Drought Disrupts a Tight-Knit Town

Among the towering trees and soft mountain-top breezes of Idyllwild, a nasty battle over water is being waged.

In the tight-knit town of 2,500 residents--most of whom embrace mountain living because of the serenity it brings--threats have been made, cars vandalized and people scared.

A devastating drought--this is the driest year since 1883--has forced residents into the highest-level water alert, Stage Three. Watering lawns has been banned, laundry loads restricted and toilet flushes rationed.

The drought, however, has not affected the business of Paul Black, the owner of Idyllwild Mountain Spring Waterworks.

Every day, he loads tanker trucks with the sparkling liquid that flows from a well on his property and sells it to companies off the mountain. That has his neighbors furious.

“It’s a moral issue,” said Marsha Bronson, an 18-year Idyllwild resident. “We’re in a drought. That water should stay on the mountain.”

Bronson and her neighbors are part of a group organized to stop Black’s business. They argue that the systematic removal of water from his property lowers the overall water table in Idyllwild, decreasing already dangerously low levels.

The Fern Valley, Idyllwild and Pine Cove water companies have implemented strict water conservation guidelines. Overstepping them will cause water bills to skyrocket. So residents have taken to washing clothes at Laundromats down the mountain and to buying trash cans full of water for their gardens.

Local water companies argue that Black’s sales actually have very little impact on the area’s water levels.

“He’s not really stripping our water source, as far as we know,” said Suellen Bidwell, office manager for Fern Valley Water, which retained a hydrologist earlier this year to study the issue.

The area’s water comes strictly from annual rain and snowfall. In an average year, Idyllwild collects about 27 inches of rain, said Tom Lovejoy, general manager for the Idyllwild Water District. But for the past four years, the moisture level has plummeted, falling as low as 10 inches last year.

Black’s spring runs down the mountain and through his property because of simple gravity, Lovejoy said. In essence, he catches the water runoff not collected by any of the water district wells.

“Basically, he’s using water that would probably just run off the hill anyway,” Bidwell said.

But residents have a hard time accepting that explanation from their local water purveyors.

“People who live downstream from him have trees dying, trees at a local Boy Scout camp,” said middle school teacher Patty Carratello. “What more evidence do you need?”

Water resources have become so tight that local restaurants can serve water only when customers ask for it, and half-empty glasses are dumped into surrounding plants.

Business owners are also told not to wash down their walkways or storefronts. Neighbors are doing what they can to share water conservation tips--such as putting a bucket under the showerhead while the water warms and then using that to wash the car or water the lawn.

Black simply tells his water-envious neighbors that his operation is like any other water business and doesn’t understand why he should bear the burden of the drought problem.

“We’re no different than Arrowhead, who has a spring; or Sparkletts, who has a spring; or Culligan; or any of the others,” Black said.

But it appears unlikely that local residents will be appeased. They have organized a petition drive and spent time picketing near Black’s property.

Ill feelings came to a head a little more than a month ago at a turnout along California 243 where, according to residents, Black’s trucks load water using a hose running from his property.

A group of protesters decided to park their cars on the spot the night of June 30 to block the trucks from loading water the next day. The following morning, however, car owners say they discovered slashed tires, smashed windows and heavily scratched paint. Carratello said her 1986 pickup was so badly damaged that her insurance company declared it a total loss.

A report was filed, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone.

Two weeks ago, another picketer called the department after she said a water truck driver confronted her at the turnout. “He was a big burly guy,” said Margaret, who asked that her last name not be used because of safety concerns. “And he got in my face and said he’d sue me for obstructing his business.”

Margaret said she had never seen the man before.

“I didn’t even think he knew my name,” she said. “But he started listing my assets. ‘I’ll get your house, your Jeep, your Harley Davidson.’ He’s just some truck driver. How’d he know all of that? It really frightened me.”

Deputies took a report but did not arrest the driver because he made no physical threat.

Residents said Black and his drivers also typically photograph their protests and take pictures of their license plates.

“It’s to the point where people feel frightened for their safety,” said Jeff Smith, who leads the Mountain Resources Conservancy, a citizens group created to study the water exportation issue.

“We just didn’t know what to expect anymore,” Smith said. “I just want this part to go away. I don’t want this to escalate.”

County officials said there is little they can do to stop Black’s operation for now, even though some point out that he is running a business in what is considered a residential area.

Black declined to discuss that issue or most others involving his business.

He was denied a permit to operate a business from his home earlier this year, but his operation continues mainly because county officials can’t agree on the definition of a business.

Black has no customers that come in and out of his house, and that clouds the issue, said Ken Graff, legislative assistant for county Supervisor Jim Venable.

The lack of objection from local water companies has also given citizens less leverage in blocking Black’s water sales, Graff said.

“The water companies have no objection to it, but the residents turn to the county and say, ‘You are allowing him to take water off the hill. Why?’ ” Graff said.

Smith’s group has hired an attorney to study the zoning issue and other legal options.

“The saddest part of all this is the divisiveness in our little town now,” Margaret said. “That’s a shame.”