Terre Logsdon – Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT Several years in the making, the Lake County Groundwater Management Plan (GMP) has now been completed, adopted and will be incorporated into the new Lake County General Plan. The purpose of the plan is to maintain or enhance the quantity and quality of groundwater resources within the county. However, the county lacks the funding to implement the new plan.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors, sitting as the board of directors of the Lake County Watershed Protection District, voted unanimously to adopt the completed GMP on April 11, after expressing concern about the costs of implementation if they did agree to give their approval.
“All we”re asking you to do is adopt this plan, not implement it,” explained Bob Lossius, assistant Public Works director. “This does not have an implementation plan.”
The GMP will be incorporated into the Water element of the new Lake County General Plan as a supporting document in policy and implementation measure.
The GMP, completed with a grant Public Works received in 2004, has several objectives. These are to: (1) improve the understanding of groundwater hydrology and quality in Lake County; (2) maintain sustainable, high-quality water supply for agricultural, environmental and urban uses; (3) minimize the long-term drawdown of groundwater levels; (4) protect groundwater quality; (5) minimize changes to surface flows and quality that directly affect groundwater levels or quality; (6) minimize the effect of groundwater pumping on surface water flows and quality; (7) facilitate groundwater replenishment and cooperative management project; (8) prevent inelastic land surface subsidence from occurring as a result of groundwater pumping; and (9) prevent other environmental damages.
The consulting firm of Camp, Dresser and McKee, Inc. (CDM), in cooperation with the California Department of Water Resources and the Lake County Watershed Protection District, completed the report in late March.
CDM Consultants Ben Swan and John Ayres presented a power-point presentation to the board, describing what the GMP provides and how it was developed.
The basic components of the GMP document a book, actually includes a water inventory and analysis, water demand forecast for the year 2040 and the GMP itself.
“The GMP covers all of the county and [13] different groundwater basins,” Swan told the board. The plan incorporates “locally-driven management objectives of each individual basin, which is a fundamental piece of the plan.”
The 13 separate groundwater basins identified in the county include Gravelly Valley, Upper Lake, Scotts Valley, High Valley, Burns Valley, Coyote Valley, Collayomi Valley, Lower Lake, Long Valley, Clear Lake Cache Formation, Middle Creek and Clear Lake Volcanics.
The locally-driven basin management objectives were obtained in stakeholder meetings that were designed “to incorporate the best local understanding of the resource and the needs and issues affecting the groundwater users,” which were facilitated by CDM consultants.
According to the GMP, basin management objectives “typically address groundwater levels, groundwater quality and inelastic land subsidence.”
Water resources engineer Tom Smythe explained that subsidence is the compression of the soil, and inelastic subsidence is permanent, “it never bounces back,” he explained.
Smythe said that in at least two of the 13 groundwater basins in the county, Scotts and Big Valleys, the land is subsiding. The ground in these areas is sinking and will stay sunk.
“Those are the only two areas,” Smythe said cautiously, “that we know of.” Which emphasizes the importance of having this plan.
“It”s important to continue the purpose of the groundwater management plan,” said Ray Mostin, who has been a part of numerous studies of the Big Valley since the 1950s. He asked the board to formalize the components of the GMP to “monitor, analyze and implement an effective management plan to protect our groundwater resources.”
But that will take money; money that the county doesn”t have.
“The Watershed Protection District doesn”t have the funds to implement this plan,” Smythe said in a recent interview. He explained that the Hidden Valley Community Service District, which operates the water system in Hidden Valley Lakes, has spent $1 million over the years “to get a good a model for Coyote Valley.”
The previous Big Valley groundwater study has been updated, Smythe said, which cost $150,000 to do but was covered by a grant. Smythe estimates that the GMP study will cost at least $2 million, which they can do in smaller pieces as grants become available to cover that piece.
“It will take a significant amount of money to do these studies in the GMP,” Smythe said admitting that it”s a really big issue, which may grow even larger as the state of California is calling for an integrated regional water management plan that would encompass not only groundwater but all water surface, drinking water, agricultural uses, wastewater and wastewater recycling. “The entire water picture,” Smythe said, “including flooding issues.”
“That”s really where we need to go,” Smythe said. “This was the first step in that direction.”
And the board agreed to take that first step with them, unanimously.
The GMP can viewed at the Public Works Department, 255 North Forbes St., Room 309 in Lakeport.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com.
