LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – County, regional and state officials are taking action in response to the lack of rain and resulting drought conditions California is seeing as 2014 begins.
On Tuesday, with Clear Lake at a very low winter level and a county official reporting drought conditions on par with the drought of 1976 and 1977, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to bring back a more comprehensive drought plan update.
On the same day, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency due to the drought conditions.
Also this week the Sonoma County Water Agency reported that the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership, a coalition of local water utilities, was kicking off a “new and unusual” wintertime public outreach effort that has a straightforward message: “The drought is on. Turn the water off.”
The agency reported that Lake Mendocino is at 38 percent of water supply capacity, with Lake Sonoma at 67 percent of capacity.
The Association of California Water Agencies reported that during a Tuesday California State Board of Food and Agriculture meeting in Sacramento, California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin said a drought declaration by Gov. Jerry Brown could take place in February, after the next snow survey.
This week, Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, which holds the water rights to Clear Lake and Indian Valley Reservoir, reported that there was no water available for release for irrigation, whereas at this time last year there had been 68,463 acre feet available.
Clear Lake's level this week has hovered around 0.60 feet Rumsey, the special measure for the lake's depth, compared to 5.65 feet Rumsey at this time in 2013.
According to US Geological Survey data, this month so far has the lowest lake level of any January going back to January 1991, which had numbers slightly lower.
Indian Valley Reservoir's storage this week was at 13,961 acre feet compared to 108,756 acre feet at this time last year, the district reported.
Reviewing the current county drought plan
At Tuesday's Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting, a discussion on a county drought management plan created by Special Districts led the board to direct Scott De Leon, director both of the county's Public Works and Water Resources departments, to bring to the board his own drought plan pertaining to Clear Lake's conditions.
Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger – who also went before the board to get approval for a resolution to accept $215,000 in state funds to relocate the sewer system at the north Lakeport Lakeside Heights subdivision – gave the board an update on the current drought management plan.
His written report to the board explained, “Critically low water table levels and low lake levels are threatening the water systems managed by Special Districts and weather experts are predicting dry conditions continuing into the next year.”
He said the California Department of Water Resources is urging local water agencies to brace for a third dry year and acute water shortages in the coming summer.
Dellinger said lawmakers are asking Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a drought emergency and President Barack Obama for a federal disaster declaration.
“Water managers are comparing the impending drought conditions to those of 1976-1977, the most severe modern drought in the region,” Dellinger said in his written report.
“We're in what we would identify as a significant drought,” Dellinger said during the board meeting, explaining that 80 percent of the state is in what has been defined as a severe drought.
Dellinger said he first brought the drought management plan to the board four years ago, at which time the county and the state were seeing similar dry conditions.
Those conditions were alleviated thanks to rain in the spring of 2010, so the steps the plan outlines didn't need to be taken, he said.
“We don't know if that's going to happen this year,” he said.
The plan's steps and triggers
Dellinger said the plan is based on a series of triggers, which were laid out in his written report.
The four triggers include step one, voluntary conservation, which is implemented when a potential threat to capacity is seen. At that point, Special Districts mails out conservation notices to all customers, with a target of a 15 percent overall reduction in a month-to-month comparison.
The second stage, initiating phased mandatory conservation measures to prohibit nonessential water use, occurs when the 15 percent reduction expected from voluntary conservation doesn't materialize.
If conditions persist and conservation still isn't meeting the needed reduction, step three would take place. That includes implementation of an urgency ordinance with additional mandatory conservation measures and a revised rate structure to financially discourage nonessential water use.
Stage four includes a connection moratorium and surcharges for water consumption above a prescribed base usage.
“Public outreach and education is extremely important,” Dellinger told the board.
Last week, Special Districts went forward with mailing out voluntary conservation notices. “We believe we are in stage one now,” Dellinger said.
Dellinger added, “I think we may be not too far away from taking the next step; it's all based on what kind of rain we get.”
He said Special Districts now needs to be aggressive with internal monitoring and education and outreach.
The system that looks to be most at risk is Special Districts' smallest, Mt. Hannah on Cobb, which has 87 customers. Dellinger said Mt. Hannah – one of 10 water systems overseen by Special Districts – has seen the largest drop in pumping.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he wants the county to work with the Bureau of Land Management and Cal Fire on controlled burns, noting that brush takes up large amounts of water. He estimated that the water consumed by brush is well more than what is used by the county's residents.
“If we’re really going to get serious about it, now is the time to do it,” Brown said, adding that he believes the local streams will come back quickly if the brush is taken back.
Supervisor Jim Comstock agreed with Brown's comments about brush and water consumption. “Plus, in a drought situation, control burns provide fire breaks.”
County Administrative Officer Matt Perry – who pointed out that on Tuesday the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors was considering declaring a local emergency due to water conditions – also reported that the county of Lake has received a survey from the California Office of Emergency Services office on the county's level of preparedness for the dry water conditions.
Based on a suggestion by Board Chair Denise Rushing – who wanted to have De Leon bring back to the board a broader drought management plan that works with other agencies – the board reached consensus to have him return with his own plan at a future meeting.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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