Stop Water Company from Stealing Black Family's Land & Water in San Bernardino Forest

Stop Water Company from Stealing Black Family's Land & Water in San Bernardino Forest

Started
March 29, 2023
Signatures: 308Next Goal: 500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Where Is My Land

 

 

"America, how disheartened I am because we are still oppressed by white supremacy. I cannot live, but I cannot chose death. I must tell this tragic story of our experience," says Jacque Powers, landowner. 

Where Is My Land is supporting Jacque and Angeletta Powers, owners of 2.5 acres of land uniquely located in the historic San Bernardino National Forest, where there are rich water sources, in their family's battle to access their land and obtain full restitution from a predatory water company that is moving to steal the water source that runs below their land. 

The theft from Black landowners by private actors or government entities in California and across the country is an epidemic!

The Power's Family's property is landlocked and located on Old Waterman Canyon Road in Crestline, California, overlooking the ocean and mountains. For many years, an easement, which is now allegedly owned by a utility company, was used as a public road and right-of-way for surrounding landowners to access their properties because it was the only access point. After 20 years of legal battles, while enduring hostility and threats to their physical and emotional safety, the Powers Family have been effectively barred from using the road because the water company has been able to block access to their land in an effort to push the Powers Family to sell or abandon their property and forfeit their water resources. 

The Powers are one of the few property owners who have not sold their land to the water company. 

Background

In 2003, the Powers purchased land from Roy Hill. Hill owned the property for 13 years and during his period of ownership used the now-disputed road to access his property (which is now the Powers' property). 

Since 1979, however, the utility company that barred the Powers from using the road and cut off access to their property, has erroneously claimed ownership of the road (despite it being used thereafter as a public road for property owners in the area). However, the company recorded in its own board minutes, from a meeting in 1997, that the right to the land was not exclusive because of Roy Hill's usage. 

In 2004, San Bernardino County vacated the southern portion of Waterman Canyon Road explaining that "the general public and all other property owners along Waterman Canyon Road will continue to have legal access by utilizing the northern one-half of Waterman Canyon Road."

Subsequently, the water company attempted to purchase all the land in the subdivision because of its abundant water resources. In 2006, the sellers of one of the lots created an easement (as reference above) (which grants an entity the ability to use a piece of property that belongs to another individual or entity) across the disputed road and erected a locked gate to block the entry point to the Powers' land. For decades, before the creation of the easement, the road was already marked for public use. 

After 20 years of legal battles, hostility, and being subjected to violence, the Powers exhausted their legal avenues when their appeal to the California Supreme Court was denied. The Supreme Court granted a permanent injunction declaring the water company as the legal owner of the disputed road and stopped the Powers from using the easement, consequently blocking any ability to use their own property. 

During the two decades of battle with the water company, Mr. Powers' physical and psychological health has been targeted. 

In order to displace the Powers from their land permanently, the water company has made obscenely low purchase offers to them. Despite the Powers rightfully owning the 2.5 acres of land, the water company has stolen thousands of dollars of the Powers' water source, thus violating their land and water rights by the unauthorized rerouting of the water source beneath the Powers' land for the water company's use. 

We must put an end to this overreach and help preserve and protect the rights and livelihoods of the Powers Family!

Join the Powers Family's Fight to Preserve Their Land Rights and Pursue Restitution 

You can help us protect the Powers Family and hold the water company accountable by joining the fight today!

  1. Sign this petition and tell us why it's important to protect the Powers Family from predatory private company practices that violate hard-won land and water rights. 
  2. Share the Powers Family's story with your community and on your social media platforms. Feel free to share the links below. 
  3. Follow @whereismyland for updates on the Powers Family and their push to keep their land and regain their lost time, safety, mental energy, and financial resources on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. 

Where Is My Land is an organization dedicated to helping Black people discover, search for, identify, and reclaim land taken from them in an attempt to obtain full justice, reparation and restitution for harms committed against them by government entities or private actors. 

Donations on this website go to Change.org, not to Where Is My Land. Please donate to Where Is My Land by using this link: Donate Here to Where Is My Land

Thank you for your support!

More on the Powers Family 

Jacque Powers Shares Personal Testimony at Loyola Law School Family Panel 

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Signatures: 308Next Goal: 500
Support now
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