The Sierra Club is proud to endorse Lake County Measure L, a ballot initiative to fund a variety of projects benefiting Clear Lake and other local waterways that will go before the voters at the June 3 primary election.

Placed on the ballot by unanimous vote of the Lake County Board of Supervisors, this proposal will impose an additional half-cent sales tax on transactions throughout the county, and use the money to strengthen efforts to prevent quagga and zebra mussels from infesting Lake County waterways; provide the county's share of the critical Middle Creek wetland restoration project funding; conduct a number of specific projects designed to improve water quality; and maintain existing programs to control noxious algae and nuisance aquatic weeds.

These programs are essential to preserving and restoring Clear Lake, our community’s greatest asset.

Measure L revenues cannot be diverted to any other purposes, and transparency is assured by the establishment of a citizens oversight committee that will review the expenditure plan in advance every year. The measure sunsets in ten years.

In most respects Measure L resembles Measure E, which was also endorsed by the Club and which narrowly failed to reach the necessary two thirds majority vote in November 2012, but it differs in three significant ways:

• a detailed expenditure plan for the first two years is included in the ballot measure;
• projects must be reviewed in advance by a citizens’ oversight committee and Board of Supervisors;
• the oversight committee now includes stakeholders from a wide variety of community organizations.

Without a reliable source of funding we cannot protect Clear Lake from invasive species and reverse the conditions that have allowed toxic, foul-smelling cyanobacteria (commonly called “blue-green algae”) to proliferate.

Restoring the health of the lake is imperative for its own sake, and also vital for the future of our community, and the future of our children and grandchildren.

The Lake County Sierra Club therefore urges our members and everyone else who cares about the environment to vote for Measure L on June 3, and in the meantime to learn more about the measure, give your personal and business endorsement, and make a donation by visiting www.savethelake.info .

Ed Robey is chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group. He lives in Lower Lake, Calif.