In what could easily become a classic study in false equivalency and rhetorical sleight-of-hand, Stanislaus County’s Department of Environmental Resources (DER) has released a letter, “to share background information, key considerations, and upcoming actions related to the adoption of the Modesto Subbasin Well Mitigation Plan and the Groundwater User Mitigation Program (GWUMP).”

Dated January 21 of this year, the letter states that both the Subbasin Well Mitigation Plan and the GWUMP,

“are designed to preserve local control, promote collaboration among groundwater users, and support adaptive management based on the best available science and data.”

So far, so good. The state has required California counties to plan for groundwater sustainability or suffer state-imposed restrictions, hence new plans and programs.

The letter then goes on in an attempt to establish an equivalency in uses and responsibilities for “Non-District East (NDE) and Non-District West (NDW) areas.” In this context, “Non-District areas” means groundwater-dependent areas outside Modesto Irrigation District (MID) and Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) boundaries.

The critical thing to keep in mind here is that the “Non-District East (NDE)” is where a dozen or so groundwater-dependent farmers and farm developers have been mining upwards of 90,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year for use on their thirsty almond orchards for well over a decade. Keep in mind also that on the southeast side of Stanislaus County, the biggest consumer of that groundwater is a partner with an MID Director and either a current or former partner with Stanislaus County’s longest-serving supervisor.

One of several of what must be unintentionally ironic passages of the DER letter reads as follows:

“….a central challenge involves the differing conditions and risk profiles between the Non-District East (NDE) and Non-District West (NDW). NDE is almost entirely dependent on groundwater, has a higher likelihood of impacts to shallow domestic wells, and faces….pumping reductions with few viable alternatives. As a result, proposed management actions are often viewed within NDE as posing significant risks to agricultural viability and long-term land use.”

For anyone unfamiliar with the history of farming on Stanislaus County’s east side, the irony here lies in knowing that farmers who planted groundwater-dependent almond orchards on what was then grazing land knew with absolute certainty they were going to run out of water. In some cases, they knew they wouldn’t have enough water to last even the twenty- to twenty-five year life of one almond orchard.

They planted anyway. Or, in the words of MID Board President Robert Frobose,

“They chose profit over responsible farming practices and obligations to the environment and public interest.”

A decade ago, the almond boom was providing some farmers with as much as $5,000 an acre, sometimes more. The temptation to get ten to twenty good years from 100 or more acres was overwhelming, and Stanislaus County’s grazing land was selling for ten-percent or less than the cost of land within OID or MID. Moreover, the east side aquifer was one of the last viable aquifers in the entire San Joaquin Valley.

So they planted. They planted knowing, as the DER letter says, again with a high degree of irony, “management actions” posed “significant risks to agricultural viability and long-term land use.” Actually, the most significant risk to “agricultural viability” was the limited sustainability of the aquifer itself. Those almond farmers knew they would deplete the aquifer; they decided the money was worth the damage.

And speaking of “management actions,” where was the Stanislaus County DER when east side water miners were drilling all those wells?

Another ironic passage in the DER answers that question as follows:

“Unincorporated areas within the Stanislaus County portion of the Modesto Subbasin that are not located within an irrigation district fall under the jurisdiction of Stanislaus County, which serves as the Management Area Steward.”

What kind of “Management Area Steward” enables unsustainable planting of thousands of acres of almonds and then feigns surprise when, “proposed management actions” pose “significant risks to agricultural viability and long-term land use”?

Stanislaus County authorities knew the east side aquifer would be depleted after those thousands of acres of almonds were planted. The “Management Area Steward” looked the other way until new state regulations forced it to account for the unsustainable groundwater use by eastside water miners.

Now, in a classically egregious case of prejudicial false equivalency, that “Management Area Steward” has decided that “a persistent perception within NDE that compliance burdens are unevenly distributed” is worth adjudicating.

What has actually happened is that water miners on the NDE have decided that because the NDW “benefits from greater surface water influence and operational flexibility” it should bear the same responsibility for achieving sustainability as the NDE water miners.

That’s right dear reader, according to the Stanislaus County Department of Environmental Resources, the “differing circumstances” between surface water availability on the NDW and NDE have resulted in “a persistent perception that compliance burdens are unevenly distributed.”

Of course the compliance burdens are “unevenly distributed.” The aquifer under the NDW is in balance. It’s in balance because (a) extensive applications of in-district surface water have meant the use of groundwater is limited and sustainable and (b) those NDW farmers with out-of-district crops almost always have riparian rights and (c) NDW farmers were ethical enough to choose long-term sustainability and responsible farming practices over short-term profits and environmental destruction.

In yet another instance of rhetorical sleight of hand, the DER letter suddenly substitutes “groundwater-dependent communities” for NDE farmers when it states, “these tensions reflect the challenges faced by groundwater-dependent communities working to achieve SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) compliance without the buffering options available elsewhere in the basin.”

The trick here, known among aficionados of verbal subterfuge as, “The Flourish,” enables responsibility for destruction of the aquifer to migrate from the culprits to the community. It’s the kind of swindle that always comes with a smile and a handshake. It’s only when you reach for your wallet that you realize your pocket got picked.

Just for clarification, “groundwater-dependent communities” in Stanislaus County include virtually every city, town and neighborhood in the county. They include the cities of Oakdale, Waterford, and Riverbank. They include the Del Rio Country Club and any number of other Stanislaus County neighborhoods, none of which lie over depleted aquifers. In short, because the aquifers beneath these cities, towns and housing clusters are stable and sustainable, they are already SGMA compliant.

The costs for the studies, agencies, and ongoing management issues, not to mention the costs for damage to the environment from depleted aquifers, should not be borne by farmers, urban ratepayers and residents who have followed the rules and bear no responsibility for unsustainable farming practices on Stanislaus County’s east side. The costs for mitigation, studies, research and management should be borne by those who knowingly brought about the depletion of the aquifer.

Stanislaus County Supervisors are self-designated “Management Area Stewards” for land use throughout the county. Let’s hope when time comes to assign responsibility for the damages and costs of mining groundwater on Stanislaus County’s east side they avoid prejudicial false equivalencies and verbal subterfuge.

Responsible farmers, urban residents and other members of “groundwater-dependent communities” should not be forced to bear the costs and burdens of the consequences resulting from calculated depletion of Stanislaus County’s east side aquifer, nor should they be subject to arbitrary adjudication by Management Area Stewards whose failure to prohibit irresponsible farming has resulted in a severely depleted aquifer.

Like the east side water miners, Stanislaus County authorities are trying to assert authority while ducking responsibility. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.