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View Winners → Sierra Madre accuses Arcadia of ‘stealing water’
Arcadia Weekly Mar 21, 2014
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As the water crisis deepens while summer looms for water-ailing Sierra Madre, officials from that town on Thursday accused neighboring Arcadia “of stealing water from a shared East Raymond Basin,” according to a published report.
Assistant city attorney for the city of Sierra Madre, Holly Whatley, said the east and west Raymond Basin was divided by the California Supreme Court way back in 1944, adding “the Raymond Basin Management Board must abide by the 70-year-old decision,” according to the published report.
The city of Arcadia has built two wells in the last 13 years at a cost of $2.8 million – Anoakia Well in 2001 and Colorado Well in 2007, according to the published report.
The limits of each well fall in the East Raymond Basin, but it all depends who you ask as both Sierra Madre and Arcadia do not see eye to eye on where the boundary falls, according to the published report.
After hearing both sides’ arguments and rebuttals on Thursday, the Raymond Basin Board of Directors said they would like to have a resolution to the problem on April 16, according to the published report.
Sierra Madre’s mayor and two of its council members attended the three-hour meeting with seven other supporters, while five people came in support of Arcadia’s side and no politicians were there, according to the published report.
During the meeting, Whatley said Arcadia should not be allowed to be taking out excess levels of water as that would do damage to the East Raymond Basin, according to the published report.
Couple this with the fact that the basin is already running low due to the drought, which could also hurt Sierra Madre’s future water supply, according to the published report.
An attorney Steve Anderson said the boundary that is being debated was just an arbitrary line as a 90-degree angle just to make things simple 70 years ago and it was “never intended to accurately depict the actual, physical sub-basin boundary,” according to the published report.
(Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews.com).
By Shel Segal
