THE STONY CREEK WATER WARS
Glenn County - Tehama County - Colusa County , California.
(c) 2001, Mike Barkley
SETTING ASIDE THE ANGLE DECREE: A DRAFT ORDER OUTLINE:

Go before the U.S. District Court in Sacramento and move for an order either:

I. Setting aside the Angle Decree, the State of California Settlement, and the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District Settlement, and dismissing the case, OR,

II.
1) Set aside the Decree and those Settlements, and
2) Set aside all decisions, opinions, rulings, permits, etc., of The California Water Commission and its successor agencies to the extent that any such apply to the waters and rights of the Stony Creek Watershed, and
3) Require the State of California through its Department of Water Resources to:

WORK UP A PLAN and costing for exploiting the Stony Creek Fan underflow, including,

a) wells and pumping systems to tap the Fan underflow

b) double "piping" every parcel over the Fan underflow, one for drinking/ bathing/washing, and the other (including by lined canal) for sanitation and irrigation, with persuasive financial incentives for drip irrigation and retrofitting structures to separate the piping,

c) creating in the wider Stony Creek Channel from Black Butte to the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District Canal the widest possible series of exposed gravel percolation basins, including the best possible wildlife habitat consistent with the percolation goal.

d) developing recharge injection wells, if useful

e) developing storage facilities sufficient to take advantage of that maximum combined possible recharge capacity year-round.

f) extending Tehama-Colusa and/or Glenn-Colusa Canals to Rio Vista, with siphons under the Sacramento River and island hopping to Clifton Court, and, if useful, extending Delta-Mendota Canal to the Edmonston Pumping Plant.

g) offering free water, subject to proper conservation limits, to all properties over the Fan underflow, funded from sales of water in the Fan underflow to users outside the watershed,

h) Reserving enough of a flow in the Stony Creek watershed to irrigate every irrigable acre upstream from Black Butte (including such acreage that could only be irrigated by sprinkler), and offering free water, including storage and delivery systems, subject to proper conservation limits, to those upstream users funded from sales of water in the Fan underflow to users outside the watershed,

i) Develop a suitable damage award for every owner at May 28, 1918, and their heirs of every acre of irrigable (including by sprinkler) land upstream from Black Butte (including lands taken by the various governments since then), and a second, similar pro-rata award for every assign of such lands since that date, for the years of deprivation and economic oppression inflicted on them by the Department of Water Resources, Orland Unit Water Users Association, Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, SWRCB, and all other relevant downstream water users, appropriators, or clients of these agencies, to be funded from sales of water in the Fan underflow to users outside the watershed.

j) Developing the West Orland sewer system.


AND, if that plan is financially feasible, take the following actions:

k) Begin the project to tap fully the Stony Creek Aquifer, offering free water through double piping described above, within proper conservation limits, to all properties over the Fan underflow, funded from sales of water in the underflow to users outside the watershed.

l) Begin the project to bring free irrigation and drinking water to all irrigable parcels in the watershed above Black Butte, including waiver of all state and federal fees for planning, diversion, storage, and use, funded from sales of water from the Stony Creek Fan underflow.

m) Award to the owners, heirs, and assigns that damage award in (i), above, as a lien against sales of water in the Fan underflow to users outside the watershed.

n) Construct the West Orland sewer system.

o) Vigorously advocate such legislation or administrative action as is necessary to remove any possible regulatory impediments to implementing this order.

p) Begin an appropriate auction process for the water in that Fan underflow to fund all the above.

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Arguments for the Project:

--costs out favorably even with something for everybody, and

--addresses a host of problems:

--reduces habitat-damaging mix of warm and cold supplies in streams,
--reduces mixing fresh and brackish water before intakes,
--reduces sediment load in the delivery system,
--protects fish from intakes,
--improves Delta flows,
--reduces the need to build huge off-site storage projects north of the Delta,
--avoids the need for the peripheral canal and canal approval,
--reduces conveyance losses,
--reduces control by DWR or Reclamation and improves supply reliability,
--improves wildlife conservation at source,
--avoids interim solutions of insufficient capacity to solve long-term supply needs, etc.
--reduces local opposition,
--gains local partners,
--at MWD wholesale rates less San Joaquin/Tehachapi pumping costs, injects $2,000,000,000 or more into the Glenn/Tehama economy.

Arguments against:

--irrational fear of Los Angeles,
--salt-water intrusion,
--contamination from agricultural, domestic, and industrial uses,

Return to Stony Creek Water Wars.

--Mike Barkley, 161 N. Sheridan Ave. #1, Manteca, CA 95336 (H) 209/823-4817
mjbarkl@inreach.com