Legend has it that Jed Clampett “was shootin’ at some food / When up through the ground come a bubblin’ crude.”
The Beverly Hillbillies’ transformation into instant millionaires illustrates one of the oldest conceptions in the western world: What’s on your land belongs to you. This idea predates the founding of America. If you find gold in your backyard, that resource belongs to you.
California wants to change that.
A source near San Diego has shared with California Globe a shocking letter that’s quietly being delivered to owners of private wells.
“California is marching toward a world where those with wells on their own property will be required to put a meter on them and pay the government,” writes the source. “Because in their world, the government owns everything and we’re just renters.”
The letter is signed by Natalie Stork, the Chief of Groundwater Management Program Unit 1, and was sent in late July on the letterhead of California Water Boards, under the authority of Gov. Newsom and Jared Blumenfeld, Secretary for Environmental Protection. Buried beneath the bureaucratic acronyms GSA and SGMA (Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) is an extremely aggressive conception of government authority and its dominion over private property.
The letter reads, “Landowners whose property is within an unmanaged area and contains an operating ground water extraction well must report the volume of groundwater extracted from the well. The groundwater extraction volume must be reported as a monthly total. In addition to pumping volumes, reports must include the location of the well and the place and purpose of use of the groundwater. Groundwater extraction reports are not due to the state water board until February 1, 2023. However, if you are required to report, the report must include pumping volumes for each month between the date of receipt of this letter and September 30, 2022.”
This is not merely a bureaucratic hassle. There are fees, of course. The base filing fee is $300 per well, which all extractors are required to report. Then there’s an additional fee of $10 per acre foot with a meter, $25 per acre foot without. Tardy filers face a late fee of 25% per month.
California Globe reached out to Ms. Stork and SGMA to inquire how widely this letter was sent and where the State Water Resources Control Board derives the right to charge well owners for water on their own property. This story will be updated to include her comment if either responds.
Meanwhile, the ramifications for property rights are enormous.
“They’re sending out letters to property owners saying they must declare [if] they use just two acre feet,” observes the source who received the letter. “If they use more they must pay an annual fee of $300 for each well plus they must meter the water and send in a monthly usage report and pay a fee for water that is pumped starting in Feb 2023. What a great racket! The government provides no service, no support, no product, doesn’t even do the billing! That’s all on citizens. All [the government does] is cash the check.”
According to two people who received the letter, so far no organized resistance to this private property grab has yet emerged. But at least one source expects the small fees to grow, which will surely lead to pushback from residents.
“The fees may seem small today, but they always start small. Then they’ll ratchet up. Similarly, while this excludes light domestic users, it won’t for long.”
Below is a copy of the letter, with potentially identifying portions redacted to avoid the recipient being targeted by government authorities who clearly know no bounds.
View Comments (56)
Comrades, in California, you are OWNED by the ruling elite and their apparatchiks.
Isn't Communist California great?
Time to face reality. Groundwater is not ‘under your property’ any more than the atmosphere above your property is yours. Groundwater is generally a flowing underground river. Groundwater has been overused - in many places the ground is subsiding and public roads, canals, etc are being damaged. California has joined the rest of the U.S. by treating groundwater like surface water - a resource to be protected and shared. Using terms like ‘communist’ just reveals a lack of knowledge or unwillingness to discuss.
The property owner who drills the well, owns the pump and the well casing. The property/well owner also may have water rights "tied to particular parcels of land through land deeds." What people on this forum are objecting to with their "communist" comments is what Old Dude describes in his comments below. (https://agwt.org/content/do-you-own-your-well-water)
Have you personally ever lived on property that depends on a well as their only water source??? It isn't a 'spring' that automatically comes into our homes. We paid for the well, the pump and every inch of pipe that brings water onto our property. It's hard water or too soft, that must be treated for household use. We had to buy an expensive system that requires monthly treatment of chemicals in order to use our water for laundry and showers. Every minute our well is operated costs us money toward our PG&E bill. We don't own stock in PG&E. In other words, we well owners are already paying for our water and do NOT consider it FREE! Let the state give us a choice! They should first go to the expense of providing us another source of water. During winter storms or summer power outages, we have no water because our wells won't operate without power! During fire season we can't depend on our wells to save our homes. Do you get it yet? Having a well is a HAVE TO, not a choice!
The statement you posted of "...Groundwater is not ‘under your property’ any more than the atmosphere above your property is yours...," when combined with the fact that both air and water are essential for life, and with the government's illegal treasonous COVID19 "pandemic" scam with its quaxine ("vaccine") mandates, proves that government bureaucrats and politicians consider everyone else to be property to be controlled, exploited and squandered however those government officials please pursuant to their corrupt whims and feelz. That's the communism you're trying to block awareness of with the statement you posted of "...reveals a lack of knowledge or unwillingness to discuss."
California voters have passed numerous water related initiatives aimed at increasing supply but, were always stalled or abandoned due to green extremism (bonds were sold. Where did the money go?). Water is more of a commodity and it's ownership belongs to the property owner. Government taking of private property without compensation is indeed "communist". Also, a aquifer is not an underground river.
Sounds like a non-owner to me!
Your comment uses the same rhetoric as the collectivist ideology used by Lennon, Stalin and Mao to usher in communism. The government controls everything and the people serve the state. It's text book communism.
So, you think that an entity that provides nothing for a resource should be allowed to force someone to pay them for the use of a free resource? When will we be required to PAY for the air we breathe to a government that provides NONE of it? Perhaps when I grow crops on my farm I should PAY the government a "seed tax" for each plant? Like I had to pay to buy the seeds? Or perhaps I should pay a "dirt tax" for the dirt on my farm?
"ruling elite and their apparatchiks...." They neither of those things. They're gangster thugs.
In California we've been seeing moves to take away water rights from property owners for some time. Seems to me the biggest move came at the end of Gov Jerry Brown's reign. Don't remember all the details, though, or how definitive that was.
If the State wants to charge for groundwater wells, then these property owners should request the State provide potable water. If the State refuses, then the property owners send a Due Bill to the State for power used and ongoing naitenance costs.
Yeah, I don't see the government paying to have wells drilled, or for the pumps, pressure tanks, maintenance and repairs or replacement, or the electricity to run the wells. But they step forward and say, "Hey that's OUR water and you owe us for using it!" What's next, Commifornia? Charge us to breathe the air? Will we have to wear meter masks to measure how much air we "rent" from the bloated tick we call government? As soon as possible, I am moving out of this insane mess.
Everything these Liberal/Communists come up with amounts to another turn on the ligature they have around our necks, everything
You're right.
This miserable bunch is slowly sucking the life from this state, and I do mean sucking...
I was born here but if I was twenty years younger I would leave tomorrow, wen they get done this will be an empty shell, a state with liberal elites ruling over the dried up carcasses of any one left with a job...
Gawd help the USA if this SOB gets anywhere close to the Whitehouse, Convention of the States is a must!
Jared Blumenfeld, "Secretary for Environmental Protection", is an unelected bureaucrat who has no authority to impose this draconian government overreach on private property owners. Blumenfeld is a deep-state globalist who has a law degree from the University of London and he was regional administrator for the federal EPA during the Obama regime. Like Gov. Newsom, no doubt he's a boytoy owned by Klaus Schwab's World Economic Forum and the globalist cabal? Has he been doxxed yet so that protests follow him wherever he goes?
Exactly Mario, unelected bureaucrats has no authority to impose this or any other politicized decision; especially the EPA! If the landowners who have already received this letter I pray they no their rights and refuse this garbage. Sending it to the LG of CA might be fruitless, but its a start. I sent this to an independent investigational journalist. Let's see what he says. Know your rights!
Meh, You voted for this crap, Californians
Enjoy.
Brilliant to start small on this. How is this a small start? Well, it seems to me that if they can do this they can expand to charging all the rest of us for breathing whilst on our own property.
California Air Resources Board (part of Cal/EPA) would like to discuss your wonderful idea...
Don't they already kinda of do, With carbon credits?
In the NWO you will own nothing and be happy. Not even your own property or even your own body or mind. Wake up people!
Water is the most valuable element in California, so the state has always had a significant interest in when, where, how, and how much of it is used. In an increasingly arid region, it makes no sense to waste billions of gallons of it growing livestock fodder and crops like rice.
As Mark Twain long ago noted, "in California, whisky is for drinking, but water is for fighting."