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| Click on photo to be taken to the O.W.L. web site |
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| Click on photo to be taken to the O.W.L. web site |
The water supply for Sonoma and Marin county is at risk! From the O.W.L. Foundation of Sonoma County comes proof positive from a disinterested third party ( an international team of geophysicists) that
the aquifer in the Rohnert Park area, which includes the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino building
site, is in serious overdraft. What the information below means to the Graton casino DEIS is that any further pumping of groundwater
in this area, especially on the scale the casino project would demand, would most likely result in the collapse of the aquifer.
Once this happens, the aquifer is lost.
Both STC101 and
the O.W.L. Foundation have for years, attempted to warn the tribe, the federal government and the state government about the
danger of building the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino on the Rohnert Park-area site. With the state’s
water crisis that is expected to continue and even worsen in the future, this depletion of the Santa Rosa Plain aquifer, as
well as the serious traffic concerns, many of which were voiced in Senator Migden’s letter to the editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino is clearly a
regional issue.
Here is the information from the O.W.L. Foundation:
"The O.W.L. Foundation has learned that data from the European
InSAR Satellite reveals that Rohnert Park is sinking due to excessive groundwater pumping. The joint American-Italian study
described the depression as a: "" . . . deformation . . . consistent with land subsidence due to groundwater
extraction, perhaps enhanced by weak fine-grained floodplain sediments upon which Rohnert Park is built. "
The subsidence was noticed during
a 10-year seismological study, "Creep on the Rodgers Creek fault . . ." published on October 10, 2007 by the American
Geophysical Union. It confirms what the O.W.L. ("Open Space, Water and Land") Foundation and the California Department
of Water Resources have long suspected, that the massive drop in the water table has removed underground support and the aquifer
is collapsing in a dangerous process called "land subsidence."
When land sinks due to groundwater extraction the underlying aquifers collapse. Once an aquifer collapses, that storage
space is permanently lost thereby reducing already constrained future water supplies. Whatever damage has been or will be
caused to existing aquifers is permanent, and the threat to local water supplies is very real and very serious.
Land subsidence would explain why homeowners in Rohnert Park complain of houses that
tilt or otherwise fall out of plumb. The sinking land mass would also explain why Rohnert Park suffered unprecedented flooding
in January 2005 and boats were needed to navigate the streets. It could also explain why a massive underground sewage pipe
broke during that storm. Rohnert Park relies in part on groundwater for its water supply, and has been successfully
sued twice over groundwater depletion issues, most recently by the O.W.L. Foundation in 2006 (Note: This was the state’s
first lawsuit under SB610 ). Of serious concern to the O.W.L. Foundation are Rohnert Park’s plans for six ambitious
specific projects and the 729,000 square foot Graton casino that comes with a federal water right, and which plans to sink
multiple 1,000 to 2,000 foot wells to provide water to its estimated 15,000+ patrons per day.
"More pumping will guarantee more subsidence", said H.R. Downs, President of the O.W.L. Foundation. "Now
that subsidence is an established scientific fact, the big question today is will the city continue to sink with these projects?
" To view the InSAR satellite data, CLICK HERE Also see How InSAR Works
The O.W.L. Foundation is a California non-profit
corporation devoted to educating the public and government agencies about the water crisis, sensible land use policy and open
space issues. Visit their web site at www.owlfoundation.net
The O.W.L. Foundation is a California non-profit
corporation devoted to educating the public and government agencies about the water crisis, sensible land use policy and open
space issues. Visit their web site at www.owlfoundation.net
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| FIGR Chairman Greg Sarris |
It's time for Chairman Sarris to keep his
promise: In a meeting in the Governor’s office in March, 2005, Federated Indian of Graton Rancheria
Chairman Greg Sarris promised a delegation comprised of Pastor Worthington, Linda Kelley, Renn Vara and Larry Dahl that
if the tribe’s project would take water away from any of the neighbors, they would not build it. This statement was
made in the presence of Daniel Kolkey, the Governor’s chief negotiator at the time. Both STC101 and the O.W.L. Foundation have for years,
attempted to warn the tribe, the federal government and the state government about the danger of building the Graton casino
on the Rohnert Park-area site. With the state’s water crisis that is expected to continue and even worsen in the future,
this depletion of the Santa Rosa Plain aquifer can no longer be ignored.
It's time for Chairman Sarris to keep his promise In
light of the the court ruling and now, the information on the ground subsidence, the Federated Indians of Graton
Rancheria casino project is certainly "fatally flawed", and is also inconsistent with State water law and public
policy. The DEIS project be suspended for lack of an environmentally sound and appropriate site, and the tribe
should be encouraged to select an alternative site other than those previously identified by the tribe in the October 19,
2005, Scoping Hearing that are located on or adjacent to, the current project site. In
the absence of the applicant’s selection of an alternative site, the BIA should suspend the project and process now,
to avoid future costs to the applicant, and future risks of liability and harm to Sonoma County residents, and the
expected, resultant litigation. We have asked that the project be suspended immediately. Both STC101
and the O.W.L. Foundation have for years, attempted to warn the tribe, the federal government and the state government about
the danger of building the Graton casino on the Rohnert Park-area site. With the state’s water crisis that is expected
to continue and even worsen in the future, this depletion of the Santa Rosa Plain aquifer can no longer be ignored. It's time for Chairman Sarris to keep his promise In light of the the court ruling and now, the information on the ground subsidence, the Federated
Indians of Graton Rancheria casino project is certainly "fatally flawed", and is also inconsistent with State water
law and public policy. The DEIS project be suspended for lack of an environmentally sound and appropriate site, and the tribe
should be encouraged to select an alternative site other than those previously identified by the tribe in the October 19,
2005, Scoping Hearing that are located on or adjacent to, the current project site. In
the absence of the applicant’s selection of an alternative site, the BIA should suspend the project and process now,
to avoid future costs to the applicant, and future risks of liability and harm to Sonoma County residents, and the
expected, resultant litigation. We have asked that the project be suspended immediately.
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| H. R. Downs, President of the O.W.L. Foundation |
More on the "Show Me the Water Lawsuit:
In Sonoma County’s Superior Court on May 31, 2006, in what was an historic
and landmark case in California water law, the first lawsuit brought under California’s SB 610, the "Show Me the Water"
bill, has resulted in a win for the grassroots group, the O.W.L. Foundation, and a devastating loss for the City of Rohnert
Park, which has failed to prove that it has a sustainable water supply for planned future development. (10. 236309 - O.W.L.
Foundation v. Rohnert Park )
SB 610 makes changes
to the Urban Water Management Planning Act to require additional information in Urban Water Management Plans if groundwater
is identified as a source available to the supplier. The information required includes a copy of any groundwater management
plan adopted by the supplier, a copy of the adjudication order or decree for adjudicated basins, and if non-adjudicated, whether
the basin has been identified as being over drafted or projected to be overdrafted in the most current California Department
of Water Resources (DWR) publication on that basin. If the basin is in overdraft, that plan must include current efforts to
eliminate any long-term overdraft. A key provision in SB 610 requires that any project subject to the California Environmental
Quality Act supplied with water from a public water system be provided a specified water supply assessment, except as specified
in the law.
The site within Rohnert Park’s Urban Growth Boundary which was chosen
for the Graton project is "ground zero" in the water lawsuit, and sits on a portion of the Santa Rosa Plain Aquifer,
the region’s main source of groundwater, which is mentioned in the lawsuit as being in serious overdraft. O.W.L. has
argued for years that groundwater in the entire south Santa Rosa Plain is in demonstrable overdraft, and in July, 2004, the
Sonoma County Grand Jury admonished the County and all of its Cities to implement Groundwater Management Plans pursuant to
AB 3030.
The court’s findings uphold and confirm the studies done by the O.W.L. Foundation
submitted to the NIGC in 2004 and 2005. Only a full study such as was requested by the O.W.L. Foundation in its Scoping Comments
could either verify or disprove the O.W.L. study. In fact, a study is currently underway by the USGS, the Sonoma
County Water Agency, and several cities. This study will take at least four years to complete, and STC101 has advised
the National Indian Gaming Commission that it would be premature to release any Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) until
the USGS study is complete.
However, our experts feel that such a study would only serve to confirm O.W.L.’s
findings. That's why Rohnert Park didn't do a proper study; it didn't want its public record to reflect the truth about the
city's water supplies. Graton’s casino project is in the same position.
But here's the real problem with the casino: the Federated
Indians of Graton Rancheria enjoy preferential, federal water rights. There is an inherent danger to the citizens of the region
and their governments from the establishment of a federal water right on lands already demonstrated in court to be in substantial
groundwater overdraft. If the project goes forward, and if its water supplies go dry or the tribe is drawn into any legal
action pertaining to water, then every single person, corporation and agency in Sonoma County faces the very real threat of
losing their water rights, as has happened elsewhere in California and the Nation.
There is inadequate water at the Rohnert Park site to support this project,
and the project, if built, would adversely and seriously affect area wells and regional water supplies for Marin County and
Sonoma County.
Going forward with this project would create an inherently unstable legal climate
and jeopardize the water rights of every single stakeholder in Sonoma County, including the Sonoma County Water Agency. The
tribe would certainly be drawn into any subsequent legal action over water issues, such as have taken place in this particular
region of Sonoma County over the last four years.
If that happens, then the U.S. Attorney General will be constrained to appear to
defend the tribe’s federal water right. Federal involvement will dramatically increase the chance that the entire County
is thrown into water adjudication. This aquifer is too important to the region to run that risk.
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