“Petitioner has bestowed an important public benefit,” says Judge. Imagine tossing 2130 hundred dollar bills into the Stanislaus River to see how long they will float. Sounds crazy, but the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) did something almost as foolish when it decided to contest a suit brought forward by the Oakdale Groundwater Alliance (OGA). The suit was in response to OID’s failure to provide an Environmental Impact Review (EIR) for […]
Oakdale Irrigation District On Farm Conservation Program
Judge Calls Water District’s Bluff: “It is not even close.”
At one point during the conflict between the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) and the Oakdale Groundwater Alliance (OGA), Judge Roger Beauchesne scolded OID attorneys for their use of ad hominem tactics, reminding them that personal attacks are usually attempts to hide weak arguments. But it turns out personal attacks were all OID attorneys could offer when the district’s fallowing program was challenged under the authority of the California Environmental Quality […]
More Legal Woes for the Irrigation District
For more than ten years, the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) has relied on water sales to balance its books. Over the decade prior to 2014, OID water sales brought in well over thirty million dollars. The bonanza enabled the district to sell water to its customers for well under the cost of delivery. When OID annexed Trinitas Partners into the district in 2013, the terms of the contract were ballyhooed […]
OID Water Scheme Hits CEQA Hurdle: Part II
The Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) Board of Directors got a dose of cold water Tuesday and didn’t like it. Before a standing room only crowd that spilled into a packed hallway, board members learned that their much-heralded fallowing program had virtually no chance of succeeding this year without a thorough Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The On Farm Conservation Program devised by OID management was to begin within weeks and had […]