The City of Modesto has a large plume of toxic chemicals below ground. As time goes by, the plume is spreading via groundwater migration. Multiple sources of contamination are making wells around the community unusable. Though serious, groundwater depletion is only one of our problems. Every year, more wells are taken out of service. In the long run, unless a way is found to clean out the chemicals, very few […]
Environment
Caltrans Touts Plan for Second Phase of Freeway Project
Caltrans has rolled out a plan to extend the 132 Freeway project from Dakota to Gates Roads with an advertisement in the Modesto Bee. Caltrans will hold an event before the November election to get public comments on the new phase. In order for the new phase to proceed, voters must reject Proposition 6 in November. The proposition would repeal the 12 cent per gallon gasoline tax enacted in 2017 by […]
Notions of Surplus Water a Costly Mirage
According to UC Davis, 99,000 residents of the San Joaquin Valley have unsafe drinking water. Even more alarming, a recent study by the University of Michigan “predicts that ‘the percentage of U.S. households who will find water bills unaffordable could triple from 11.9% to 35.6%” over the next five years.’” Many people who lack safe drinking water aren’t far from water utilities, but simply lack the infrastructure that would bring […]
Denham and Zinke: Crimes against Nature
There was a time when Ryan Zinke’s claim to be a Teddy Roosevelt Republican would have elicited laughter heard from Don Pedro Dam to Mount Rushmore. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first and strongest ever defenders of public lands and wildlife; Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Interior might go down in history as the worst-ever enemy of those same public lands and wildlife. Consider this: Ryan Zinke has already […]
Oakdale Water Sale Illegal, says Attorney
“It will probably be some shady deal again.” Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) water attorney Tim O’Laughlin is fond of reminding people he’s one of the best water attorneys in the west. During a recent OID Board meeting, he told Director Linda Santos that he’s also an expert on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). It was a bold statement from a man who just last year not only lost OID’s […]
More Court Time for the Water District?
Tuesday morning, by a 3-2 vote, the Oakdale Irrigation District Board of Directors (OID) approved a proposal to sell $10 million of surplus water outside the district. As usual, the two directors against the proposal were Gail Altieri and Linda Santos, who have the singular distinction of having been sued by their own board, not long after both were elected by overwhelming margins in 2015. Tuesday’s meeting featured the usual […]
Did Trinitas Leave OID Holding the Bag (Again)?
When the big-time investors from the Bay Area showed up in Oakdale saying they were ready to become farmers, the city swooned. Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) was entranced by their offer to build infrastructure for water deliveries and offered them bargain-basement water rates and a sweet annexation deal, even while it had previously denied many long-term farmers’ applications. When a few local farmers suggested Trinitas Partners was yet another “turn […]
Valley Water: The Big Lie
Of all the mythologies that dominate San Joaquin Valley politics, the mythology of water may be the most powerful and enduring. The basis of the myth consists of a simple fiction that states, unequivocally, that all valley water is, “our water.” Grammarians, of whom there are fewer and fewer, might ask who is meant by “our,” but such a question would be grossly out of order in a region where […]
132 Freeway Will Be an Environmental Disaster
Environmentalists are notorious about opposing freeway projects , but the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations have been quiet about the 132 freeway plan. Either the project has not caught their attention or they just don’t care about the Valley because local politics are dominated by anti-environment interest groups. Regardless of the reasons for political silence, a discussion is needed because the 132 freeway will be a disaster. Wildlife Refuge State Route 132 […]
Groundwater Extraction Needs Oversight Now, Says Kennedy
Dr. Vance Kennedy is a retired research hydrologist, with degrees in chemical engineering, geochemistry, and geology. There are hundreds of deep wells in the foothills east of the San Joaquin Valley, especially in Stanislaus and Merced Counties. They are depleting the general water table at an alarming rate. When that water table drops by several hundred feet, no one will be able to live there who relies on groundwater because […]