CalTrans has its own drillers and saw no reason to pay itself (the state) for C-57 driller’s licenses requiring it to follow its own state requirements. “Admitting guilt” and paying millions of taxpayer dollars to the counties to protect their image was wrong in my opinion, and a waste of my dollars. Contract drillers (private sector) are required to have state C-57 licenses because they work under the unpredictable direction of whoever hires them. When the state hires and directs the work of contract drillers, like DWR on the Yolo Co project, those contract drillers obviously already have their C-57 licenses, but they are working under the direction of a state agency. And in the case of the Yolo Co project, the directing agency wrote the Water Code, so paying the county to enforce that law on its author makes no sense and wastes our money. So the Caltrans case and the DWR case are similar, but definitely different.

I suppose DWR could spend thousands of your tax dollars to enforce its own Water Code on itself if it would make you feel better. But if they did, it would set a precedent and require millions more of your tax dollars to pay for all the back permits that the counties would then demand solely because they want the money. Refer to the CalTrans case which recently cost you millions.

Just because thousands of taxpayer dollars are not being paid to Yolo County to enforce the Water Code on its author (DWR) doesn’t mean that the regulations therein are not being followed and groundwater isn’t being protected; they are, and it is.

Where are the Ragwus? …are they out there for the kids?