SOFA files suit against U.S. Forest Service

The delays in carrying out the State Water Board cease and desist order and the U.S. Forest Service lack of action to deny a new Special Use Permit have led the Save Our Forest Association to file a complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief against the USFS.

This lawsuit is challenging the USFS decision to allow BlueTriton Brands illegal occupancy of San Bernardino National Forest lands and the dewatering of Strawberry Creek and its tributary streams. The complaint was filed on June 25 to meet the statute of limitations from the 2018 issuing of a Special Use Permit to Nestle (now BlueTriton Brands) for their water diversions.

SOFA is requesting the court to enter judgement and provide the following relief:

1. DeclarethattheUSForestServiceviolatedtheFederalLandsPolicyManagementAct, theNationalForestManagementAct,theAdministrativeProcedureActandtheNational Environmental Policy Act when the 2018 Special Use Permit was granted.
2. Order the US Forest Service to vacate and set aside the 2023 Special Use Permit and the 2018 Decision Memo.
3. Prevent the US Forest Service from allowing any third party to divert water from Strawberry Creek without a new or supplemental environmental analysis given evidence submitted during the State Water Board hearing.
4. Order the US Forest Service to remove or require BlueTriton Brands (or former Special Use Permit holders) to remove the diversion structures and pipelines in Strawberry Canyon and restore the canyon to its condition pre-diversion.
5. Order the US Forest Service to comply with the National Forest Management Act, the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in connection with BlueTriton Brands’ diversion of water from the Strawberry Creek watershed.
6. Grant SOFA fees, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees as provided by the Equal Access to Justice Act.
7. Additional requests as shown in the complaint.

In 2015 the Save Our Forest Association, Inc., began writing to the US Forest Service protesting the expired Special Use Permit allowing Nestle Waters of North America (now BlueTriton Brands) to divert all the water from Strawberry Canyon, below Rimforest, to its water bottling plants and sold as Arrowhead Spring Water. The USFS never responded to multiple requests for a meeting to discuss and review the environmental impacts of this long-standing spring water diversion from our San Bernardino National Forest.

The USFS held a public scoping meeting in April 2016 proposing a five-year National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) study to determine the possible impacts of the Nestle water diversions. SOFA objected to this plan and recommended a NO ACTION alternative in the NEPA study with no further water diversion for bottling and spring water capture at the bottom of the canyon with monitoring to determine if any excess water flow existed.

Responding to citizen complaints to the California State Water Resources Board (SWRCB) between April 2015 and September 2017, the SWRCB issued a draft cease and desist order against Nestle on April 23, 2021. A public hearing by the SWRCB took place between August 2021 and July 2023, in which SOFA (and other environmental organizations and citizen activists) participated as a witness, resulting in a revised cease and desist order against BlueTriton Brands sent to the State Water Board of Directors, which unanimously approved the cease and desist order on Sept. 19, 2023. That order has been appealed by BlueTriton Brands and is assigned to a Fresno Superior Court to be heard this summer; meanwhile, the water diversions continue 24/7 as BlueTriton and the US Forest Service negotiate terms of a possible new special use permit even though the State Water Board determined that BlueTriton has NO VALID WATER RIGHT.

The entire complaint can be seen on the SOFA website, saveourforestassoc.org, under Our Campaigns, Nestle Water Diversion. SOFA is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization. Donations to support this action can be made on the SOFA website and are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.