LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors approved a request by Lake County Special Districts to pass urgency ordinances requiring conservation for three county-run water districts.
Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger asked for the urgency ordinances for the Paradise Valley, Starview and Bonanza Springs water systems, where well production has dropped while consumption has continued to increase.
Specifically, Dellinger asked for, and received, unanimous approval from the board to move all three districts from step one in Special Districts' drought management plan, which is voluntary conservation, to step three, which is mandatory conservation measures and revised water rates implemented through urgency ordinances.
Step two would involved initiating mandatory conservation measures, and step four involves implementing an urgency ordinance with stringent consumption limits and penalties.
Paradise Valley's urgency ordinance takes effect March 13, and requires that monthly usage be kept under 500 cubic feet, or 3,740 gallons.
For Starview and Bonanza Springs, customers would be urged to keep water usage under 900 cubic feet, or 6,732 gallons on a monthly basis, or face higher costs, according to the urgency ordinances, which go into effect on March 14 and April 12, respectively.
Water overages in all of the districts will result in customers being charged at a higher rate, along with a $350 fee.
Dellinger offered separate reports for each of the districts during three short public hearings.
Regarding Paradise Valley, located between Lucerne and Clearlake Oaks, Dellinger said consumption currently is 10 percent over the same billing period last year.
Merely getting more money into the system – through fines – won't help; rather, conservation is needed, said Dellinger.
“We need to provide education and outreach to the people that don’t get it or don’t want it, don’t want to hear the message,” said Dellinger, adding he's willing to go door to door and that members of the community are volunteering to help.
“We have to get the message out,” said Dellinger, who plans a March 22 meeting with the Paradise Valley community.
The three Paradise Valley wells produce between one and 12 gallons a minute to serve 79 connections, according to Dellinger.
Special Districts Compliance Coordinator Jan Coppinger told the board that implementing the urgency ordinance in Paradise Valley would affect seven customers.
She said all of the district's customers were sent letters at the start of the year about the need to conserve, with a copy of the ordinance and information about the Tuesday hearing sent to residents, with plans also to contact residents in person.
“We have numerous things and tools that we will give to them to help them get their usage down,” including low-flow devices, said Coppinger.
Carol Scheffer, president of the Paradise Valley homeowners association board, said they support the ordinance. She raised concerns about monitoring use, noting bills only go out every two months.
Scheffer said the association is working with the Clearlake Oaks water district on a plan to connect through a pipeline to Glenhaven that's expected to cost $1.5 million to build.
Regarding the Starview District, located on Cobb, Dellinger said the wells' output have dropped 12 percent over the last 12-month billing period, while for the same time frame consumption is up by 26 percent.
Dellinger said 23 of the district's 147 customers have not made efforts to conserve and have used more than 45 percent of all the water used by that County Service Area during the last billing cycle. The average use is 127 gallons a day, but some customers are using as much as 1,100 gallons a day.
He said he was concerned about how the situation will look this fall if there isn't a normal rain pattern. “Taking these actions now protects us and gets us through the next rain year.”
In response to a community member's question about how long the urgency ordinance might be in effect, Dellinger said he would love to have it removed as soon as possible, but it depends on how much rain the county gets in the days ahead.
“We've had miracle Marches before, I hope we get another one,” said Dellinger.
In the Bonanza Springs district, another groundwater system that's also located in the Cobb area, the two primary wells' output has dropped 16 percent over the past 12 months. While there has been significant conservation, Dellinger said 26 of the 169 customers have not make attempts to conserve; those 26 customers are using slightly over 50 percent of water used in the system.
The average daily use in Bonanza Springs was 138 gallons per day in the last billing cycle, with some customers using as much as 2,200 gallons a day, Dellinger said.
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