Taking a rare stand on a political issue, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust has opposed a drought-resilience plan that could flood large swaths of protected farmland.
Two alternatives that the county’s municipal water provider is mulling for expanding its storage capacity could inundate thousands of acres protected by easements that require keeping them in agricultural production in perpetuity.
One option under consideration by Marin Water calls for nearly tripling the size of the Soulajule Reservoir in Chileno Valley, and the other for building a second reservoir in Nicasio.
“MALT does not support either of these proposed options as they would put more than 5,200 acres of MALT-protected farms and ranches at risk of being taken out of agricultural use forever,” the trust said in a statement posted on its website. “Once land is taken out of agriculture, it rarely returns to that purpose and we permanently lose local sources of food and fiber.”
A third option calls for expanding Kent Lake, where the district owns the surrounding property and no private lands would be impacted. But a preliminary engineering study commissioned by the district found that expanding that reservoir would cost a whopping $600 million.
The study found that a Soulajule expansion was the least expensive option, with a cost of about $300 million.
But Hicks Valley neighbors say the engineers vastly underestimated that number by excluding several factors—including the cost of acquiring their land, building a new pipeline and electrifying a pump station.
They have been closely monitoring the water board’s deliberations, anxiously waiting to see if it pursues an option that would inundate their land.
“MALT’s support means so much to us,” said Maria Ghisletta, whose family has farmed a Hicks Valley ranch for generations. “As easement recipients, we’re partners with MALT in perpetuity. Their support in these discussions shows that our partnership is strong not only to us as landowners but to local organizations and communities.”
In its statement, MALT emphasized that the conservation easements it purchased on the ranches were funded not just by private donations but also by local, state and federal grants intended to protect working and natural lands.
“While MALT strongly supports M.M.W.D.’s efforts to bolster Marin County’s water supply, we urge the district to do so in a way that does not put Marin County’s irreplaceable agricultural resources at risk,” the trust wrote.
During the last drought, MALT committed nearly $1 million to support 70 water infrastructure projects aimed at building long-term resilience on farms and ranches.
“This initiative demonstrated that we can both protect agriculture and build water security through strategic investments,” the statement reads.
MALT has remained out of the fray during the years-long debate over ranching in the Point Reyes National Seashore, but its leaders felt it was important to speak out about the water district’s plans.
“Both the Soulajule and Nicasio options would remove critical and active agriculture lands from production,” Lily Verdone, MALT’s executive director, told the Light. “We’ve invested public funding into these easements, and that for us is a big deal. The public has already made the decision to support this area as a priority area for agriculture.”
Marin Water began formulating a water resiliency plan in the aftermath of back-to-back drought years in 2020 and 2021. Supplies ran so low at the time that officials feared that even strict conservation measures might not prevent the district from running out of water.
The district’s seven reservoirs hold about 80,000 acre-feet of water—roughly a two-year supply. Its resiliency roadmap aims to provide enough water to make it through a four-year drought, increasing supply by 25 percent by 2035.