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Rohnert Park Responds to
O.W.L. SB 610 Suit
Download Rohnert Park's Response
here PDF 2.5M
Attorneys for the City of Rohnert
Park have responded to the O.W.L. Foundation's brief. You
can download and read it in its entirety by clicking on the
above link. The O.W.L. Foundation has until March 21st to
file a short rebuttal to this document. The court hearing
in this matter is April 4th. The Judge may, or may not, deliver
a ruling on that day. It is possible that he could delay
a ruling. We assume that we will have word whether or not
the Water Supply Assesement produced by the City of Rohnert
Park is deemed legally valid by the court, sometime near
to this date.
Conformed Opening Brief
Filed January 5, 2005.
Download the opening brief
here. PDF 2.5MB
After nearly a year of
tireless effort on the part of O.W.L. Foundation's attorneys,
volunteers and O.W.L.'s scientific team, the opening brief
in O.W.L. Foundation v. Rohnert Park was filed in
Sonoma County Superior Court today, January 5, 2005.
In this historic case, O.W.L.
is challenging the legal validity of Rohnert Park's Water
Supply Assessment (WSA), a document required by a new California
state law called SB
610.
The outcome of this case
is being watched statewide due to the potential impacts that
will result from its outcome. Will projects of 500 houses
or the equivalent really be required to prove the
existence of a 20-year supply of water, as SB 610 stipulates?
Or will project managers be allowed to rely on so-called "paper
water" instead? This case, the first of its kind in
California, will reveal whether or not SB 610 will protect
our water resources, or if development will be allowed to
return to the rapacious pace of the 1950s.
Read for yourself how Rohnert
Park's WSA is not only inadequate to satisfy SB 610,
but how the scientific structure with which it purports to
prove a 20-year supply of water is wholly incompetent.
Rohnert Park has until the end of February
2005 to respond. After the City's response, the O.W.L. Foundation,
as plaintiff, will have the last word.
H.R. Downs
President
O.W.L. Foundation
On Thursday, February 24th,
2004 the City Clerk of Rohnert Park was served with a summons
pursuant to the complaint filed by the O.W.L. Foundation.
You
can download and read the entire complaint here. (996K)
Please direct any questions
regarding this litigation to the O.W.L. Foundation's lead
attorney, Ed Casey at (213) 576-1005.
Thank you,
H.R. Downs
President
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