[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 5/24/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

May 24, 2007

 

2. Supply

 

LAKE MENDOCINO:

Study sought for Lake Mendocino; Officials push to raise dam's height for water storage; some say project may never happen - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

DEVELOPMENT:

Reliable water may be $3,000 a year - Redding Record Searchlight

 

 

LAKE MENDOCINO:

Study sought for Lake Mendocino; Officials push to raise dam's height for water storage; some say project may never happen

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 5/24/07

By Glenda Anderson, staff writer

 

Mendocino County authorities would like to see Coyote Dam raised to increase water storage in Lake Mendocino. But some also are worried they could spend millions of dollars to study the project without ever seeing it materialize.

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"I'm concerned," Redwood Valley Water District board President Don Butow said Wednesday during a meeting hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers and held at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center.

The meeting was the second attempt by the Army Corps to gather comments for a study on the feasibility of increasing the height of Coyote Dam. Wednesday's meeting was attended by about two dozen people, most of them water authorities, fewer than the 150 that turned out in April to hear about the plan.

Butow noted the high price tag for a feasibility study. The Army Corps of Engineers study could take five years and cost about $5 million, half of which must be paid for by sponsor the Inland Water and Power Commission, a joint powers authority to which Redwood Valley belongs.

It's up to the local agencies to decide whether to spend the money, said Dave Doak, the dam's project manager.

John Graff, the executive director of the Employers Council of Mendocino County, said he hoped less expensive alternatives will be explored.

The Army Corps has been promised $600,000 for the study this year, half from the federal government and half as a local match to begin the study, Doak said.

The price of the study is high because it includes comprehensive environmental, economic, cultural and geological studies, which include assessing the dam's seismic safety.

Not only is the study's funding tenuous, it potentially could result in less, rather than more, water in Lake Mendocino.

If the seismic study finds the dam does not meet current safety standards, the maximum amount of water allowed in the lake could be reduced until the dam is strengthened, said Mike Dillabough, the Army Corps' chief of operations and readiness division in San Francisco.

However, that's unlikely, he said.

Doak acknowledged that it's impossible to predict when or whether Congress will authorize funding for the rest of the study or the project itself, which also is undetermined.

The study will consider a number of project alternatives, including dredging silt from the lake and a combination of raising the dam to some degree along with dredging, he said.

There are no estimates for the cost of raising the dam or the alternatives, he said.

If raised to the full height imagined by its engineers in the 1950s, Coyote Dam's capacity could be increased by 62 percent, from 122,000 acre-feet to 199,000 acre-feet.

An acre-foot is about 325,851 gallons.

With this year's droughtlike conditions, increasing Lake Mendocino's water capacity has become a pressing topic.

Sonoma County water authorities, who hold the rights to most of the lake's water, have predicted the lake could drop to a record low of 8,000 acre-feet this year if residents don't conserve.

Lake Mendocino supplies water to Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties.

The Army Corps is accepting input for the dam-raising feasibility study until June 10. #

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/NEWS/705240374/1033/NEWS01

 

 

DEVELOPMENT:

Reliable water may be $3,000 a year

Redding Record Searchlight – 5/24/07

By Dylan Darling, staff writer

 

JONES VALLEY -- Getting reliable water will cost the close to 200 property owners in a pair of Jones Valley subdivisions about $3,000 a year for 40 years, according to a consulting firm's study.

 

That cost could go down, however, depending on what state and federal grants Shasta County is able to get to support the project, said Pat Minturn, county public works director. Cost of the total project would be $9.8 million.

 

"We need to see what the granting agencies are willing to pony up," he said.

 

About 100 people, most whom live in the Elk Trail east and west subdivisions off Dry Creek Road, met Tuesday night at the Jones Valley Fire Hall to hear what connecting to the Jones Valley County Service Area could cost them.

 

Minturn said 30 residents have volunteered to have the water quality of their wells tested to see if there are problems with the odor, taste and clarity of the water. If there are, there could be more state and federal money available for the project.

 

"Those would help us get grants," he said.

 

While the price for the project might seem steep for water, it beats the cost of drilling new wells that might not produce water, said John Yoder, who lives on Elk Trail West.

 

He said development in the subdivisions has drawn down the water table -- 102 of the 188 parcels in the two subdivisions have homes on them -- forcing him and many of his neighbors to truck in water.

 

"We haul wood in the winter and water in the summer," he said.

 

To remedy the situation, Elk Trail residents formed the Elk Trail Water Association earlier this year and are trying to get water lines run to their homes.

 

While his well is still producing water, Edward Smith, Yoder's neighbor, said he doesn't trust the quality of his water because it's high in iron and cloudy. He uses it for showers and washing dishes, but won't put it in a glass.

 

"We can't drink the water," he said. #

http://www.redding.com/news/2007/may/24/reliable-water-may-be-3000-a-year/

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