By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer
At its Dec. 7 Christmas party and potluck dinner, Save Our Forest Association (SOFA) founder and president Hugh Bialecki DMD told several dozen environmentally concerned guests that SOFA is still involved in their decades-long battle with Arrowhead Spring Water’s parent company BlueTriton Brands and its predecessor Nestlé Corp.
SOFA is joined in this battle with several other environmental organizations, including the Sierra. Club, the Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy.
On June 25 of this year, Bialecki, fed up with BlueTriton’s continued extraction of water from Strawberry Creek, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Riverside, arguing that the Forest Service was violating federal laws by allowing the company to continue piping water from boreholes and water tunnels in the San Bernardino National Forest. According to the lawsuit, BlueTriton’s special use permit expired in 1988, but the Forest Service allowed the company to continue diverting water. The U.S. Geological Survey documented that Strawberry Creek had become “dry and diminished, leading to impaired riparian fauna and flora and a creek that cannot support fish.”
Hugh Bialecki DMD addresses audience at the Dec. 7 SOFA Christmas party. (Photo by Douglas W. Motley)
Earlier this year, Steve Loe, a retired biologist who previously worked for the San Bernardino National Forest, said the state should require the company to stop taking water from the creek and the ecosystem. “The stream has been completely dried up by BlueTriton, and BlueTriton needs to put some water back in the stream to meet state and federal requirements,” Loe said.
Loe added, “Restoring water to the habitat would help endangered bird species such as the southwestern willow flycatcher and least Bell’s vireo,” he said, as well as other species, including the mountain yellow-legged frog and southern rubber boa. He said a flowing creek could also support the return of native fish species, such as Santa Ana speckled dace.
According to court records, in September of 2023, the California Water Resources Control Board ordered Blue Triton to stop using some of its natural springs it has relied on for more than a century, maintaining that the company did not have permission to use the water. Blue Triton has challenged that ruling and the lawsuit remains pending in Fresno County Superior Court.
Bialecki announced at the Christmas party that he and SOFA’s lawyer would be attending the next hearing scheduled for this coming Jan. 15 in Fresno.
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