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Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication case drags on for nearly a decade, racking up millions in lawyer’s fees

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 23, 2008 at 6:51 am

From the Antelope Valley Press:

After nearly 10 years, millions of dollars and at least 26 studies, the players in a legal battle over water pumping rights are still haggling. More than $5 million has been spent on the litigation by public agencies, with Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts at the top, spending about $2 million, and Palmdale Water District in second place at $903,799.

“It could buy a hell of a lot of water,” attorney Bob Joyce, whose client Diamond Farming Company launched the legal battle in 1999, said about the spending. “It could go a long way toward solving the problem.”

“This thing is an unfortunate waste of resources in my view, not only for taxpayers but for private capital. I’ve seldom seen money put in lawyers’ pockets that generates anything positive to the community or anything constructive. It is money that goes down a hole that never benefits anybody,” Joyce said. “Litigation is a poor vehicle for addressing and solving political problems.”

In a court document, Joyce accused water district officials of trying to wear down the landowner parties by making the groundwater-rights litigation - technically called adjudication - costly and lengthy. “This litigation pits the might and funding resources of the government against the separate individual property rights and limited resources of hundreds of separate landowners,” he stated.

A water district attorney denied the charge.

Attorney Tom Bunn, who represents Palmdale and Quartz Hill water districts, said adjudication is expensive, and water officials were surprised when Joyce’s client started this one. “We were brought into it against our will,” Bunn said. “Palmdale Water District did not favor an adjudication, in part because of the costs, but the direction we’ve had from our clients is to minimize the costs for all sides.” Bunn added: “We’re looking for a quick resolution, by settlement if possible, but otherwise by a judge determination.”

City and water officials said they dislike the case’s length, as well. “The only people who like adjudication are attorneys. We don’t like it,” said Jeff Storm, Palmdale Water District director. “It is a lawyer’s retirement act right now, like a fox in charge of the henhouse. When it stops being a cash cow, it will be settled,” Palmdale City Councilman Mike Dispenza said.

While the water districts and other public agencies have spent millions, the amount spent by farmers, property owners and others isn’t clear. Attorneys for Diamond Farming and Bolthouse Farms, which filed the original lawsuits over groundwater pumping rights in 1999 and 2001, respectively, would not disclose how much their clients have paid.

However, according to court records, Diamond Farming has spent more money on the legal battle than its land is worth “by a sum in the multiples.” Joyce said the sum is less than $1 million.

Aside from the carrot growers, other area farmers have spent tens of thousands of dollars on court costs. But they complain that as taxpayers in Los Angeles County and the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, they are also indirectly paying the costs of attorneys on the other side.

“Every entity that we’re fighting, whether it’s the county or the cities or the water purveyors, all their attorneys are being paid for by the taxpayer. And nobody wants it done faster than we do because we’re having to foot the bill ourselves,” said onion and carrot farmer John Calandri. “Nobody’s helping us. Believe me, when we get a bill, we’re scratching our heads wondering how long we can hold on.”

Grain and alfalfa farmer John Pierre Maritorena agrees. “We’re paying them to fight us.”

Read more from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.

July 23, 2008 · Filed Under Antelope Valley, Groundwater

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