© Central Coast News

Irrigation has always been a thorny issue in Paso Robles.

A protest about tree removal turns out to have really been about the ongoing issue of water rights.

Paso Robles area residents are outraged by recent clearcutting of oak trees on the property of Justin Vineyards, with aerial photos of a denuded hill spurring 200 people to attend a protest meeting last week.

San Luis Obispo County officials issued Justin a stop-work order, not because of the missing trees per se, but because of potential grading violations.

The real issue, though, is not trees but water, and it's a familiar one for Justin's owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes last year at $4.3 billion. The winery filed plans with the county to build a 6.5-million gallon irrigation pond that would draw from the groundwater that the neighbors all share.

"It's one thing if they were just putting in a vineyard," Saxum owner/winemaker Justin Smith told Wine-Searcher. "We all share the same groundwater. When you build a reservoir you're stockpiling it. Half of it's going to evaporate. So you've got to pull out twice as much as you need for your vineyard. It's something nobody does around here. If you're stockpiling and you're planning on putting your neighbors out of business, that's scary."

Moreover, Smith says that the Justin Vineyards property doesn't actually need an irrigation pond.

"It's wedged between two vineyards that are completely dry farmed," Smith says. "You could dry farm there."

But cornering the market on water, both in California and in Fiji, and using a floor full of lawyers in their building to defend it, is what has made the Resnicks so wealthy.

The Resnicks, who bought Justin Winery in 2010, are the largest growers of almonds, pistachios and pomegranates in the US. They have been able to keep expanding during California's drought because of their water supply. They own Pom Wonderful, which was forced by the Federal Trade Commission to stop claiming that its juice cures erectile dysfunction and other maladies. The Supreme Court recently declined to hear their appeal. But Pom Wonderful is just a tool for selling more pomegranates.

Forbes estimated last year that every year, the Resnicks use as much of California's water as San Francisco residents use in a decade, spraying most of it on their thirsty almond and pistachio trees. These trees require a lot more water than grapevines; it takes a gallon of water to produce one nut. But the Resnicks can do what they want because of their foresight.

In 1994, the Resnicks financed construction of the Kern Water Bank, which takes in water during wet periods and sells it during drier ones. The Resnicks, who are major political donors, convinced California's Water Resources Department to give up state control of it. Their company Paramount owns 52 percent of the water bank. Environmental groups have sued, claiming, in a nutshell, that groundwater belongs to the state and its residents. They finally succeeded last year in getting a judge to order a new environmental impact report, but meanwhile the water bank continues to be highly profitable.

Then there's Fiji Water, owned by the Resnicks and exported around the world from a country where many residents don't have access to safe drinking water. In 2010, a new Fijian government announced that it would increase the tax on the product from a third of a cent per liter to 15 cents per liter. In response, the Resnicks closed the Fiji Water plant and fired all their workers. But they gave in when the government threatened to give the right to the aquifer they tap to someone else.

The clearcut at Justin was only noticed when Linne Calodo owner/winemaker Matt Trevisan, flying his small plane over the area, saw a bare hill that looked like it had been strip mined.

"When I look at this project and see the social and ecological ramifications, I become sick to my stomach," Trevisan told the Paso Robles Daily News. "There is more than an abundant amount of land that was deforested decades ago for the purpose of farming. For a heavily-capitalized company to ignore the open farm land and deforest in the name of needing additional farm land is just pathetic. The massive deforestation is mind-blowing and reminds me of something that a James Bond villain would do. Secondly, the sheer audacity to build a 20 acre foot pond (6.5 million gallons) within a community of tiny domestic wells is purely disrespectful and lacks consciousness."

Trevisan took a photo and compared it to the existing photo on Google Earth. He shared the photos with the local newspapers. Neighbors were outraged.

But there was likely no violation of the law. The emergency stop-work order will soothe angry neighbors. But Justin is not inside the city limits of Paso Robles, where a permit must be obtained to cut down even one oak tree. San Luis Obispo County has no such requirement. The incident might lead the county to create a new law, but Justin's trees are gone. The water, though, is still there for the taking. In the city of Paso Robles, water is in such short supply that there is a two-year moratorium on construction of new wells. But again, Justin's not in the city.

I asked Justin Vineyards for a comment on the situation and was given a statement from founder Justin Baldwin, which reads in part: "I'll admit I'm disappointed that none of the community organizers came to talk to me or anyone at the winery about their concerns and took this straight to the press without the benefit of facts or even a conversation. It is sad to see all the good work we've done and are doing — our dry farming practices, outstanding erosion control techniques, local economic impact, tourism, jobs creation, preserved land, community philanthropy, planting of 5000 new oak trees —being maligned. I think it's unfortunate to watch a few people disparage our work and create such discord over practices that growers in this area have applied for many years."