We got them talking!
Groundwater For Butte made its media debut yesterday with a well-attended press conference and ballot-ripping event. We made our case with speeches, maps, graphic posters and handouts, all based on months of hard work by our volunteers.
Local journalists came out in force to our spot under a graceful old oak at Durham Community Park, and gamely strove to understand, in about an hour, what some of us here at G4B have been struggling to lay out in layman's terms for many months.
We are grateful for the hard work of reporters from:
NSPR, 91.7 FM
... and any others we might not have noticed, in the midst of a healthy crowd of over 50 who turned up to express their objections to groundwater management trends in Butte County.
Special thanks go out to Jay Knight and Francine Stuelpnagel for sharing their personal stories and concerns about where things are headed in their own corners of Butte County, as well as Susan Schrader, a Chico resident who pointed out the risks to the local ecology and her own shallow well.
We'd like to point out one small error in the reporting – hardly surprising considering how fast these professionals have to try to convey such complex matters to their audiences.
(We at G4B made one of our own yesterday - Francine Stuelpnagel was listed in our press packet as being a Grubbs, when in fact, she is co-owner of GRUB CSA, a produce farm on West Sacramento Avenue that delivers fresh produce to member/subscribers and tables at the Saturday famers' market in Chico.)
This item at KRCR: "According to its own website, the Tuscan Water District would stretch over 102,000 acres, from the Tehama County line, south to the Durham area, covering the Vina and Butte water Sub-Basins." (This refers to the TWD's website, not ours.)
The problem word here is "covering;" the Tuscan Water District would in fact only overlay about half the Vina and a tiny portion of the Butte sub-basins. (The map at the top of this page illustrates the Vina and TWD footprints.)
The complexity of all these overlapping water-management districts and agencies, of course, is itself part of the problem we're facing.
There are some 14 new Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in Butte County alone. All require funding. The Vina GSA, which was set up to manage the area that encompasses the Tuscan Water District, is currently seeking an initial $3.09 per acre property-tax assessment.
Its area, unlike that of the TWD, includes Chico and Durham residents. The Vina GSA sent out a "protest vote" form in June, giving property owners a (mostly ceremonial) chance to reject the tax assessment.
In practice, anyone who doesn't actively fill out the form correctly with their APN number and mail it in has voted for the tax, by default.
YOUR EYES ARE GLAZING OVER NOW. YOU ARE SLEEPY. YOU WANT TO EAT SOME NICE COLD STRAWBERRIES AND RELAX IN FRONT OF YOUR AIR CONDITIONER.
We do too! But in between heat strokes, G4B and its brain trust of dedicated volunteer citizens are very much in motion, doing everything we can, with limited resources, to make sure neither big industrial agriculture, nor the State of California (which can be counted on to act in its interests), get hold of our still-public, and still-healthy, groundwater resources.
The next opportunity to voice your objections to the TWD, and hold our public officials' feet to the fire, comes at the Butte County Board of Supervisors meeting, Tuesday July 25 at 9 am. The Board is going to approve another Tuscan Water District election, which it claims it is required to do because LAFCo has asked it to do so. Whether or not that is true, it doesn't hurt to come, fill out a speakers' card, and let them know your opinion.
It's funny how nobody on that dias wants to own the Tuscan Water District, isn't it? Ed McLaughlin, a prominent TWD supporter, was at our press event and told a reporter that the Board of Supervisors asked area farmers to form the district in the first place because it didn't have the funds to take care of the problem.
Could they be keeping the TWD at a distance from themselves in public because they sense it could backfire on them? Sorry! Too late. The motorcycle is revving its engines now. Stay tuned and be vigilant.
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We oppose the formation of the Tuscan Water District and demand that Butte County officials step up to their responsibilities under State law. The groundwater belongs to the public and must be managed transparently by publicly elected authorities - not privatized as a "water bank."
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