By Tom Molloy
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
In September, President Biden and Secretary Deb Haaland announced plans to cancel all existing oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Next, they are pushing for protecting an additional 13 million acres in the Western Arctic! We can be proud that the Sierra Club fought to keep this land protected from the oil and gas industry for more than 60 years.
At 19.6 million acres, the Arctic Refuge will remain one of the largest wildlife refuges and last untouched ecosystems in the country. Polar bears, arctic foxes, wolves, caribou, and numerous other species call this home.
Arrowhead Bottled Water Company Sues to Continue Taking Water from San Bernardino National Forest
The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 27, 2023, that BlueTriton, the company that sells Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water, is suing to challenge California State Water Resources Control Board’s recent ruling that the company must stop taking much of the water it pipes from the San Bernardino National Forest for bottling.
The board voted to order the company to halt its “unauthorized diversions” of water from springs in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Board members adopted the order after its staff determined that the company has been unlawfully diverting water without valid water rights. They told BlueTriton to stop taking water for bottling from most of its water collection tunnels and boreholes.
Lawyers for the company argued during a hearing last month that the process was rife with problems and that they are entitled to the water.
“The water board conducted a full and fair proceeding prior to the issuance of the cease-and-desist order and will defend its decision in court,”
According to the board, the company draws water from eight springs “where flow historically reached the surface.” The order to halt diversions applies to 10 boreholes and tunnels, and doesn’t affect three other boreholes that capture water.
Environmentalists have campaigned for years against bottling water from the national forest, saying the company’s network of pipelines removes water that would otherwise flow in Strawberry Creek and nourish the ecosystem. The system of 4 inch steel pipes collects water that flows with gravity from various sites on the steep mountainside above the creek. The pipeline runs to a roadside tank, and the water is trucked from there to a bottling plant.
Records show about 143 acre-feet, or 46.5 million gallons, flowed through the company’s network of pipes in 2021.
BlueTriton and prior owners of the business have for years had a federal special-use permit allowing them to use the pipeline and other water infrastructure in the San Bernardino National Forest, paying an annual fee that as of last year was $1,950. There has been no fee for using the water.
The Forest Service has recently said that reissuing the permit would require proof of water rights.
The water board ordered BlueTriton to comply with the order by Nov. 1. State officials said the order in effect restricts 80% of the company’s diversions from the watershed.
The company said it will “vigorously defend our water rights through the available legal process,” while it also intends to “comply with the order unless otherwise authorized by the courts.”
Rachel Doughty, a lawyer for the environmental nonprofit Story of Stuff Project, said the bottling operation has drained Strawberry Creek and dried up habitat that plants and animals once depended on.
Amanda Frye, an activist who lives in Redlands, and filed one of the complaints that prompted the state’s investigation, said she thinks the company is making a desperate attempt to continue taking water from the forest and is “grasping at straws.”
“They don’t have any valid water rights in the San Bernardino National Forest, and they never have,” Frye said.
