LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Action by the state will allow the county to move forward with efforts to purchase homes located in the Middle Creek Restoration Project area that were endangered by a levee breech earlier this month.
The California Department of Water Resources has released $7 million for use in purchasing property in the project area – located between Nice and Upper Lake – including an estimated eight to nine residences, according to state and local officials.
The 1,400-acre project area is slated to be returned to wetland to address Clear Lake's nutrient loading and to remove residents from harm's way due to aging levees.
On March 14 a levee in the area began to leak large amounts of water. The leak was in the form of an underground channel that developed alongside large pipes than ran from a nearby pump station through the levee and into Clear Lake, as Lake County News has reported.
The situation was so serious that county Water Resources Director Scott De Leon told the Board of Supervisors the following day that they had been within a half-hour of having the levee fail completely had they not taken quick action to begin measures to stop the breech.
In the wake of the incident, county officials raised the issue about a freeze on state funds that was preventing them from moving forward with buying the lands in the project area.
Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, who had authored AB 74 in 2009 to create the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction Project, and his staff then became involved with trying to find out what happened to the funds.
Chesbro's Lake County field representative, Ruth Valenzuela, appearing at the March 15 board meeting to assure the supervisors they were researching what had occurred.
By last week they had their answer, with Chesbro's office reporting that the state Department of Water Resources responded quickly and the $7 million will be freed up after the Lake County Board of Supervisors approves a grant amendment, which is on the agenda for Tuesday, April 5.
De Leon's memo to the Board of Supervisors for the April 5 meeting said that, in addition to providing an additional $7 million, the amendment will extend the county's contract with the state for the project until Aug. 28, 2014.
“It's amazing what a hole in the levee will do,” said Water Resources Engineer Tom Smythe, who was on the scene of the levee break and worked throughout the day in the soggy, cold conditions.
By the end of the week of the levee break, he said the county had an amendment to their old agreement, which will allow them to move forward.
A longtime county employee, Smythe has watched the restoration project since it was conceptualized around 1989. The county started working on the project with the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1995.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little bit brighter,” he said.
The property the county owns in the project area totals about 140 acres, Smythe said.
De Leon's memo to the Board of Supervisors explains that the Lake County Watershed Protection District applied for a Flood Protection Corridor Program grant to begin property acquisitions for the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project in 2003.
He said the application was selected for funding and an agreement funding property acquisition was signed on May 14, 2004, for $5.214 million. That agreement was amended on Dec. 28, 2006, which both extended the contract time to August 2009 and increased the award by $500,000.
De Leon said the funding was used to purchase seven residential properties from willing sellers.
The buildings on those properties were subsequently demolished. De Leon said these properties are now protected from future development with a conservation easement the state Department of Fish and Game holds.
De Leon said the funding freeze occurred in December 2008, halting the expenditure of $1 million to make property purchases. It wasn't until after the August 2009 expiration date that the funds were unfrozen.
While the state grant funds were frozen, district funds were used to purchase and demolish one residence that had gone into foreclosure, he said.
Referring to the additional $7 million the state is providing, De Leon said in his memo, “With these funds we should be able to acquire all the remaining flood prone residential structures, agricultural land and hydraulic mitigation of Trust land on the Robinson Rancheria.”
Once the board approves the agreement, Smythe said it will be sent back to the director of the state Department of Water Resources for his signature. “Then we actually have an executed agreement to spend money.”
Smythe said he's drafted a letter requesting willing sellers that will be sent out soon.
Project has funding priorities
Under the original 2004 grant, the county's first purchase priority is for eight to nine residential structures that are subject to flooding if the levees break, Smythe said.
The second priority is mitigation on trust lands that are held for Robinson Rancheria.
He said there needs to be an agreement reached with Robinson Rancheria with regard to some of those trust lands that could be affected, but Smythe noted that discussions on that point died years ago.
The issue was that the tribe wanted to swap trust status on lands that would go underwater because of the project with other tribal-owned land, but federal officials weren't open to the proposal, as Lake County News has reported.
Smythe said the project could impact tribally owned properties between the Rodman Slough and the tribe's new gas station on Highway 20, a property across the highway from the casino and the casino's parking lot.
“We tried reopening discussions probably about a year and a half ago and did not make much progress,” he said, noting it wasn't for lack of effort on either the part of the tribe or the county.
If the levee broke today and flooded the area, more than half of Robinson Rancheria's parking lot would be under water, Smythe said. That hasn't been a threat until the recent levee breech.
“It was a lot too close,” said Smythe.
However, he said Supervisor Denise Rushing spoke with the tribal council about reopening discussions late last year after the county had raised its concerns about the tribe's new gas station project on Highway 20, not far from the damaged levee.
Tribal officials told the supervisors at a January meeting that they were willing to talk to the county about the project.
After those priorities are addressed, with any money left over the county would seek to purchase agricultural properties, moving from south to north. “Flood depths are greater the further south you go in the reclamation because you're getting closer to the lake,” Smythe said.
Smythe said some property sales stymied by unwilling sellers in the past have become possible due to foreclosures or the properties otherwise changing hands.
As well, some owners unwilling to consider selling in the past have changed their minds due to the conditions, he said.
That is the case with Marcia Rooney, who along with her husband Philip owns about 11 acres in the reclamation area. Their property is in line for purchase.
The Rooneys, who have seen previous levee breaks in the area, pitched in to assist with building a ring levee to help support the main levee on March 14.
Philip Rooney and son Matt, along with family friend Mike Riley, stood in freezing cold water up to their waists for hours as they put sandbags in place.
Marcia Rooney said, in the beginning, they didn't want to sell.
“We were going to fight it but it's not worth it any more,” she said.
Smythe said Lake County Water Resources wants to try to get the appraisal process on new property purchases started quickly.
“We're looking at trying to start the appraisal process this summer and get as many people out as we can before next winter,” he said.
While they have enough money to acquire all of the area's residential properties, Smythe said he couldn't estimate how much of the agriculture lands in the project area the county can acquire with its funds.
Moving forward with removing the levees and completing the project hinges on those purchases, he said.
“Until we are able to acquire all of the property, we really can't take it out, because then we'd be flooding peoples' property without paying for it,” which Smythe said would violate the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against government abusing its power in legal proceedings.
Chesbro thanked the the state Department of Water Water Resources “for recognizing the need to act quickly and the staff of the Lake County Water Resources Department for their fast action to mend the levee breech.”
He also thanked Valenzuela, who he said spent a great deal of time working with state Department of Water Resources staff to make the $7 million available to Lake County.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
