THE STONY CREEK WATER WARS
Glenn County - Tehama County - Colusa County , California.
(c) 2001, Mike Barkley
Reclamation retaliates, tells the Court anybody with a stock pond is a thief and demands Contempt of Court proceedings.
[This is a transcription of a letter on file at the court. I've made every effort to present the content precisely, but not the form.]
[printed stationery]
UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
REGIONAL OFFICE, REGION 2
P.O.BOX 2511
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
[TOWN AND COUNTRY AREA]
ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO THE REGIONAL DIRECTOR
IN REPLY REFER TO: [end of pre-printed] 2-770
SEP 11 1961
Mr. E. A. Garland
Watermaster
Fouts Springs Road
Stonyford, California
Dear Mr. Garland:
I am writing you in connection with a problem that has come up concerning
the Black Butte project on Stony Creek and its relation with the terms of
the Decree in the case of The United States of America vs. H. C. Angle,
et al., the provisions of which you have been appointed to carry out and
enforce. The Black Butte Reservoir was authorized by the Flood Control
Act of 1944 (Public Law 534, December 22, 1944, 78th Congress, 2nd Session)
as a unit of a comprehensive plan for flood control and other purposes in
the Sacramento River Basin. The project provides for construction of an
earthfill dam, with a maximum height of 140 feet, which together with
six dikes and ungated spillway will create a reservoir with a gross
capacity of 160,000 acre-feet for flood control and water conservation
purposes. The reservoir will be located in Tehama and Glenn Counties
about 9 miles westerly of Orland, California, on Stony Creek. The
reservoir will provide protection from flooding by Stony Creek and will
provide some water for irrigation and related purposes. Black Butte Dam
is now under construction by the Corps of Engineers, United States
Department of the Army and is expected to be completed in 1963.
Under an agreement between the Department of the Interior and the
Department of the Army, the Secretary of the Interior, through the
Bureau of Reclamation, has the responsibility for contracting for the
irrigation service from the Black Butte Project. In carrying out its
responsibility for contracting for the irrigation service from the
Black Butte Project. In carrying out its responsibility the Bureau
of Reclamation has filed Applications 18115 and 19451 for the appropriation
of unappropriated water at Black Butte Reservoir with the California
State Water Rights Board. These applications have been advertised
in accordance with the Board's procedures and protests received.
Among these protests were those of the Stony Creek Water Users
Association and 54 individual members of the Association, all claiming
to be the owners of land within the Stony Creek watershed upstream from
the Black Butte Damsite. Copies of these protests are enclosed.
1
We feel that the protests by the Stony Creek Water Users Association and
the individual members constitute a public announcement of the
protestants' deliberate disregard of California statutory procedures
and intentional ignoring of the adjudication of the Stony Creek
waters by the United States District Court. The protestants
categorically state that they have been and intend to continue to
take and use water from Stony Creek and its tributaries. Such a
taking or announcement of intention to take Stony Creek water is in
violation of the decree in the case of United States of America vs.
H. C. Angle, et al. This taking and use of water by these individuals
is specifically prohibited by the General provisions of that decree which
state:
"That the land within the Stony Creek watershed for
the irrigation of which rights are decreed herein are arid or semi-arid
in character and require irrigation in order that crops of value may
be produced thereon; that except as herein specifically provided
[underline] no diversion of water from the natural flow of the stream
[end underline] into any ditch or canal for direct conveyance to the
land shall be permitted as against any of the parties herein except in
such amounts as shall be actually and reasonably necessary for the
beneficial use [underline] for which the right of diversion is
determined and established by this decree [end underline]." (emphasis
supplied)
You will recall that in 1952, the Bureau of Reclamation issued the
following notice in connection with dams being constructed in the
Stony Creek watershed:
NOTICE OF ADJUDICATED
WATER RIGHTS
STONY CREEK WATERSHED
The Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, wishes to notify
prospective users of water within the watershed of Stony Creek that the
rights to the use of the water of Stony Creek and its tributaries were
adjudicated in 1930 in the case of United States v. H. C. Angle, et al.,
in the Northern Division of the United States District Court for the
Northern District of California. The adjudication decrees substantial
rights to the water of Stony Creek watershed to the United States for the
Orland Project. During certain periods of low runoff all of the water of
Stony Creek and its tributaries is required to satisfy the decreed rights
of the United States and other parties of the adjudication.
2
The Bureau of Reclamation does not wish to prevent the impoundment of
water for stock-watering when water is available in excess of the needs
of the Orland Project. However, conditions may occur during periods of
critically low runoff which will require that action be taken to
prevent interference with streamflow during such periods.
Dated this seventh day of August 1952.
(signed) R. S. Calland
Acting Regional Director
Bureau of Reclamation
The Bureau of Reclamation is obligated to protect the water supply for
the Orland Project and the rights granted by the court for its use.
While a few small dams might use little water, a cumulation can create
serious results in years of low runoff. However, the attached protests
indicated that in an area of about 100,000 acres in 54 ownerships
there are 176 existing reservoirs in the Upper Stony Creek Watershed capable
of storing 4,184 acre-feet of water and 78 reservoirs proposed which will
store an additional 1,775 acre-feet. A tabulation giving the owner of the
individual reservoirs their location and capacity for both the existing
and proposed reservoirs is attached. Maps showing the location of
the existing and proposed reservoirs is also enclosed. We have been
unable to find any of the diversions or proposed diversions listed in the
decree. It must be concluded, therefore, that these diversions are being
made in violation thereof. These diverters are also circumventing the
provisions of the decree inasmuch as they do not contribute to payments
made to provide for the Water Mastering and other services that are
necessary for the orderly regulation and distribution of the waters of
Stony Creek.
My purpose in furnishing this data is to inform you of these violations of
the decree and to request you, as the Water Master, to enforce the
provisions of the decree and the instructions and orders of the court
as you are empowered to do so under Section XVI of the decree.
If we can be of any assistance to you in carrying out this request, please
call upon us.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ H P Dugan
H. P. Dugan
Regional Director
Enclosures - 58 (copies of protests 54)
(tabulations 2)
(maps 2)
Copy sent to persons shown on following page)
3
Copy to: United States District Court
Northern District of California
Federal Building
Sacramento, California
(with enclosures)
Mr. Robert Hollis
Orland Unit Water Users' Association
P.O. Box 766
Orland, California
(with enclosures)
Larimer & Frost
Attorneys at Law
Professional Building
134 West Sycamore Street
Willows, California
(with enclosures)
4
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Return to Stony Creek Water Wars.
--Mike Barkley, 161 N. Sheridan Ave. #1, Manteca, CA 95336 (H) 209/823-4817
mjbarkl@inreach.com