SACRAMENTO – The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has released a list of small water systems that are vulnerable to drought which includes four systems in Lake County, as well as several systems in neighboring counties.

The water systems in Lake County that are listed as vulnerable to drought conditions include Lower Lake County Water District, Lake County CSA-2 Spring Valley, Lazy S Mobile Ranch in Middletown and the Bonanza Springs in Cobb.

In Mendocino, vulnerable systems include Ukiah, Calpella, Redwood Valley, Mendocino, Manchester, Gualala, Hopland and Westport; in Napa, St. Helena and Calistoga, as well as the city of Napa and American Canyon are on the list.

As previously reported, in May the Lake County Board of Supervisors supervisors directed Special Districts staff to finalize a drought management plan for the county's sewer and water service areas. That plan includes mandatory water conservation measures.

The board also adopted emergency water conservation restrictions for the county's 10 service areas.

Most small system drought-related problems stem from dependence on an unreliable water source, typically groundwater from fractured rock sources, according to a recent DWR release.

Historically, particularly at-risk geographic areas have been foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range and inland Southern California, and the North and Central Coast regions.

Water year 2009 is California’s third consecutive dry year, with water years 2007 through 2009 representing the 12th driest three-year period in the state’s measured hydrologic record according to DWR.

Statewide runoff for water year 2009 is projected to be 71 percent of average, up from the 53 and 58 percent of average experienced in water years 2007 and 2008, respectively, DWR reports.

DWR stated that the Governor’s Executive Order S-06-08 directed DWR and the Department of Public Health (DPH) to coordinate with the California Emergency Management Agency to identify public water systems at risk of experiencing health and safety impacts due to drought conditions and water delivery limitations, and DPH has completed a statewide evaluation to identify water systems vulnerable to drought.

The Department of Public Health's list of vulnerable systems is available at: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/drinkingwater/Pages/DroughtPreparedness.aspx and includes several water systems in Mendocino and Sonoma counties – while Lake County is not listed.

The list is dominated by small systems, which have historically experienced the majority of drought-related health and safety impacts and water shortage emergencies according to the DWR.

Although small systems serve a low percentage of California’s total population, they constitute the majority of the state’s public water systems, which tend to be in lightly populated rural areas – such as Lake County which has dozens of small water systems – where opportunities for interconnections with another system or water transfers are nonexistent according to the DWR.

For background information about droughts and drought preparedness, see www.water.ca.gov/drought/ .

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) will hold a workshop in Bakersfield Aug. 19 to provide updates about small water system drought response activities. The workshop will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the offices of the city of Bakersfield Water Resources Department at 1000 Buena Vista Road.