AquAlliance exists to defend northern California waters and to challenge threats to the hydrologic health of the northern Sacramento River watershed. We are prepared and willing to confront the escalating attempts to divert more and more water from the northern Sacramento River hydrologic region.
Why care about the threat to Northern California groundwater?
It affects our homes, our livelihoods and the environment.
Sincere thanks to Metric Cosmetics for its interest in NorthState water and production of this video.
5.11.20: AquAlliance filed a lawsuit in federal District Court against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority (SLDMWA) (Agencies) over their second attempt to disclose and analyze impacts from their long term water export plans. USBR and SLDMWA seek significant water from the Sacramento River Watershed and groundwater basins to ship through the Delta to the San Joaquin Valley.
2.21.22: AquAlliance filed three lawsuits in February against the Butte, Colusa, and Vina subbasins’ Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) with two co-plaintiffs, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the California Water Impact Network. The GSPs are the result of state mandates from the 2014 Groundwater Sustainability Act, which requires some protection of groundwater after allowing unregulated use since California’s formation.
First Victories in NorthState Groundwater Lawsuits!
Judges in Colusa and Butte counties agreed that 3 challenges to Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) by AquAlliance & partners were legitimate and our lawsuits can proceed.
Authority and the Corning Sub-basin GSA Committee. We requested additional information from Glenn County and DWR at the Red Bluff office. There were no responses over 13 days hence we resorted to formal Public Records Act requests.
On January 11, 2022 AquAlliance become aware of sinkholes in the mid-Sacramento Valley through minutes from the Glenn Groundwater Authority and the Corning Sub-basin GSA Committee. We requested additional information from Glenn County and DWR at the Red Bluff office. There were no responses over 13 days hence we resorted to formal Public Records Act requests.
Groundwater-Surface
Water Interactions in
California's Central Valley
Back in the 1950s and ’60s, the Sacramento River and its tributaries were probably gaining about a million acre-feet per year on average from the groundwater. As pumping progressed through the years, the groundwater levels were drawn down… “the impacts from today’s pumping haven’t even shown up yet in the river.” – Maurice Hall, Ph.D., P.E.
West megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years
West megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years
2.14.22: The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds.
The study calculated that 42% of this megadrought can be attributed to human-caused climate change.
The state is now making a third attempt since 2008 to build a massive, multi-billion, ratepayer-funded Delta Conveyance Project (a.k.a. Delta Tunnel) to supposedly “modernize” water transport infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. View a fact sheet that dispels many of the myths and misrepresentations made by state entities in describing the objectives and impacts of the proposed Delta Tunnel.
The celebrated Chico folk duo MaMuse has written a special song
for AquAlliance. Thank you, Karisha Longaker & Sarah Nutting for River Under the River (The AquAlliance Song).
We are suing Glenn Colusa Irrigation District — again. Are you with us? On behalf of all NorthState residents and the environment, we have filed many lawsuits in our 15 years, and most were successful. But the bad boys never go away when so much money is made with water. And this time GCID and its companion rice growers are provided almost $300,000,000 in federal and state funds to put in the infrastructure to begin the earnest takeover of the Tuscan aquifer and other groundwater basins that we fought for so long.
LAWSUIT CHALLENGES GCID EIR: View the Petition
