Following two years of less-than-normal rainfall, a number of Lake County residents are concerned about a continued drought and the availability of water. A drought impacts people as well as fish and wildlife. As the water table drops, it affects domestic water supplies and farmers have less water to irrigate their crops.
I made a fishing trip to Indian Valley Reservoir last week. The hills around the lake are already brown and most of the streams have dried up. The lake itself is fast becoming little more than a giant mud puddle as water is being drawn out for irrigation. It was a scene more reminiscent of late summer than late spring.
Most of the water in Lake County comes from groundwater and there is only so much available. Clear Lake has plenty of water but Yolo County owns most of it and isn”t about to give it up without a fight. A major problem is that Lake County doesn”t really know the amount of groundwater available for future use. Very few studies have been done on the existing water table and no one really knows how much water is pumped from the ground every day.
Down through the years a number of people have suggested building more dams. That”s a great idea, but in today”s political climate the chances of new dams being built is practically zero. Dams could be built in areas that would have little impact on the environment and provide not only water but recreational opportunities as well.
Creeks that are normally dry during the summer months could be dammed up so that small lakes could be formed during the wetter winter months. Indian Valley Reservoir is a good example. Prior to the dam being built in 1972, the North Fork of Cache Creek either completely dried up during the summer or was little more than a trickle of water. Now there is a lake that”s six miles long and two miles wide. It provides water to Yolo County, which has resulted in less water being taken from Clear Lake.
Similar dams could be built in other areas in the county. For years there has been talk of building a dam on Scotts Creek. Most of Scotts Creek dries up during the summer months and the surrounding hills are little more than thick brush. A dam would have minimal impact on the environment but would provide valuable water for the county. There are other areas in the county where small dams could be constructed.
The new lakes would also recharge the ground water and give the local wells a boost. As it now stands in many areas, wells are drying up or the water table has dropped to dangerously low levels.
Another problem is that everyone talks about water conservation but few do anything about it, and that includes our local governments.
Years ago cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas thought they had all the water in the world for future growth, but now there is strict water rationing. Fifteen years ago I did some consulting work at the nuclear power plant in Phoenix. In my spare time I would drive through the neighborhoods and examine the way they watered their lawns, which was to flood them at night. The result was that thousands of gallons of water ended going down the storm drains.
When I mentioned to a state official that it was a terrible waste of water, he laughed and said they had so much water they didn”t know what to do with it. How wrong he was. Now they have strict water rationing and lawns are even forbidden in some areas.
Most of the rural homes in Lake County have their own wells and they can pump all the water they want, which lowers the water table. When I moved to Lake County in 1985 there were only four wells near my property, but now there are 14 as more homes have been built and some of these wells produce less than three gallons per minute.
The county should consider installing (at no cost to the landowner) meters on wells selected at random. The meters could be read every other month and the static water depth in the wells could be read once a year. That would give the county planners a good idea of how much ground water is being used and what is available for future growth.
The county should also require that all agriculture use drip irrigation. Many farmers are already doing that but others are still using the flood method or overhead sprinklers. Both waste a lot of valuable water.
All life requires water to survive and without it both humans an wildlife would cease to exist in a hurry. It just makes good sense to preserve this precious resource for our future generations.
