May 22, 2023

To our neighbors and friends,

Cobram Estates has recently purchased land and is in the process of developing 75 acres in Capay, Northern Yolo County, California. This land is historically dry-farmed—that is, managed without irrigation—or fallowed and Cobram is planning to irrigate the additional 75 acres, with potentially disastrous consequences on groundwater levels.

Cobram is applying for two well permits on this newly purchased property. They will draw from groundwater, the only source of available water in the area at this time. The new wells are in the process of being legally permitted by Yolo County, if they are drilled it will be with a flagrant disregard for the essence of the executive order and more broadly the concept of “Sustainable Groundwater Management.” In addition, Cobram is proposing to drill new wells despite the fact that Hungry Hollow is an area of “Special Concern,” a term used by regulatory bodies to refer to environmentally sensitive or damaged areas.

Cobram’s new wells will worsen groundwater levels for everyone living or farming in the area, interfering with the production and functioning of existing wells nearby. Since 2015, Cobram has planted close to one thousand acres in the Hungry Hollow area with perennial olive trees. The arrival of outside agricultural investment companies in Yolo County has forced many local landowners to lower their pumps or abandon their wells altogether and drill new replacement wells to keep living and farming in the area. Cobram’s current actions are about more than two wells on a single piece of property; it’s a demonstration of why the groundwater crisis in California persists. Local people living and farming in the community are committed to long-term sustainable land use. In contrast, ag investors seek short-term revenues; when the aquifer collapses, they will have made their profits from the acreage and moved on.

This last winter’s abundant rainfall has given us a false sense of security that the water crisis is over. The groundwater recharge from this year’s extraordinarily wet winter, after the perennial orchards stopped irrigating after harvest, was a small fraction of the groundwater lost by the over-pumping of wells to water the thousands of acres that have been planted to perennial orchards or vineyards in the last 10 years.6

As local landowners and residents, we protest this situation.  Until there is conclusive data to substantiate the decision that a new well will not affect the productions and function of existing wells nearby, it is the responsibility of the Yolo County Environmental Health Services, the permitting agency to put a pause on all new well permitting until there is absolute knowledge of its effect. We would like to see action taken that will stop historically non-irrigated land from being converted into perennial orchards; this continued practice will prevent sustainable groundwater usage for the community and for Yolo County as a whole.

We will present this letter to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency, and the Yolo County Department of Environmental Health and Services, asking for their considerations of our concerns and immediate action.

If you would like to support this action to let the governing powers of Yolo County understand our concerns, please sign your name below. Thank you!