• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

Why Property Rights and Groundwater Won’t Wash

June 15, 2014 By Eric Caine 3 Comments

New Orchard Near Modesto Reservoir
New Orchard Near Modesto Reservoir

Almost anyone who reflects a minute or two can see California groundwater law is based on an absurd assumption. Essentially, the law says groundwater belongs to the owner of the land above it.

Once it’s acknowledged that groundwater isn’t distributed along property lines, the law doesn’t make much sense. It makes less sense once it’s understood that groundwater moves from place to place. And it becomes absurd when we realize people with powerful pumps can appropriate other people’s groundwater for their own uses without penalties.

It’s also widely understood that recharge of groundwater supplies involves more than adequate rainfall. For example, some kinds of soil are far more conducive to recharge than others. Also, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and reservoirs often function as conduits for recharge of groundwater.

These facts are widely known among experts. But until recently, the general public has regarded groundwater as “out of sight and out of mind.” The current drought is bringing groundwater into public consciousness. In so doing, it’s helping create a consensus that California groundwater law must change.

Consider this: If water belongs to the owner of the land above it, what happens when powerful pumps pull it away? Most people would agree that taking property away from its rightful owner is theft, plain and simple. Today, groundwater pumping indiscriminately steals both public and private water resources.

The problem began when the people who decide such things decreed that groundwater law should be separated from water law in general.

Buzz Thompson is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. In a recent issue of Western Water, he said,

“It’s a myth that groundwater is separate from surface water and also a myth that it’s difficult to legally integrate the two. People say it’s too complicated, but Australia has figured it out; virtually every other state has also figured out how to do this.”

While Thompson may be right about the mythology of groundwater, it’s still true that myth too often has greater force than facts.

For example, the “groundwater is my property” mythology has stupefied the twenty-one member Stanislaus Water Advisory Committee (SWAC) in Stanislaus County. After more than three months attempting to address a groundwater crisis of epic proportion, the committee decided it can’t mandate a reporting system by users of groundwater. “We’ve got to consider property rights,” said Committee Chair Walt Ward.

No matter that one doesn’t need reports from property owners to calculate groundwater use. And no matter that no one on the SWAC is considering the rights of people whose wells have gone dry because their neighbor’s pumping lowered the aquifer. And no matter the damage to the public interest by depletion of one of the last viable aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Contrast the actions of Stanislaus County regarding groundwater with those of San Luis Obispo County. When San Luis Obispo County Supervisors realized that population growth and increases in irrigated farmland were depleting groundwater supplies, they mandated a “New Development Water Conservation Program” (NDWCP).

Under the “Paso Robles Groundwater Urgency Ordinance,” the NDWCP, “requires all new development in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Area to offset new water use through verifiable evidence or participation in an Approved County Water Conservation Program.”

While San Luis Obispo County is clearly willing to address the facts and dire consequences of groundwater depletion, most authorities in the San Joaquin Valley are still guided by groundwater mythology.

Perhaps the most powerful myth of all is that state intervention can only make things worse. Unfortunately, given the status of groundwater use in the San Joaquin Valley, state intervention is the only viable option. It’s increasingly clear that local authorities lack the political will to do anything but defer action until even more damage is done.

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Stanislaus County groundwater, Stanislaus Water Advisory Committee

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Wayne Lusvardi says

    June 17, 2014 at 3:59 pm

    Mr. Caine
    If you haven’t already, suggest you pick up a copy of Dividing the Waters: Governing Groundwater in Southern California by William Blomquist. It is a considered a classic and attributes the success of local groundwater management to property rights adjudicated through courts. There are seven case studies in the book of how decentralized, non-governmental groundwater management worked under different circumstances in different water basins in Southern California. Economist Eleanor Ostrom won a Nobel Prize for her work on how property rights and water management don’t necessarily conflict. The book is not theoretical or ideological but just shows what works. Best regards,
    WL

    Reply
  2. Eric Caine says

    June 18, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Thank you Mr. Lusvardi. I would not have thought of Southern California as a model for water use of any kind. I do know that large areas have severely contaminated groundwater, especially the San Fernando Valley.

    Reply
  3. Eric Caine says

    June 18, 2014 at 11:50 pm

    Bruce Jones had some trouble with the spam filter, so sent the following comments via email; I put his comments in quotation marks. Thank you Bruce: “Good summary of the county’s weak effort at addressing the ground water crisis. Its poor showing will allow us to argue for state intervention and regulation after so long an era of neglect.”

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

?Monster Fracks? Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
“Monster Fracks” Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
A Times analysis shows that increasingly complex oil and gas wells now require astonishing volumes of water to fracture the bedrock and release fossil fuels, threatening America’s fragile aquifers.
www.nytimes.com
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has 'paralyzed' California cities
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has ‘paralyzed’ California cities
The Democratic governor’s intervention lays down a mark in a legal dispute with potentially profound implications for one of California’s most pressing issues.
www.politico.com
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
www.propublica.org
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How bad is hunger in California? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but now is being reduced.
calmatters.org
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento County had nearly 9,300 homeless people in 2022, based on data from the annual Point in Time count. That was up 67% from 2019. Roughly three-quarters of the county’s homeless population….
www.mercurynews.com
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
After decades of minimal action, Congress passed the largest and most comprehensive piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. Will we make the most of this opportunity?
www.audubon.org
How the fentanyl crisis' fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
How the fentanyl crisis’ fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
The epidemic’s staggering scale and infiltration of communities is laid bare in a new study.
www.bbc.com
Can licensed tent villages ease California's homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Can licensed tent villages ease California’s homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Taking people off the street and into tents is a new twist on homeless shelter being explored by the San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy in two tent villages operating in Los Angeles and Culver City.
www.latimes.com
Mississippi has problems, but it's handling homelessness better than L.A.
Mississippi has problems, but it’s handling homelessness better than L.A.
The public tends to blame homelessness on poverty, drug use, crime or even warm weather. But other cities don’t have L.A. levels of street homelessness because they have more available housing.
www.latimes.com
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
The demonstrators raised “Heil Hitler” salutes and waved flags with swastikas.
www.thedailybeast.com
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom's CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom’s CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Gov. Gavin Newsom?s experiment to push Californians with mental illness off the streets and into treatment, CARE Court, starts soon.
calmatters.org
Pope says 'backward' U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope says ‘backward’ U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church. He says they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
apnews.com

Find us on Facebook

pp
The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design