2024 Year In Review
Accomplishments in 2024
Protect Todos Santos is about 3 years old now and we have accomplished so much. This year thanks to the generosity of our members we raised $40,000 USD or 800,000 pesos to fund our litigation, educate our community, and perform scientific research. Last year:
Our membership grew to over 500 people and our website received over 3,000 visits.
We stopped dune development and caused the building department in La Paz to stop issuing numerous illegal building permits. They are now very careful in making sure they don’t issue permits for projects not compliant with our PDU.
We have implemented all the water monitoring and management recommendations contained in our Todos Santos Aquifer Report written by Dr. William Sanford.
We posted dune protection signs at the entrances to all the beaches in Todos Santos informing people that the dunes are sensitive ecosystems and that driving and building on them is illegal.
We continue to monitor actions by our Municipal government in their effort to replace our current PDU and will work with our community to void it if it is enacted.
Our Water Crisis Deepened in 2024
We are very concerned that this past year we only received 1.6 inches or 4 centimeters of rain in Todos Santos and only 6.4 inches or 16 centimeters of rain in the Sierra de la Laguna. Both of these amounts are one fourth of normal and made 2024 the third driest year since rainfall records started being kept 62 years ago.
The lack of rainfall has caused hardships for our ranches because there is little to no water in the arroyos and very little grass sprang up for the animals to feed on. As a result, many ranchers are having to sell off much of their livestock.
Our aquifer monitoring also found that the surface flow of water coming from the aquifer spring has dropped dramatically, which will impact the oasis which depends on surface runoff. It will also have a significant impact on water the farmers need for irrigation.
We are calling on everyone to take action NOW to conserve as much water as possible. Recent growth in the population has caused the over extraction of the Todos Santos and Pescadero aquifers and they are now almost double the average annual recharge. These two factors mean we are in uncharted territory.
Here’s the 2023 CONAGUA Aquifer Data for Our Region
Every 3 years, CONAGUA determines the recharge and extraction rate for every aquifer in the country. In chart form, here are the results for the aquifers in our area. The red bar is over- extraction, which is illegal under Federal Law because the government considers over-extraction to be robbing future generations of their constitutional right to water. Here are the results for 2023.
And here are the 2023 results for the five largest aquifers in the southern region of Baja California Sur all of which are being significantly over-extracted. Notice how small the Todos Santos Aquifer that supplies all the water to the town is compared to all the others.
The Invasive Plant Arundo is a Big Problem
Have you noticed the 30 foot tall plants growing off Topete outside of town? It is a very invasive plant called Arundo and it is also growing in La Reforma, our watershed, over the top of the Todos Santos aquifer and in our lagoons. There are numerous problems it is causing including creating a fire hazard and reducing our water supply by about 100 million gallons or 380,000 cubic meters of water per year.
It is also extremely hard to get rid of because pieces of plant will replant themselves and grow a new plant. We are planning on hiring an Invasive Species Biologist to help us develop a plan for its eradication and long-term management.
Protecting Our Water Supply in the Years Ahead
We are now performing monthly monitoring of the Todos Santos Aquifer for surface flows and water depth. The monitoring will help our hydrologist, Dave Mehan, understand the amount of water in the aquifer, track the surface flow, and identify saltwater which occurs when the level of water in the aquifer drops below sea level. The monitoring will be used to inform our actions in the years ahead as we deal with what will be the biggest challenge facing our community.
Here is a video of the monthly monitoring process produced by our Executive Director Diego Ramirez.
https://youtube.com/shorts/WupEBGevEpA?si=P5Kxne0I_utEwn8f
The Most Effective Ways You Can Conserve Water
We all have an important role to play in conserving water. Here are the most effective ways you can do your part:
If you have a pool, cover it to prevent 95% of the evaporation. In Todos Santos we measured the evaporation rate to be about 2 inches per week or 9 feet per year. So without a cover you are wasting two pools full of water a year. Covering your pool will reduce evaporation to 1/10th of an inch per week or 6 inches per year.
Minimize landscape watering and talk to your gardener about conserving water as much as possible.
Install drip irrigation system to reduce water use by 80% and only water weekly or less for native plants.
Plant native desert plants and Mexican palms that require only minimal watering.
Resident Power and Water Survey and Report of Findings
In 2024, we conducted a Power and Water Survey of residents. For water, we wanted to learn which areas were receiving adequate water and what areas were not. For power, we wanted to determine how many brownouts and blackouts our residents were experiencing during the summer months and if they had experienced damaged equipment due to uneven voltage in the system. We also wanted to know what their main concerns were.
The results were very informative. We learned that the San Sebastian, Las Tunas and Laz Playitas areas were receiving the fewest days of water delivery by OMSAPA. In addition, we learned the 149 respondents to the survey had lost 104 electrical pumps and appliances due to the uneven voltage totaling about $150,000 USD or 3 million pesos assuming an average of $1,500 USD per appliance. Since our survey only represented about 2% of the population, region-wide losses could be as high as $5 million USD or 20 million pesos.
We would like to continue to hear from residents so if you would like to take the survey, here is a link:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2VNTGrTMLnYU5SU-JQAL93THMsJzOwiZXucJJmNkqZ-hghA/viewform
You can read the full report by clicking on this link:
How to Prevent Electrical Damage Caused by Voltage Problems
To prevent damage caused by voltage spikes, you can have an electrician install a whole house surge protector and for low-voltage, there are plug-in automatic shut off devices that are plugged into the outlets to protect pumps and appliances from damage caused by low voltage.
We recommend you consult with a reputable electrician about a whole house surge protector and Amazon sells plug-in low voltage devices for various appliances and pumps.
Here is a list of appliances requiring replacement by our 149 respondents:
19 refrigerators
4 televisions
2 dishwashers
2 electrical transformers
7 washing machines
3 clothes dryers
13 cistern pumps
11 air conditioners
11 pool pumps
8 computers
24 small miscellaneous small appliances
New Initiatives for 2025
This year we hired Diego Rameriz to become our full-time Executive Director. Diego has been working for PTS part-time for the past 6 months. During this period he:
Managed the signature drive against the La Paz PDU collecting 1,100 signatures in 10 days
Created our Proteger Todos Santos Facebook and Instagram pages which have over 1,000 followers
Created videos for the pages, some of which have over 30,000 views.
Created and manages our Proteger Todos Santos WhatsApp Group with 350 members.
Three Large Development Projects Are Trying to Get Environmental Approvals
The first step for these projects is to get an environmental impact report and approval from SEMARNAT, the environmental ministry of Mexico. Protect Todos Santos along with other groups will be filing the appropriate paperwork to challenge the projects because they all violate our PDU and the areas where they are planned lack the water, power and wastewater treatment systems required to meet the needs of the development especially when these items are unable to support the current population of the region. Here is a description of the projects:
Mexplorer, the investment group that purchased the land and the development plans from Tres Santos, started raising funds in 2022 to build a hotel totaling 325 rooms and 28 residences next to the San Cristobal Hotel.
The Delek Project includes 6 hotels, 100 residences, three commercial areas, and two beach clubs. The land is located in Las Playitas well beyond the Green Room.
The Cabo Santos project includes a 500-room hotel and 1,400 residences near their El Faro Beach club.
Other Battles Ahead in 2025
Our most important battle will be to stop the La Paz PDU from being enacted. It is currently under an injunction due to a lawsuit by the Todos Santos Ejido. In addition, John Moreno has filed a lawsuit claiming the community was not properly involved in the creation of the document. If it gets published, which would enable it to replace our current PDU, Protect Todos Santos will work with the community and our attorney to have it voided and the creation process done properly with community input and the risk assessments for water, power and wastewater treatment that were required but not included in their plan.
We will continue to file lawsuits against all dune projects and will continue our legal action to force the creation of the local PDU Oversight Committee called for in our current PDU, but never formed by La Paz. This would give the community control over what gets built and what does not.
We are going to work not only to protect, but to restore areas damaged by construction by using volunteers to perform restoration projects on the dunes and in the wetlands and lagoons.
One of our main problems is growth without the infrastructure investment to support it. So we are going to try to obtain funding for desperately needed infrastructure projects related to the water, wastewater, and power that we have identified.
As daunting as the job before us may seem, if we all work together and fight for our community we will succeed as we did against the Tres Santos Project eight years ago.
Thanks for Your Donations
Thank you to all who have donated to PTS. If you haven’t yet, we hope you will consider making a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. To make a donation, simply click on this link:
https://icfdn.org/donate/?form=FUNPMWQSLYV
Please know we are spending every dollar we raise wisely by using our extremely talented volunteers who are donating their time and talents whenever we can so we focus our funds on protecting our PDU, water resources and restoring our environment.
Muchas Gracias,
The Team at Protect Todos Santos
