Water meeting draws big crowd in Knights Ferry

They came, they listened, they vented.

About 250 residents of rural areas east of Oakdale attended a meeting Thursday night in warm and packed Knights Ferry Community Club to voice their complaints and hear explanations about the groundwater situation in eastern Stanislaus County.

With Supervisor Bill O’Brien on the panel and two other supervisors in the crowd, many of the questions were directed at Oakdale Irrigation District General Manager Steve Knell. Frequently, he was asked to explain the district’s relationship with Trinitas Partners LLC, which has planted 6,400 acres of almonds in the foothills east of Oakdale over the past nine years.

Though many of those who attended were angry, the questions and answers were mostly civil, if not wholly satisfactory.

The county provided expertise from its public works and water departments and tried to explain the permitting process involved in agricultural wells. Water manager Walt Ward noted no permits have been issued this year due to California Environmental Quality Act requirements. And Trinitas partner Ryon Paton said his firm has neither planted any new orchards nor drilled any new wells over the past two years.

Some of those who addressed the panel, including some who live on Horseshoe Road, said they have lost their wells due to agricultural groundwater pumping. Others fear losing theirs and their way of life due to the orchards that have been planted over the past few years.

Their questions ranged from overburdening of the roads to dust and noise to the destruction of wildlife to protect almonds. The Stanislaus Groundwater Alliance, a group of area residents who organized the meeting, plans to schedule another in August to continue the dialogue.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Water meeting draws big crowd in Knights Ferry."