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By Linda Sutter, Investigative reporter – February 18,2026
Today’s meeting at the Elk Valley Rancheria located at Sam Lopez Community Center, 2332 Howland Hill Road , Crescent City, CA 95531 at 4 p.m., will allow the public to speak 5 minutes and is being presented as an “informational” session about lily bulb farming and groundwater protection, but it’s a performance. It is nothing of the sort.
It is a gaslighting dog and pony show, designed to reassure the public while quietly admitting-in writing- that groundwater contamination is expected, tolerated, and managed only after the fact.
Here is what the official documents actually say.
GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION IS ASSUMED NOT PREVENTED
According to the Monitoring and Reporting Program issued by the Northcoast Regional Water Quality Control Board, lily bulb farming is regulated under a system that allows contamination to occur up to legal thresholds before any corrective action is required.
The documents require groundwater monitoring for:
Nitrate
Toxic Pesticides, including:
IMIDACLOPRID
DIURON
ETHOPROP
MEFENOXAM
NAPROPRAMIDE
These are not hypothetical risks. These are the exact chemicals being monitored because they are known to move through soil and into groundwater. A single nitrate reading of 10mg/L- the federal drinking water maximum contamination level before intervention begins.
For pesticides, repeated “chronic” exceedances are tolerated before action is required. This is not prevention. This is documentation damage.
PRIVATE DRINKING WATER WELLS ARE THE WARNING SYSTEM
The documents provided to the public make clear that private drinking water wells located on lily farming parcels must be monitored, not public water systems. If contamination is found:
The grower notifies the well user, “highly unlikely”
A notice is filed with the Water Board, “highly unlikely”
No clean replacement water is required
No filtration is required
No medical or public health follow-up is required.
The system treats rural residents, tenants, and farmworkers as early-warning sensors, not as people entitled to protection.
IMIDACLOPRID AND OTHER PESTICIDES ARE ALREADY RECOGNIZED AS DANGEROUS
The documents list imidacloprid, a neurotoxic insecticide linked to ecological collapse and neurological impacts, with a chronic benchmark as low as 0.01 micrograms per liter in surface water. To put that into perspective:
That is parts per trillion.
Yet its continued use is allowed so long as exceedances are tracked and reported. The same is true for diuron and ethoprop-chemicals that persist in soil and groundwater and are known to harm aquatic life.
The regulators already know these chemicals are dangerous. That is why they are being measured.
THE INDUSTRY IS ALLOWED TO MONITOR ITSELF
The most disturbing finding in the documents is the role of the grower coalitions. Growers may join a coalition that:
Collects their fees
Conducts groundwater and surface water monitoring
Chooses sampling locations
Aggregates and anonymizes data
Submits reports to regulators
Determines when “adaptive management” is triggered
This is a self policing, not independent oversight. In other words the fox is minding the hen house. If contamination is inconvenient, it can be buried in aggregated data and five year trend reports.
WHO IS MISSING ENTIRELY? PUBLIC HEALTH.
Nowhere in these documents is there a required role for:
Californa Department of Public Health
Del Norte County Department of Public Health
California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
No Medical advisories, No exposure tracking, No cumulative Health analysis. People are notified AFTER CONTAMINATION, NOT PROTECTED BEFORE EXPOSURE.
SURFACE WATER MONITORING IS MINIMAL AND SELECTIVE
Surface water sampling occurs only three times per year, primarily during storm events. Growers can avoid corrective measures by proving their individual field meets standards-even if downstream creeks and sloughs remain polluted;
This is how an entire watershed can degrade while each operator claims compliance.
SO WHAT IS TODAY’S RANCHERIA MEETING REALLY ABOUT?
It’s not about transparency. It is not about protecting drinking water. It is not about pubic health. It is about appearing responsive while quietly admitting , in regulatory language, that contamination is expected and tolerated.
Calling this meeting “community outreach” is gaslighting. The documents already concede the truth;
Groundwater is vunerable
Contamination is anticipated
Oversight is largely industry-managed
Public Health agencies are sidelined.
The public deserves honesty, not reassurance theater. Until independent health agencies-NOT GROWERS- are placed at the center of groundwater protection, these meetings will remain exactly what they are:
A DOG AND PONY SHOW, PERFORMED WHILE THE AQUIFER ABSORBS CONSEQUENCES.
