The dreaded “D” word – drought – has already been used to describe the water situation around the state.
Last summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order declaring a statewide drought.
Late last month, in response to the latest Sierra snowpack figures, state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow also sounded the alarm.
“We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history,” said Snow. “It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses.”
Now, some local officials also are saying it's time to take measures in response to the dry year and its effects here in Lake County.
Tom Smythe, water resources engineer in the county's Water Resources Division, said they measure 15 area wells on a monthly basis. On Feb. 3, during their measurements, they decided things were looking bad enough that something had to be done.
He said Water Resources and Special Districts will go to the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 24 with the request that water conservation measures be taken in county-operated districts, and that a call be put out to other water purveyors to also observe conservation.
Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger said when Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a drought emergency last June, Special Districts responded by sending notices to all of its water customers.
Since then, the situation and the data suggest that the situation has gotten a lot worse, Dellinger said.
With the county primarily dependent on rain, and rain being in short supply so far this year, Smythe said the effects are starting to be felt. “It's pretty dismal.”
Even with the rain of recent days, it would take weeks, perhaps a few months, of steady rain to get the area's streams and the lake recharged to where they need to be, officials suggested.
“If we don't get significant rainfall by the end of April, we're going to need to do a lot more,” said Dellinger. “And I hope we don't have to go to mandatory measures.”
The county's conservation measures would only directly affect customers of county-run districts, said Smythe. The county can't dictate to people on private wells or in privately owned districts, but they can make an appeal for conservation to everyone.
Darin McCosker, general manager, Clearlake Oaks County Water District, said the county hasn't come to his district yet with a request for conservation.
“But I'm keenly interested, and we'll probably adopt some kind of measure that's amicable to our board an our customers that's in support of conservation,” he said.
Frank Toney, a board member for the Clearlake Oaks district, actually brought up the conservation issue a few months ago, said McCosker.
The district, which takes its water directly from Clear Lake through the use of submersible pumps, hasn't had a supply problem so far, said McCosker.
“It could get to that point, though,” he said,
Some other water districts have centrifugal pumps which will have problems as the lake level goes down.
And just how low is it?
Smythe, when interviewed late last week, said that Clear Lake was at 1.20 feet Rumsey, the lowest lake level since 1991. After a weekend of rain, the lake climbed to a high of 1.71 feet Rumsey Monday night, according to a US Geological Survey stream gauge, which can be found at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/uv?11450000.
If rain doesn't continue, the lake could drop to -2 feet Rumsey, said Smythe.
The record low for the lake was recorded in the drought year of 1977, when the lake level fell to -3.39 feet Rumsey, said Smythe.
In 1976, the year before that drought was peaking, “We actually had higher lake levels than we do now,” said Smythe.
Robert Stark, general manager of the Cobb Area County Water District, said he also hasn't yet received any formal request from the county to observe conservation measures.
However, the boards of directors for the three district he oversees – Cobb, Loch Lomond and Adams Springs – have said they want a letter crafted to their customers, which they'll consider in early March and then mail out by the end of that month, asking for conservation.
He said they'll put out postcard notices and reminders on the bills that go out every other month as well.
The boards also have asked him to what kind of enforcement measures – such as citations – they can take to make sure water isn't wasted.
Stark said recent rains have helped Cobb's water sources recover, but it's still not a great situation.
“At this point in time it is still basically at fall levels,” he said.
For February, the normal rate of water production for the district is 220 gallons a minute, said Stark. This year, it's at 125 gallons a minute.
The district also keeps statistics for the state Department of Water Resources on rainfall, said Stark.
Their average rainfall for this time of year should be 40 inches, not the 21 inches it recently measured. The average annual rainfall for Cobb is 65 inches, but for the past two years they've been in the 40-inch range, he said.
That, Stark said, is what they call a “drought normal.”
Smythe noted that in both 1976 and 1977, the county had about 12 inches of rainfall.
Stark said if the district can get 40 inches of rain in a season they should be able to get through the year with no major problems.
Cobb has had water meters since 1987. Stark said that first year of metering, water consumption in the district dropped from 79 million gallons to 59 million gallons.
Since then, they haven't reached the 60-million gallon mark again, despite having 300 more customers.
“That's how loose people were with water,” he said.
Stark added that metering should have been required by the state Legislature years ago.
Implications beyond Lake County
Lake County provides water not just for local residents but for water users and farmers in Yolo County.
Yolo Flood Control and Water Conservation District holds the rights to Clear Lake and Indian Valley Reservoir; the latter was built specifically for the district.
Clear Lake's level is extremely low, as is Indian Valley Reservoir's, which has led to a serious situation for the district, said Jennifer Reed, a program manager with Yolo Flood.
“It's pretty grim,” Reed said, noting that water levels are down from last year, which was a dry year as well.
As of Feb. 13, Clear Lake was at 1.25 feet Rumsey, down from 5.95 feet Rumsey on the same date in 2008, according to the district's records.
Indian Valley Reservoir, which has a total capacity of 300,000 acre feet, was at 19,816 acre feet on Feb. 13, down from the 107,244 acre feet it contained on Feb. 13, 2008, according to Yolo Flood.
“Compared to this same date last year, it's down 63 feet,” Reed said.
She added, “California is in a really critical water situation.”
The recent winter storms have been generous to the Sierra snowpack, said Reed. But places like Lake County don't have the snowpack as a water source.
Reed said the situation has led to Yolo Flood warning its water users of the thin times to come.
“We have told our water users that we do not expect to have an irrigation season this year,” she said.
While that could change between now and the growing season, as it stands now, the district just doesn't have any water for the water users and the 160,000 acres of farmland it serves, Reed said.
According to the 1978 Solano Decree, if Clear Lake reaches 7.56 feet Rumsey by May 1, Yolo Flood receives a 150,000-acre-foot allocation – or nearly 49 billion gallons. If the lake level at that time is 3.22 feet Rumsey or below, the district receives no water for the year.
At the same time, the Gopcevic Decree of 1920 prevents water being pumped out of Clear Lake if its level is 0 feet Rumsey or below, Smythe explained.
Last year, with Clear Lake hitting 6.67 fee Rumsey on May 1, Yolo Flood received 119,960 acre feet, or 80 percent of their allocation, as Lake County News has reported.
The lake level also will impact The Geysers effluent pipeline, said Dellinger. Lake water is used to supplement the treated wastewater pumped through the pipeline, which eventually is used for injection in the geothermal steamfields.
If the lake level doesn't hit 3.22 feet Rumsey by May 1, there will be no water taken from the lake for the pipeline for the next 12 months, Dellinger said.
He said Special Districts is working right now on a plan for how to deal with the worst-case scenario – that no water will be available for the pipeline.
Then there's the concern of the rate of evaporation on Clear Lake during the summer, which Dellinger said is estimated to be 3 feet. That could put the lake at -2 feet Rumsey at the end of the irrigation season.
“I've never seen a situation like this,” said Dellinger, noting he wasn't working for the county during the 1977 drought year.
Smythe recalled that, in February of 1991, the lake was at .47 feet Rumsey, and things looked grim.
Then the “March miracle” happened.
In early March, it began raining, and kept raining. Smythe said the lake rose 3 feet that March.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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