The word of the day is “Irreparable”.

The phrase of the day is a reminder for the Realtors: “All Wealth Flows from the Land”.

June 23, 2025

By Miguel T. Tonnis

Indian Wells Valley and Ridgecrest California

Publisher’s Note: To the California Association of Realtors AND the National Association of Realtors: You’re advised to put a STOP to SGMA, right here and right now, and instruct your lobbyists to contact the State Legislature, Congress and President Trump himself!

Officials in the State of California are scrambling to repair flaws in the States Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), but they are too late to prevent a statewide real estate crash. It’s already started and the law has caused irreparable damage.

As most residents and property owners in Indian Wells Valley know, the area in California’s high Mojave Desert is in a serious crisis as a result of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). It may sound like a very reasonable and just law to preserve and maintain the sustainability of groundwater basins across the state, and especially in a desert region, but it’s caused unintended consequences, and this is only the beginning of a crisis. And there’s nothing good or sustainable about SGMA.

It’s not a crisis of water scarcity, but a crisis of government overreach and corruption!

Serious accusations of a Conspiracy to Commit Fraud have been leveled against the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority and the City of Ridgecrest. The story can be found here:

The Department of Water Resources, the state’s agency in charge of SGMA implementation and compliance, is shaking in their waders, and it’s only going to get worse. It’s so bad, the entire Act may have to be scrapped or completely overhauled.

SGMA required Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to form in the State’s high- and medium-priority basins and subbasins by June 30, 2017. Over 260 GSAs in over 140 basins were formed by SGMA’s initial planning milestone. However, as SGMA continues to be implemented and the priorities and boundaries of some basins change, new GSAs will be formed, and existing GSAs may want to reorganize, consolidate, or withdraw from managing in all or part of a basin. All GSA formation notifications are managed on DWR’s SGMA Portal.

The City of Ridgecrest wants to grow, which is unlikely for a number of reasons, and the Indian Wells Valley Water District says that they can manage the basin better than anyone else, and they have the science to prove it.

SGMA is a Clear and Present Danger to Your Private Property Rights

It’s also a matter that should concern property owners across the entire United States. Not only is SGMA the first water law that concerns groundwater, not surface water laws that have been the stories of legend, the federal government has already put their heavy stamp of approval on SGMA. It’s not often that the federal government involves itself in state laws or disputes concerning water rights, but in the case of SGMA, it’s being codified by a small section that was inserted at the last minute before the law was passed.

This is a Water War, and it’s the Big Kahuna of Water Wars!

Since 2014, millions of California property owners (homeowners) have been drawn into the law of SGMA unknowingly, and they might think it’s well intentioned and a good idea, but it’s not, and it’s much worse than you can imagine, and it has nothing to do with the issue of sustaining groundwater, though groundwater levels are always changing, just like the climate.

Some groundwater basins in California’s San Joaquin Valley are overdrawn due to massive farms pumping thousands of acre feet of water to feed their crops, but they wouldn’t need to do so if California would manage their rivers, canals and reservoirs the way they were intended to be.

AB 1413 and AB 1466 are Intended to Neuter the Adjudication Judge’s Ability to Interpret the Best Science

It’s horrible and frightening idea that the correct “science” is determined not by due process and a judge in a court of law, but an “authority” with no restraint on their determinations of how much water can be pumped from the ground and who gets to use it as well as who gets to pay for it all. In the Indian Wells Valley, the “science” was rigged from the beginning, and the “Authority” is behind the two Bills that are currently awaiting committee hearings in the California State Senate.

SGMA is “Stakeholder Capitalism” and Globalism Writ Large

The California Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors will be very interested in this story. If you know a Realtor, have them send this to your local board or state office. If you are a Realtor, you should be on the phone to your local board or state office, along with sending them an email with a link to this article.

There will be a huge legal battle, and CAR and NAR have both the resources as well as the influence from their membership to take on the State of California and to lobby in statehouses across the land. It will represent a huge PR win for them too, and they could use this issue because NAR is the leading proponent for private property rights in America. There are better ways to solve local groundwater issues than what is currently being implemented under SGMA as well as AB 1413 and AB 1466.

How much farmland has been fallowed in California? How many farmers have sold their farms to China? These are questions that remain unanswered, but the damage has already been done. And much of it is, we’ll say it again, irreparable. Real estate values across the entire State of California are starting to collapse, you just don’t know it yet.

BONUS MAP FYI:

The small desert water district is off the map around 70 miles east of Lake Isabella, right next door to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and north of Edwards Air Force base approximately 70 miles north of Mojave.

The $394 Million AVEK pipeline extension to Ridgecrest and China Lake will extend the water flowing in the canals on the west side of the Sierras to the east side of the Sierras thereby placing the Indian Wells Valley in a vice grip of the California State Water Project, wherein the state and SGMA will have y’all by the balls.

KERN COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY CONTACT INFORMATION AND CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS:

Investigations (Bakersfield)

661-868-5851 Phone

Pichardoj@kernda.org (Jeanette at the front desk)

Lt. Perez – dperez@kernda.org

Re: Conspiracy to Commit Fraud in the City of Ridgecrest AND the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority

How Do I File a California PUBLIC RECORDS Act Request?

You may start with an informal request when filing a request to obtain a public record under the CPRA in California. The request may be made over the telephone. However, you must first decide which agency maintains that record before filing a request. Visit the website of the agency to access the applicable contact number. The agency may also provide a contact form on its website for requesters to complete a CPRA request. Many other agencies also provide links on their websites for requesters to download CPRA request applications forms which may be completed and mailed to the agencies’ mail addresses.

For instance, to obtain a public record from the State Bar of California, you may complete the Public Records Act Request Form and send it by electronic mail to PRA@calbar.ca.gov or mail it to:

The State Bar of California
ATTN: Public Records Request
845 S. Figueroa St., 5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Alternatively, you may also complete a written form and submit it by electronic mail or mail to the relevant address.