It is About Groundwater Extraction in the Dunnigan Hills.
A Letter About Water to the Owners of Cobram Estate.
June 19, 2025
Mr. Rob McGavin and Mr. Paul Riordan.
Cobram Estate, 151 Broderick Road, Lara, Victoria 3212 Australia
E: hello@cobramestate.com
Mates, I am writing this letter to share with you the negative impacts your olive plantations are having on our groundwater aquifers. Hundreds of wells have been drilled in the Dunnigan Hills and the Hungry Hollow, in Yolo County, California, to supply irrigation water to your olive plantations.
Historically, these lands had been spared from intensive agricultural production, to grow winter grains and animal feed to pasture cows and sheep. The land has been plowed to install groundwater pumping infrastructures to irrigate nuts, olives, and vineyards.
The groundwater aquifers have lowered their water tables, affecting residents and small farmers. Several years ago, the City of Zamora, and rural residents lost access to their shallow water tables and had to lower their pumps or drill new wells, at a significant cost and stress to the communities.
No one knows how much water is being pumped from the aquifers, because your company and other corporate farms chose not to take part in a voluntary demand-side data gathering process, to support the County’s Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Cobram Estates recently bought a 1,700-acre parcel to expand the olive growing footprint in these lands, increasing their demand for groundwater reserves.
The company has an opportunity to invest in the restoration of the Hungry Hollow watershed, to capture and keep more rainwater to recharge these aquifers. Several hundred acres in this parcel include the southern edge of the Vaca Mountains, where there is an urgent need to restore the environment and repair head cuts and v shaped channels that continue to cause soil erosion and degradation.
The regeneration of the watershed would increase the volume of rainwater that could be held longer, increasing deep percolation and recharging the acquifer. Recharging wells can also be installed to maximize the options to return water back to this bank account.
In my frustration, after watching the company representatives ignore the community, I started a Change.org petition to boycott large olive oil plantations that depend one hundred percent on groundwater for irrigation. We are approaching regional food-coops and consumers to inform them of the impact their olive oil is having on groundwater aquifers in Yolo County.
We hope this letter reaches you and that you will want to visit with us via zoom, to establish personal contact and further share our vision of restoring these lands and its waters.
Gracias, Ricardo Amon Letters About Water | Ricardo Amon | Substack