In a Push to Connect Rural California, Broadband Drilling Fouled Southern Humboldt’s Waterways
On the evening of June 2, a Southern Humboldt resident looked at Redwood Creek from the Seely Creek Road crossing and knew something was wrong. The water was white — not muddy the way it gets after rain, but opaque, for miles.
The resident called the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Within an hour, two water board engineers were driving Briceland Road west of Redway, stopping at bridges and turnouts, watching the plume move downstream through the canyon. Wide-spread cloudy water, clay particles in suspension. They followed it upstream until they found where it was coming from: a ditch draining from a private property on Briceland Road, running into an unnamed tributary, pouring into Redwood Creek.
By Wednesday evening, June 4, the plume had reached the South Fork Eel River.
What happened next revealed something bigger than a single spill on a rural creek. The white water running through Southern Humboldt was connected to one of the largest infrastructure investments California has ever made — a $3.25 billion effort to bring high-speed internet to communities that have gone without it for years. And at the end of a long chain of contractors and subcontractors, someone had apparently been dumping thousands of gallons of drilling waste on private land, with apparently not enough planning for where it would go.
Large spools of fiber conduit sit staged at the Direct Drilling yard near Garberville, waiting to be threaded through bores drilled beneath Highway 101 as part of California’s Broadband for All middle-mile project. The conduit is pulled through underground tunnels created by horizontal directional drilling. [Photo by Lisa Music]
What Broadband for All Is
In 2021, California passed Senate Bill 156, committing $3.25 billion to build a middle-mile fiber optic network stretching 10,000 miles across the state. The idea was to lay the backbone, the underground cables that carry internet traffic long distances, so that local providers could eventually connect homes and businesses in communities that have been cut off from reliable broadband for decades. Southern Humboldt is one of those places.
The California Department of Technology runs the program, with GoldenStateNet, a nonprofit, serving as its third-party administrator. To build faster and cheaper, the state partnered with private companies. One of those partners is Arcadian Infracom, a fiber infrastructure company based in St. Louis, Missouri. Arcadian holds contracts for more than 1,250 route miles of new fiber in California, including a route running from the Bay Area to Eureka along Highway 101 — the Redwood Route.
That route runs straight through Southern Humboldt.
To build it, Arcadian brought in North Sky Communications, which hired Direct Drilling, a horizontal directional drilling company based in Oregon, to bore the underground tunnels that the fiber conduit runs through.
How Drilling Works…and What It Leaves Behind
A Ditch Witch AT40 horizontal directional drill, the type used by Direct Drilling on the Garberville segment of the Broadband for All project. The machine’s mud pump moves up to 70 gallons of drilling fluid per minute, capable of generating tens of thousands of gallons of return slurry on a full day of drilling. [Photo by Lisa Music]
The catch is the fluid.
To drill underground, crews pump a mixture of water and bentonite clay — a fine, powdery mineral — through the drill to lubricate the bit and carry rock cuttings back to the surface. That return mixture, called drilling mud or slurry, comes back out laden with whatever was underground: soil, sand, rock fragments, and the bentonite itself. On an active job, a crew can generate thousands of gallons of it every day.
That slurry has to go somewhere.
A slurry tank trailer at the Direct Drilling staging area near Garberville. Tanks like this are used to haul return drilling fluid from the job site. [Photo by Lisa Music]
That is 8,000 gallons of drilling slurry every day they worked.
Where It Went
According to the water board, a property owner on Briceland Road made an arrangement with the drilling company to accept the slurry on his land. CDFW confirmed that during the first week of drilling, the week of May 25, Direct Drilling was hauling all of it there.
First pool downstream of culvert in tributary watercourse. Photo by Adona White on June 4, 2026. [Photo provided by NCRWQCB]
At some point, the water board believes around June 1, Direct Drilling switched to a second site: an excavated pit at the Meadows Business Park on Evergreen Road in Redway. CDFW Game Warden Shane Embry visited that site and photographed it. The pit was full of gray slurry. Tru-Bore sacks were stacked nearby.
Neither site had a permit.
“We do not have anyone on record as having a permit for the disposal of drill-related waste,” Adona White, supervising water resource control engineer for the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, said. The agency’s jurisdiction covers the Russian River north to the Oregon border, the entire North Coast region.
Where a contractor would legally take it is an open question — one not addressed anywhere in the publicly available documents for this project. The nearest facility believed to accept the material appears to be well outside the North Coast, adding significantly to the cost of legal disposal.
Exempt on Paper, But With Conditions
The Arcadian project received a CEQA Notice of Exemption from Caltrans District 1 on April 8, 2026 — eight weeks before the Redwood Creek discharge. The exemption, signed by Caltrans Senior Environmental Scientist Cassie Nichols, invoked Section 21080.51 of the Public Resources Code, a statutory exemption created by SB 156 for linear broadband projects in public rights-of-way. The document stated the project “would not cause a significant impact to the environment.”
Under that law, a broadband project can skip environmental review entirely — no impact study, no public comment period — if it meets four conditions: the work stays within 30 feet of a public road; the ground is restored to its original condition after installation; the project includes monitors during construction and measures to protect biological resources; and the contractor agrees to comply with state and federal environmental law, including the California Endangered Species Act.
The Arcadian project qualified on all four counts, at least on paper. That is how the exemption works…it is granted based on commitments made before a shovel hits the ground.
Two of those commitments are now directly relevant. The law required measures to protect biological resources during construction. It required compliance with the California Endangered Species Act, which covers coho salmon and steelhead, both present in Redwood Creek and the South Fork Eel River. Those protections were the basis for bypassing environmental review. What investigators are now examining is whether the drilling waste disposal practices that followed were consistent with those commitments.
A review of the project’s stormwater compliance documents filed with the state’s SMARTS permitting portal found no plan addressing how drilling slurry would be managed or disposed of during construction. Horizontal directional drilling is a water-intensive process — it cannot be done without generating liquid waste.
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- A Ditch Witch HX30 vacuum excavator at the Direct Drilling job site near Garberville. In horizontal directional drilling operations, a vacuum unit like this suctions return slurry — the mixture of bentonite drilling fluid and whatever the drill bit cuts through underground — back to the surface, where it collects in the tank. That material then has to be hauled to a permitted disposal facility.
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- Tanks on a truck in the Direct Drilling equipment yard can be used to haul slurry away from the job site.
Caltrans’ own encroachment permit guidelines, updated in July 2025, are explicit: any broadband project installing linear underground conduit, which is exactly what this project is, requires a Construction General Permit regardless of how much soil is disturbed. That permit requires a site-specific plan spelling out how stormwater and waste will be managed, prepared by a qualified developer before construction begins. The guidelines state that construction cannot begin before that permit coverage is in place.
Whether the project was in full compliance with Caltrans’ own permit requirements at the time drilling began is a question the documents raise but do not answer. Caltrans has been made aware of the incident and is investigating. Redheaded Blackbelt submitted a public records request to Caltrans for construction plan documents prior to publication. Those records had not been provided at the time this story was published.
What It Does to a Creek
Ditch with clay material deposits and connection to receiving waters. [Photo provided by NCRWQCB]
Bentonite is not toxic in the way a chemical spill is, and the water board said it is not aware of any threats to drinking water from the discharge. But non-toxic does not mean harmless…and what else the slurry may contain is still an open question. As a drill bores through soil and rock, the return fluid picks up whatever is underground. What minerals, metals, or other materials the geology along this stretch of Highway 101 may have contributed to the mix has not yet been determined. The water board said testing to further characterize the material is underway.
What bentonite alone does to a living creek is well documented. When suspended clay enters cold, clear water in fine particles, it clouds the water column. Fish cannot see to feed. Their gills work harder. The milky-white appearance, distinct from ordinary muddy runoff, is what caught the attention of the first resident who called it in, and what allowed water board engineers to trace the plume upstream to its source.
When the clay settles, it fills the spaces between gravel and rocks where aquatic insects live and where salmon and steelhead lay their eggs, coating the streambed in a layer of paste. Fisheries biologist Patrick Higgins of the Eel River Recovery Project told KMUD News the discharge is not consistent with the water board’s Basin Plan, which protects cold water habitat and fish.
Redwood Creek and the South Fork of the Eel River are among the most closely watched and carefully tended salmon and steelhead streams on California’s North Coast, and the public has spent years and significant money working to restore salmon and steelhead runs that have dropped sharply from their historic numbers.
Since 2012, the Salmonid Restoration Federation has been engaged in community outreach and low-flow monitoring in Redwood Creek, which has historically provided important rearing habitat for threatened coho salmon. With funding from the Wildlife Conservation Board and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, SRF and Stillwater Sciences built a flow augmentation project on the Marshall Ranch that began releasing water into Redwood Creek in 2023 — 10 million gallons of stored water dedicated to keeping the creek cool and flowing for salmon during the critical dry season.
Humboldt County committed $1.1 million in a legal settlement with Friends of the Eel River specifically to fund culvert replacements and road repairs in the Redwood Creek and Sprowel Creek watersheds, with conservationists citing declining coho populations as the driving concern. The Northcoast Regional Land Trust received $1.5 million to acquire a conservation easement over 895 acres encompassing most of the headwaters of the Redwood Creek watershed, which drains directly to the South Fork of the Eel River and contains critical habitat for threatened steelhead, coho, and Chinook salmon.
NOAA Fisheries has identified the South Fork of the Eel River as a priority watershed, with a dedicated action plan targeting recovery of coho salmon, steelhead, and Chinook salmon. The South Fork Eel already carries a state and federal impairment listing for sediment, meaning it was already considered too dirty with fine particles under water quality law before a drop of bentonite slurry entered the watershed.
June is an active period for juvenile fish in the system. The damage to the insects and streambed organisms that fish depend on for food can persist until winter flows are strong enough to flush the gravel clean.
Who Was Watching — and Who Was Responsible
The discharge was reported June 2. The water board and CDFW were investigating by that evening. But the question of who in the project’s chain of command knew what was happening — and when — goes well beyond which county agency got a phone call.
Recall what the CEQA exemption required: monitors during construction and measures to protect biological resources. Those were the conditions under which the project was allowed to skip environmental review. Whether anyone was actually monitoring the drilling operation, the slurry it generated, or where that slurry was going is a question none of the companies involved have answered.
When Redheaded Blackbelt reached a North Sky Communications representative, she said she had learned of the incident moments before the call and could not speak to it. A follow-up email to North Sky has not been answered. Arcadian Infracom did not respond to an email seeking comment. Direct Drilling’s Oregon office did not respond to phone call requests for comment.
A yard in the Evergreen Business Park is the staging area for Direct Drilling equipment and now the site, CDFW says, for slurry dumping. [Photo by Lisa Music]
What is known is that the arrangement to dump slurry on private land did not appear to be limited to the Briceland Road property. A source told Redheaded Blackbelt that they were approached by representatives of the drilling operation and asked to accept four to five loads of slurry per day on their Redway-area property — each load roughly 1,600 gallons. They turned it down. The source said they were told the company had all the necessary permits to dispose of the material that way. The water board confirmed no such permits exist anywhere in the North Coast region.
How an out-of-state drilling company found at least one (but maybe more) rural Southern Humboldt landowner willing to accept drilling waste, and what they were told about the legality of the arrangement, is part of what investigators are trying to determine. According to White, Embry interviewed Direct Drilling workers near Garberville on June 4. Embry reported workers told him the company was doing ten loads a day of 800-gallon tanks during the week of May 25, all of it going to the Briceland Road property. Around June 1 they switched to an excavated pit at the Meadows Business Park on Evergreen Road in Redway.
Whether this was a decision made by a crew on the ground, or whether someone higher in the contractor chain knew slurry was being disposed of on private land without permits, has not been established.
The June 4 site visit at the Briceland Road property was attended by water board and CDFW personnel along with the property owner and his attorney, who limited what investigators could access. The site had already been modified before they arrived.
Water board engineer White directed the property owner to hire a qualified professional to conduct an impacts assessment and develop a cleanup and mitigation plan. Any work in or near the stream requires preauthorization from the water board and CDFW. Cleanup efforts began the same day to remove settled sludge from the margins of the tributary watercourse.
Who bears financial responsibility for that cleanup — the property owner, Direct Drilling, North Sky, Arcadian, or some combination — has not been determined. The water board’s enforcement investigation is ongoing.
The water board said it believes there may be additional disposal sites beyond the two already identified.
Though Humboldt County Department of Environmental Health was notified of the initial spill report, the County Director of Planning and Building, John Ford, was not notified until midday Monday, June 8 — six days after the discharge was first reported. In an interview with Redheaded Blackbelt, Ford said the county “is currently discussing the situation with the contractor.” The county is investigating what violations may have occurred under its own codes.
A Bigger Question
Arcadian Infracom holds contracts on multiple legs of the Broadband for All buildout, covering more than 1,250 route miles across California, from Southern California to the Oregon border. The company’s California work is expected to continue through December 2026.
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- Direct Drilling workers on northbound Hwy 101 just north of Sprowel Creek Road in Garberville on 6/9 [Photo by Lisa Music]
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- Direct Drilling workers along northbound Hwy 101 just south of Sprowel Creek Road in Garberville on 6/9. [Photo by Lisa Music]
On this single segment near Garberville, Direct Drilling was generating a reported 8,000 gallons of drilling slurry every day it worked. Over a single week, that is 32,000 gallons — from roughly one to one and a half miles of drilling. The Arcadian Redwood Route alone runs from the Bay Area to Eureka. Arcadian’s California contracts span hundreds of additional miles beyond that, through terrain that includes rivers, creeks, and watersheds up and down the state.
The math is not complicated. Horizontal directional drilling produces slurry everywhere it operates. Every mile of fiber conduit bored underground on this project, and every other project like it, generates waste that has to go somewhere. On this segment, investigators say it went to private land without permits. Whether that practice is isolated to this crew, this segment, or this company is not known.
What Happens Now
The water board says the Briceland Road property is no longer discharging into the creek, but settled material already in the streambed may continue to cause cloudiness as it moves through the system. With additional disposal sites believed to exist, whether other sources remain active is part of the ongoing investigation by the water board, CDFW, and Humboldt County.
Redheaded Blackbelt will update this story as the investigation continues.
Earlier:
- [Update] Unknown Substance Turns Redwood Creek White, Reaches South Fork Eel River
- Drilling Slurry Believed Source of White Plume in Redwood Creek; Agencies Investigating
Update:
Lisa Music is a reporter for Redheaded Blackbelt, which covers Humboldt County and the North Coast at kymkemp.com.
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But it’s their private property, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with it. (Note sarcasm)
Isn’t that the argument people were claiming when the Redwood trees were being cut down in lower Redway?
Well not really. A cut down redwood tree has rarely been known to flow onto miles of other people’s property so the not an equivalent argument.
Actually, it is equivalent, when it’s disrupted root system has a cause and effect throughout the grove it’s connected to. So technically your counter argument is not an equivalent argument! ✌️
If that was truly material to property rights, no redwood could be cut down any time another redwood within 60 or 100 feet of any other redwood. Sad for that specious but convenient theory latched on to by people wanting to tell other people what to do, no one is liable that roots on their property may no longer contribute to supporting against the wind damaging trees on another person’s property. The wind is not a responsibility of the property owner. Only at most for fatally damaging the roots someone else’s tree. And that only sometimes.
You know, the Redway Community Services District (RCSD) is planning on doing some horizontal directional drilling for its wastewater treatment plant improvement project, installing new larger Influent & effluent pipelines from its sewer treatment plant, over Leggett Creek, to the Eel River Con Camp and percolation ponds along side the South Fork Eel River. There is nothing in their environment documents (CEQA) that states where they will dispose of that drilling slurry. In fact, I made comments to RCSD in regards to this project and its CEQA.
https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2022120174/3
https://files.ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/283720-1/attachment/C-LKUafz9pRmb2J3OMbrje-gb1vVVqpknLiaOc_QTxKdPjc410dwmg9O2Mm88tuyqETIjqNFMLQ3ZrTv0
Sure hope RCSD is just not dumping this drilling slurry waste haphazardly, with no permits?
As far as this Redwood Creek/South Fork Eel River slurry waste fiasco is concerned, I’m sure the powers to be will get to the bottom of it all and everyone involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, I would not hold my breath. It will be interesting if they ever disclose who this private property owner was. I’m sure they will be on the hook for everything…
Glad it all make sense to you now ED.
Doesn’t much matter since so much water was sucked out of the watershed by pot growers since the late sixties and polluted with fertilizer and poison that the fish runs in Redwood Creek are all but extinct. And then there are the squawfish ,illegally introduced, that eat most of the surviving juveniles.That being said, this is very common with contractors many of who flagrantly disregard requirements since there is so little oversight outside of the paperwork.
That theory has been completely debunked by recent studies, but thanks
This is an detailed and informative article. Thank you.
On an aside it seems TRG’s speculation about bentonite was spot on.
NorCal Rural broadband has happened at a snail’s pace. Even Mexico and most western hemisphere 3rd world countries had finished the same projects nearly 10 years ago to most small villages and pueblos.
Really? Do you have any links to those facts? Of course Mexico probably doesn’t have EPIC suing over every detail but even so this allegation seems unlikely. But I’d like to know if that’s right.
Go there and drive around like I do. Drive around rural Mexico, and the border with Guatemala, there are indicators of high speed Internet everywhere. People who use smart phones, credit card readers, satellite phones, it’s better high speed Internet than the north coast has. Buried cable Indicator sign posts along rural highways that go to every small village and beyond. The countries are very well wired.
Real data and reports say that a lot of Mexico outside of the largest metros is still using DSL and even ASDL. 5G cellular is barely 4 years old in much of the country. Only 66% of rural areas have internet whatsoever.
https://ts2.tech/en/state-of-internet-access-in-mexico-the-digital-divide-ground-and-sky/
Mexico City did set a world record for public free wi-fi with 21,000 hotspots through the city, which is nice, but the podunk towns are still struggling just getting 4G or even cell coverage. So yeah, fast in the cities, and there is no “most small villages and pueblos” getting a cell signal, let alone FTTH.
More stats https://www.speedgeo.net/statistics/mexico
Average national digital broadband is just 80mbps. I get 10x that here in central Humboldt and 5x that in the middle of nowhere with satellite.
One of the favorite oldtimers tricks to play on new geologists hired to watch the mud pit on drilling jobs is to dump a gallon or two of vinegar in the pit. The mud loses all viscosity and runs like water. Perhaps vinegar or similar plant acids may help in mobilizing bentonite for removal. Those Gel names on various products rarely indicate dangerous compounds, instead they refer to the hydrogel of the bentonite ash mixed with water.
Don’t they also use polymers, or can, to help stabilize the tunnel as well as the clay? I woyld think ghat would be a bit harmful unless biodegradeable.
I guess this project was way too far along and too many people were making way too much money for them to realize that anyone can get fast reliable internet out of the sky without harmful, disruptive drilling activities.
Satellite internet and fiber internet use different technologies and have different capabilities. Fiber generally provides higher capacity, lower latency, and more consistent speeds, particularly when serving large numbers of users. Fiber infrastructure is also commonly used to connect schools, hospitals, businesses, cellular towers, and emergency services. Satellite systems can provide broadband service in areas where fiber is not available and have significantly improved internet access in many rural communities. Whether a particular fiber project is justified despite its costs or impacts is a separate policy question.
I use both in different areas. Satellite gives you superspeeds but limited on how many things can connect to it and transmit large amounts of data. that is, you can easily handle the needs of a household or two, but you’ll need the capacity of fiber if you’re running a corporate intranet or remote operations with thousands of users sending and receiving. Satellite will completely choke out and you’ll need multiple terminals, each costing you some coin.
But an advantage of rural satellite is that you can create mesh networks and with a couple range extenders and things you can cover some territory and distance. Example: With a couple of these extenders you can conceivably get 1000′ or more from your terminal, so long as you have power at both ends. As it is, I have a game cam that reaches ~600′ through another’s Starlink and extenders, one high up in a tree to get around obstacles and give better straight line signal. I could do this with FTTH but obviously I’d first need a line over the hills and through the woods, or about 25 miles to the closest node that I’m aware of.
Internet out of the sky will be reliable until China or someone else shoots down the satellites; then we’ll wish we had redundant communications underground.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
Fiber optic infrastructure is so vulnerable around here that Humboldt County could basically get shut down if just one pole gets downed….
It could be easily and quickly done by a knowledgeable sabateur with nothing more than an axe…
Let’s not kid ourselves…
Great article. Thanks to Lisa Music and Kym Kemp. Pretty sad news all around. We humans always want more and the environment suffers. We’ve had a lot of linear drilling in Arcata for Vero. I wonder what they are doing with their sludge? Curious where the nearest facility that accepts the sludge is located.
Here’s an interesting statement, regarding this issue, generated by AI:
“Yes, Satellite broadband delivers internet anywhere in the world using orbiting satellites instead of underground cables. It is ideal for rural or hard-to-reach areas”.
Duplicating my response here: Satellite internet and fiber internet use different technologies and have different capabilities. Fiber generally provides higher capacity, lower latency, and more consistent speeds, particularly when serving large numbers of users. Fiber infrastructure is also commonly used to connect schools, hospitals, businesses, cellular towers, and emergency services. Satellite systems can provide broadband service in areas where fiber is not available and have significantly improved internet access in many rural communities. Whether a particular fiber project is justified despite its costs or impacts is a separate policy question.
I’m leaning toward a less environmentally destructive option. Like when will we give Mother Nature a chance!
yeah because building and launching satellites is so friendly to mother earth , not to mention the low life span of leo sats
Excellent article and investigation. Not enrolling in the Construction General Permit when they should have shows whatever engineer signed off on this (and the engineers that work for them) didn’t know the rules or ignored the rules. The SWPPP might not have the details about where the slurry will be disposed of, but it will at least commit to having it disposed of properly. That would probable be Arcadians responsibility to handle. To me they seem most at fault here for not complying with the CGP, not having a SWPPP, not having permits to dispose of the slurry, and then not overseeing their subcontractor properly. Hopefully the responsible parties get some big fines.
So it makes you wonder, if this was happening in one remote area like Garberville, and they needed to find an out of the way illegal dump site for this drilling slurry waste, where else leading up to Garberville was this company doing this?
And, if they excavated an open pit at the Meadows Business Park to store this drilling slurry waste, without permits, who is that property owner and who will mitigate that site so none of that slurry waste will be allowed to enter into stormwater drains that lead to and end up in the South Fork Eel River above Redway?
Thank you for your reporting on this. I hope you will see it through to the end and report on all the aspects of this crime…
So…Who is the property owner?
“What Broadband for All Is”
-Redheaded Blackbelt-
______________________________________
Q: “Whose brainchild is Broadband for All?”
A: “California’s “Broadband for All” initiative is the brainchild of Governor Gavin Newsom”
______________________________________
Gosh, I wonder why the fact that Gavin Newsom is the one that is ultimately responsible for initiating and overseeing “Broadband for All” is being so “graciously” left totally unmentioned, as a matter of fact…???
Professional courtesy…???
Liberal alliance…???
What’s being left completely unmentioned is sticking out like a sore thumb…
I wonder if Lisa Music and/or Redheaded Blackbelt had/have considered personally requesting an interview with Governor Gavin Newsom himself in regards to this wastewater dumping into our sacred aquatic and fragile fisheries ecosystem’s environment, because after all, Gavin Newsom is the mastermind behind “Broadband for All”, and is also the representative of “Broadband for All’s” ultimate oversight and is supposed to be the steadfast guardian and protector of the entire State of California…
So, as we are about to be faced with selecting a Governor between another Democrat, and a Conservative breath of fresh air, let’s ask and hear what Gavin Newsom has to say about this ONGOING environmental disaster of his making, and what he plans to do about alleviating it, mitigating it’s consequences, and preventing a recurrence, instead of conveniently leaving Gavin Newsom’s name totally unmentioned, and pretending he isn’t ultimately responsible for it, and/or, didn’t even have anything to do with it, at all, and hope that no one even notices…
Was Gavin Newsom’s office called, texted, emailed, and/or, contacted, by RHBB, in any way, shape, or form…???
If not, why not…???
Maybe some kind of official correspondence concerning the matter, sent by certified mail would be in order…???
It sure seems remiss to specifically and spectacularly just leave Governor Gavin Newsom’s name completely out of any real conversation and/or real reporting concerning any environmental disasters directly or indirectly caused by his brainchild “Broadband for All”…
Looks like we will all be paying for “Broadband for All “in multiple ways, past, present, and future…
We already got charged for it, so that we can continue to be charged more for it, down the road…
That’s the Liberal Democrat government strategy and mentality…
“Financially squeeze you dry.”..
Make you pay for what you will have to keep having to pay for…
Broadband, bullet train, wind farm energy, mandated EV’s, battery powered electric fucking lawnmowers…
Elections have consequences…
Nice of RHBB not to properly identify Governor Gavin Newsom as “Broadband for All’s” founder…
RHBB not mentioning Governor Gavin Newsom’s name, at all, in this entire, in depth article, is actually quite remarkable…
They did him a “solid”, there…
Reputational courtesy…???
You’d think Gavin Newsom was their child/brainchild that they’re trying to protect…
You can bet money that if Trump was responsible for “Broadband for All”, and it’s “dirty” corner cutting environmental consequences, instead of their preferred precious Liberal Gavin Newsom being ultimately responsible for this disaster, RHBB would damn sure be thoroughly dragging Trump’s name through the bentonite mud…
Let’s not kid ourselves…
How about doing an exposé on just exactly how Gavin Newsom responds (or doesn’t respond), to this, by actually contacting Governor Gavin Newsom, and/or his office, and/or at least making a reasonable, token attempt to contact Newsom, who is ultimately responsible for this mess, and who also will be ultimately responsible for making sure that it gets properly investigated and cleaned up, and is also responsible for making sure it’s doesn’t EVER happen again…!!!
Now THAT would be interesting…
“The math is not complicated.”
Liberal Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is ultimately and totally responsible for “Broadband for All”, and for any and all of it’s ugly consequences..
Let’s hear what HE has to say about it..
Especially if it’s nothing.
This was an exceptionally well written article and you accuse them of this.
Enough is enough, this ongoing feud you have with RHBB has gone to far and this was totally uncalled for. Now you are accusing them of bad journalism? Of playing favorites?
Just one more apology you owe them. I must say I applaud the patience they have been showing you, but I am sure they have limits.
As much time as you spend here you would think you could show a little more appreciation for all that they do,and quit acting so childish.
”…quit acting so childish.”
-Kris-
___________________________________
Oh, grow up, FFS…!!!
That’s funny…
You don’t mention Governor Gavin Newsom being the mastermind of “Broadband for All”, either, not even in passing…
Telling, very telling…!!!
Is that slanted…???
To me, it sure is…
Sometimes what one doesn’t say, speaks a whole lot louder than what one does say…
Your comment is another perfect example of that…
Is it wrong of me to opine that a statement might have been very relevantly and informatively requested from Liberal Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, because he is actually the mastermind of “Broadband for All”, as a matter of fact…???
Is it wrong of me to opine why it may not have been even momentarily considered, considering how pertinent it would have been…???
Is that unusual…???
Serious question, please answer honestly…
Would that have also been the case if President Donald Trump was the Mastermind behind “Broadband for All”…
Would Trump’s name have been likewise unmentioned, because I seriously doubt it…???
Serious question, please answer honestly…
If the “Broadband for All” buck stops with Gavin Newsom, then shouldn’t that be precisely where the injury should begin, and be primarily and intentionally focused…???
Serious question, please answer honestly…
Are you not also genuinely curious and interested in what Gavin Newsom has to say about this, because I damn sure am…
It seems to me that would have been the very first door to have been knocked on in any serious quest for any relevantly serious answers…
Maybe that’s just me…
Serious question, please answer honestly…
Do you really think that an inquiry directed to the very initiator of “Broadband for All”, Governor Gavin Newsom, and/or at least directed to his office would have somehow been irrelevant and inappropriate...???
To me, it’s glaringly absent…
To me, that’s where the digging should have begun…
And it sure seems like if you weren’t badmouthing me, you sure wouldn’t have anywhere near as much to say…
So, maybe try practicing what you’re preaching, mmkay…???
*
Except what you were doing was accusing them of bad faith journalism and omitting Newsome for political reasons. You could have made your point and left RHBB out of the equation.
At least be honest and own up to it.
Kris…
What is the definition of “an unmuzzled muzzler”…???
Why do you keep trying to so vociferously silence me…???
It’s not the first time…
Playing favorites…???
Currying favoritism…??
In your own words.
“Give it a rest.”
___________________________
Question:
“Is any story that includes environmental damage from Broadband for All incomplete without mention of Gavin Newsom”
Answer:
“Yes, a story on this topic is incomplete without mentioning Gavin Newsom because he spearheaded the legislative and regulatory framework that directly enabled the environmental damage.
He signed the 2021 Broadband Implementation for California legislation (Senate Bill 156) and later pushed for controversial rollbacks to the state’s environmental review laws to fast-track infrastructure projects.
The specific environmental exemptions championed by his administration have been cited by local environmental advocates and news outlets.
Newsom’s infrastructure fast-tracking measures allowed broadband drilling to skip standard environmental impact studies as long as contractors adhered to certain conditions (such as staying within 30 feet of a public road and restoring the ground).
However, investigative reports have highlighted instances where this expedited installation resulted in drilling fluids fouling local waterways, as seen in areas like Southern Humboldt County.
➡️ Omitting his role ignores how the state’s “Build More, Faster” push altered environmental oversight, leading directly to the specific harms experienced by local ecosystems. ⬅️ ”
_____________________________________
They could have made their point without electing to exclude Newsom from his direct association to his signature initiative, which they do elect to mention, and it’s subsequent discussion in order to effectively exonerate him from any and all responsibility…
What he would have had to say about this, if he would have been interviewed, would have been extremely relevant and informative, especially considering the upcoming Gubernatorial election…
Please, nobody is trying to silence you. But a least be honest about the motives behind what you post.
Why don’t you first be honest about and own up to your motives behind what you post…???
You aren’t expressing your own opinions, as much as you are just power tripping, by trying to control how other people are expressing theirs…
Wow, now that’s rich coming from you. In other words, your rhetorical response is to reply back like a nine year old? I think you are better than using Pee Wee Herman comeback lines…
Please apply your second sentence to yourself as well.
But it is bad faith journalism.
Correction…
This …
“If the “Broadband for All” buck stops with Gavin Newsom, then shouldn’t that be precisely where the injury should begin, and be primarily and intentionally focused…???”
…CONTAINS A NASTY SPELL CHECK ERROR…
It was actually intended to say this…
“If the “Broadband for All” buck stops with Gavin Newsom, then shouldn’t that be precisely where the INQUIRY should begin, and be primarily and intentionally focused…???”
I regret not catching that terrible sounding typographical spell check error sooner …
MY APOLOGIES…
It isn’t an accusation. It is a fact.
You call this article well written huh.
Wow.
If Newsom is involved, we are getting screwed over. The job went to the lowest bid. Its probably $10,000,000 over budget, and it will take ten more years to complete the job. And by them will be redundant. Nice job libs.
Something tells me that the land owner will get stiffed by the drilling contractor that dumped the waste on his land, for any and all promised payment…
Minus 9 in just 3 hours. Your foul bullshit is setting records today.
Nobody likes the truth…
The rest of the down voting other commenters, not so much…
I’m certainly not trying to win a popularity contest…
I’d rather have fish without Broadband, as opposed to the other way around…
The deserves to be reported to Gavin Newsom, an we deserve to hear his response…
Wait… you’re blaming Newsom for what appears to be these contractors’ fault? Whatever.
How would gavin newsom be responsible for any environmental disasters caused by the implementation of his signature Broadband for All initiative?
Gavin Newsom could be held accountable for environmental disasters during the implementation of his Broadband for All initiative primarily through his administration’s legislative exemptions to environmental reviews and its oversight of designated construction contractors.
Legislative Exemptions to CEQA
Through signature legislation like SB 156, the Newsom administration expedited the rollout of fiber-optic cables by creating conditional exemptions from the strict California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
While intended to fast-track digital equity, these exemptions allowed rural broadband projects to skip standard environmental impact studies and public comment periods provided they met certain loose conditions.
Critics and environmental groups argue this removes necessary safeguards and makes the executive branch directly culpable if contractors act recklessly without proactive environmental oversight.
Failure in Contractor Oversight
While the state, through agencies like the California Department of Technology (CDT) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), provides the billions in funding, the actual digging and drilling are handled by third-party private contractors.
If these contractors commit infractions—such as directional drilling that breaches waterways or damages sensitive habitats—responsibility falls to Newsom’s administration for failing to adequately vet or penalize builders who violate restoration and habitat-protection requirements.
State Accountability Mechanisms
Executive Liability:
Newsom signs the budget and the specific legal frameworks that govern how infrastructure funds are dispersed, tying his administration to the regulatory environment in which the builders operate.
Delegated Agencies:
Responsibility would ultimately flow down through his appointed officials at the CDT and the Middle-Mile Advisory Committee, which are tasked with monitoring construction and ensuring accountability.
The entire thing is Newsom’s little project. So of course he is blaming him.
He is right to blame him and btw, this slurry dumping is going on all over Mendocino county as well, currently along Hwy 20 west.
The idea for Broadband for All did NOT originate with Newsome nor did he start the local, state, national studies that have led to it.
This has all been happening since long before he was even Mayor of SF.
Remember Y2K? Older tech, same concept.
A couple threads of fact chewed up with a ream of suspicion and assumptions and regurgitated does not form a tapestry of truth.
More like ground up garbage & diarrhea of the keyboard combined.
They do say do what you’re good at.But dude…
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day, but that shouldn’t instill confidence.
Y2k was not the same concept in any way shape or form.
You are talking out your arse.
Not even close, buddy.
The Y2K “scare” was the prime impetus to generate the political will to provide public funding to nearly fully subsidize $ support for first, middle, AND last mile systems. Was a generational evolution of digital communication technologies almost exclusively for private infrastructure, primarily corporate interests.
Same as today, except now the general public actually needs it rather than mostly commercial entities only.
That need is compounded by the actual loss of the original hardwiring capacity to meet even basic bandwidth demands continuing to be operationally maintained by the big providers, like AT&T.
Great reporting! Congratulations to Lisa for the clear, detailed report. Let’s hope that landowners and drillers are more responsible after this.
Yes indeed. Have noticed in multiple areas where the underground lines are being punched in issues.
Severe leaking from the punch zones.
Overflow running across roads.
Witnessing digging in fern patches and wetland zones.
Understand they can not anticipate all these areas yet, they should be aware and use diligence vs arrogance and a deadline.
Something else to look out for concerning horizontal drilling using Bentonite as a drill lubricant is “breakouts” can occur when a drill bit deflects to the surface into a tributary. That happened in multiple tributaries near point Arena in 1992. One breakout delivered bentonite into a trib that then flowed into the main stem Garcia River. There were also “breakouts” that deliver large amounts of slurry into to other nearby streams. As has been posted the damage to insect population that Salmon and Steelhead smolts depend on can be very harmful. Sampling insect populations above and below spill sites is easy. Cleanup is messy and expensive. I suspect there will be some mitigation/restoration funding coming to Redway Creek from who ultimately is responsible. A lot of years and hard work have been invested in Redwood Creeky Harry Vaughn and Bill Eastwood. A lot of State and Federal grant money has been directed toward this important South Fork Eel River tributary. When I was a Guide on the South Fork I noted each year that good numbers of large Chinook would hold at the confluence waiting for rain.
I had a good friend whose grandparents owned property in the Mojave Desert in Southern California that contained deposits of bentonite. They sold it to people who used it to line newly dug ponds. It settles to the bottom of the pond and creates a nearly water-impermeable barrier that effectively seals the pond from leaks. Even though bentonite is not toxic and has been, at least initially, suspended in running water, it does not seem to me a good thing to add to our local streams and rivers.
Careless and Sloppy!
Bentonite should never be allowed to enter any creeks!
Not just careless and sloppy…
Intentional disregard and premeditated deliberate dumping and ecological and environmental degradation…
This was no accident…
There should be immediate consequences…
This outfit should be shut down at once…
Well that sucks.
Is it a coincidence that this is happening at the same time these mega data centers are going up?
The need for high speed has taken a priority over the environment, obviously.
Chat bots are the new dictionary, encyclopedia, translator, friend, confidant, advisor, ect.
This is what’s happening all over the world.
screw the planet. As long as we have our precious AI we’re fine. Right?
these companies operate with impunity, and if they do get caught then they tie it up in the courts for YEARS, all while more companies go out and do the same thing over and over with more lawsuits coming and no way for the courts to process all the cases. There are 4 years or more of pending cases against data center companies, all the while they just keep building.
next time you go to ask the all mighty all knowing AI for advice, first think for yourself, think about the environment, think about humanity and how far we have come without AI and the knowledge we will lose if we quit using our collective brains
It is called third party compliance . Doesnt matter what you are trying to get done if you need anything certified, stamped or inspected always look for some guy who doesnt care who is within the state you are trying to get something done in and offer them a fairly small amount and they will stamp sign testify whatever you need there are thousands of people that get licenses and certifications just to make money by selling their sign offs on line never leaving their home offices for even a drive by site visit
Another blatant failure of the inept & corrupted John Ford. He needs to go!!
Fine piece of reporting, Lisa.
Under the heading “Environmental Rules for Thee but not Me” As TRG pointed out about Newscum: “He signed the 2021 Broadband Implementation for California legislation (Senate Bill 156) and later pushed for controversial rollbacks to the state’s environmental review laws to fast-track infrastructure projects”. CEQUA Reports are now not needed for such Richie Rich projects as Broadband, the Redwood Trail!, and AI centers? (please correct me if I am wrong). Smells to me like another top down power trip.
The article is well researched and written. Thanks to all at the Blackbelt. As far as Newsome goes, it it not about him, but it is related to possibly illegal or at least unlawful drilling sludge that made its way into the river, polluting it and likely killing much of what lives there.
The question is: Did the private property owner who accepted the slurry to dispose of on their land compensated in anyway$$$? From that point is where the law suits begin.
It’s good to know that it is bentonite clay. It should be relatively harmless.
Bentonite clay is also used as nutritional clay. It can be used to alkalize one’s stomach. I think they sell it at the Co-op.
I’ve used it.
I’m curious about how and when we might see the internet available.
And for what fee?
Verizon/Frontier sent an email recently saying “High speed internet now available in Willow Creek” . But when I googled it, it was only DSL, using the second pair of phone lines run into homes… That’s the technology introduced in the 80’s. Slow. I would not deem that High Speed.
We are paying an arm and a leg for Starlink. It would be good to have something at half that cost.
California Lifeline pays for internet, just like it does phones.
Low income folks like us should be able to access it for free, or relatively so.
https://prospect.org/2026/06/08/california-democrat-tasha-boerner-trying-to-gut-broadband-watchdog/
‘A California Democrat Is Trying to Gut the State’s Broadband Watchdog’
“The state’s Public Utilities Commission has been a national leader in making broadband affordable for low-income families. Assemblymember Tasha Boerner wants to end that.”
“What could explain the effort is that Boerner has been the recipient of significant campaign contributions from the very telecom industry that stands to benefit most from her bill.”
Timely, well researched and written article. Thank you!
I wanted to point out that “squaw fish” is a racist term. They are pike minnows.
Looks a lot like Willful Negligence on the part of the Prime & Sub Contractors.
Thought they were going to save a bunch of money & make out like bandits.
Now they’ve got a real chance to get up close and personal with the CA meat grinder.
Can the slurry be used to seal a leaky pond ?
Win-Win ?