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Groundwater authority discussion returns to council; public commenters urge scrutiny after proposed court decision
Summary
Ridgecrest — City council members on Aug. 6 reported on Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority business that included a possible social media presence, monitoring-well updates and planned seismic-research briefings; public callers urged scrutiny after a proposed superior court statement on the IWV water adjudication.
Ridgecrest — Council members reported Aug. 6 on recent Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority (IWVGA) activity and discussed community concerns raised by phone callers who summarized a superior court judge’s proposed statement of decision in the IWV adjudication process.
At the council meeting a Ridgecrest representative summarized the IWVGA’s July 16 meeting. The authority discussed whether to create a Facebook page to improve public outreach; board members and staff raised concerns about moderation, liability and whether comments should be enabled. Council members suggested options including creating informational posts only or disabling comments and recommended obtaining a legal opinion and a clear monitoring plan before launching social media.
Staff also reported brief updates on water-resources items: repairs to Rademacher facilities are ongoing; Rose Valley monitoring wells are nearing completion and will move into a monitoring phase after drilling adjustments; and an IWVGA member indicated another presentation on seismic research related to basin study will be returned to a future meeting.
During the public-comment portion of the city meeting two callers — identified in the record as Mike Sonot and Mike Neal — summarized developments in the ongoing IWV adjudication and criticized city and GW authority strategy. Mike Sonot said a proposed statement of decision issued July 28 by Superior Court Judge William Kloster contains key determinations regarding the Navy’s asserted federal reserved water right; he summarized the judge’s findings as including that federal reserved water rights do not automatically extend to non-reservation property and that reserves are limited to water necessary to fulfill reservation purposes. Sonot also quoted a city manager social-media post and characterized certain cost figures as part of his commentary; those cost claims were presented as the caller’s characterization of prior public posts.
A second caller, Mike Neal, criticized city transparency related to the IWV adjudication and described previous consultant work on proposed legislation; Neal said city posts on Facebook reflect the city manager's statements rather than a formal council position. Both callers urged accountability from the Groundwater Authority and the city.
Council members said they would seek more detail at upcoming IWVGA meetings, request follow-up on the seismic-research presentation, and treat the social-media question as pending until the authority receives legal and operational guidance. There was no council action to change city policy at the meeting.
