San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Bryan Foster issued a ruling early this month in which he granted a request for preliminary injunction from the cities of Colton and Rialto and West Valley Water District and ordered Fontana Water Company to comply with the court’s 1961 decree, which was designed to maintain water levels in the Rialto-Colton Basin.
The decree specifies how much water each agency can extract from the Rialto-Colton groundwater basin based on average groundwater levels. However, the more groundwater levels decline, the less agencies can legally extract from the groundwater basin.
The court noted that during this extended drought, “[w]ithout groundwater management, oversight and enforcement, ‘we will run out of groundwater’.” The court further recognized that the 1961 decree was an attempt to address historic overdraft in the basin and issued the injunction to enforce the terms of that decree.
Officials from the cities of Colton, Rialto and West Valley Water District applauded the court’s decision.
“Judge Foster’s ruling confirms that everybody, even Fontana Water Company, must play by the same rules, especially during a historic drought,” said Butch Araiza, general manager of West Valley Water District. “Nobody is exempt from the drought and Fontana Water Company can no longer take everyone else’s water in violation of established water rights agreements.”
Similarly, Colton Mayor Richard DeLaRosa said that the residents of his city “have faithfully abided by the limitations and restrictions on our water rights through times of surplus and times of shortage and now this ruling will require that Fontana Water Company do the same to meet the needs of their residents.”
The court’s ruling will allow all parties to the 1961 decree to continue to pump groundwater under that judgment until the current litigation about the Rialto-Colton Basin is completed.
The lawsuit, filed in 2014, alleges that Fontana Water Company and its parent company, El Monte-based San Gabriel Valley Water Company, have been extracting more than they are legally allowed to from both the Rialto-Colton groundwater basin and the neighboring San Bernardino Basin Area.
“As supplemental water supplies from the State Water Project are becoming more limited, it is essential that we preserve our local water supplies,” said San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District General Manager Doug Headrick. “The water rights judgments and agreements established in the 1960’s were designed to maintain balance in our groundwater basins, even during times of shortage like we are facing today. We applaud the court and the cities of Colton, Rialto and West Valley for calling Fontana Water Company to task to do their part.”