In late August, Russian Riverkeeper and the California Coastkeeper Alliance got what looks like a very significant ruling in their challenge to Sonoma County’s well permitting ordinance. The groups say that by allowing excessive and unmonitored groundwater extraction, the County is failing to protect surface flows in creeks and rivers that fish, wildlife, and recreation need. The court agreed, holding that under the Public Trust doctrine, Sonoma County has “an affirmative duty to take the public trust into account in the planning and allocation of water resources, and to protect public trust uses whenever feasible,” but that the County failed to do so, overlooking impacts on the public trust, including cumulative effects.

In this episode of the EcoNews Report, Friends of the Eel River Conservation Director Scott Greacen and EPIC Executive Director Tom Wheeler talk to three people deeply involved in these questions.

• Rue Furch is a former Sonoma County planning commissioner and veteran Russian River advocate.
• Don McEnhill is the Executive Director of Russian Riverkeeper.
• Drev Hunt is the Legal Director for California Coastkeeper, and one of the attorneys on the case, with Jaime Neary of Russian Riverkeeper, Daniel Cooper of Sycamore Law, and Amy Minteer and Michelle Black of Carstens, Black and Minteer LLP.

Further reading:

• California Coastkeeper Alliance 
• Russian Riverkeeper 
• Carstens, Black and Minteer 
• Sycamore Law 
• RussianRiverkeeper v Sonoma County Ruling (PDF link) 
• Press-Democrat editorial: Time to revisit county groundwater rules: Groundwater isn’t an unlimited resource, but it’s often treated that way 
• LA Times story 
• Friends of the Eel River Public Trust Litigation