Article from Central Valley Business Times.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=26592
MODESTO
August 27, 2014 9:00pm
- Groundwater drilling permits are the issue
- Related suit continues
A lawsuit seeking revocation of some 60 water well permits that the lawsuit said were issued without proper environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act has been settled – at least in part.
The settlement calls for dismissal of the settling permit holders – nine farming and ranching operations — and their permits from the suit in return for their contributions to an earmarked fund administered by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance to study groundwater conditions in the county.
Settlement funds total approximately $190,000 to date, the CSPA says.
The lawsuit will continue against permit holders who have not settled.
Another lawsuit against a number of parties who had received well drilling permits from the county continues. It seeks a court declaration that all future well permits be subjected to review under CEQA.
In June, the Modesto Bee reported that the county was issuing well drilling permit at a furious rate – 299 in the first six months of 2014, an all-time record pace. Of the permits issued, just 69 were for homes, the rest were for agriculture.
“It is unfortunate that the county continues to issue new permits at record rates without having any idea what the environmental and other consequences might be,” environmentalist and retired lawyer Jerry Cadagan of Sonora told the Bee at the time. Mr. Cadigan is one of the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits.