LAKE COUNTY — Negotiations for water rights to Clear Lake will continue at the next meeting between officials from Lake and Yolo counties in March, according to Lake County District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington.
Two items will be discussed at the March 20 meeting, to be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Cache Creek Casino Resort, both of which concern Lake County”s ability to use water from its centerpiece lake for drinking and other beneficial uses. Farrington has been one of two representatives from the Lake County Sanitation District to meet with two members of the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District during the past five years.
The first negotiation item is an amendment to a contract between the Lake and Yolo water districts that would allow Lake County to use Clear Lake”s surface water for drinking and other purposes for the first time.
The contract currently allows Lake County to use 7,950 acre feet of water from Clear Lake to fill a pipeline that carries treated wastewater to the Geysers, where it is injected into steam fields. The amendment would allow Lake County to use the lake water for other purposes, including drinking.
Farrington said the county has spent $85,000 on an application to the state Water Resources Control Board for the right to use approximately 6,000 acre feet of Clear Lake”s surface water. The Middle Creek wetland restoration project is expected to create that much more surface water for Clear Lake, according to Farrington.
He said if the application is approved, Lake County might expect to use up to 2,000 acre-feet of that amount, depending on the year”s precipitation levels. Farrington said in an efficient water system, one acre-foot is enough to supply up to two households for a year. In a less efficient water system, he said an acre-foot can supply one household for a year.
Farrington said obtaining the right to use that water will also be on the table for discussion in March.
Informal meetings between representatives of the two counties” water districts started back up in October 2008 after discussions stopped in May 2007, when the Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors OK”d two items to propose to Yolo.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
