LAKE COUNTY ? Water rights talks between Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and the Lake County Sanitation District will resume Friday morning at the Cache Creek Casino Resort.
The Yolo district has the right to use approximately 150,000 acre-feet of Clear Lake”s surface water annually. Two agenda topics concern Lake County”s ability to use water from its centerpiece lake for drinking and other uses, according to Lake County Supervisor Anthony Farrington. Farrington has attended informal meetings with Yolo representatives since discussions began in 2002.
“It”s long overdue for us to have a more serious dialog about water rights,” Farrington said.
Tim O”Halloran, the Yolo district”s general manager, said the district doesn”t want to frame the discussions as water rights negotiations, but as avenues to improve water supply for both counties. Farrington said he initiated the talks seven years ago to secure surface water rights for Lake County.
One of the topics of discussion is an amendment to a water use contract between the two entities. Representatives from the Lake and Yolo districts stopped talking in May 2007 after the Lake board of directors proposed the amendment, along with a memorandum of understanding. O”Halloran said Yolo district officials found it “inappropriate” that the items were proposed without further discussion.
Regarding the proposed contract change, O”Halloran said, “Frankly, we don”t know what is being requested. We”re not at all in a position to say we would like to amend or not amend the contract; we simply need to know what Lake County is proposing.”
The contract currently allows Lake County to use 7,950 acre-feet annually of water from Clear Lake to fill a pipeline that carries treated wastewater to the Geysers, where it is injected into steam fields. According to Farrington, the amendment would allow Lake County to use the lake water for other purposes as sewer demand rises and the need to use it to fill the pipeline decreases.
Farrington said he will also give a report on the Middle Creek wetlands restoration project, which is expected to add 6,000 acre-feet to Clear Lake once it is complete. Lake County has applied to the state Water Resources Control Board for the right to use the water. He said if the application is approved, Lake County might be able to use up to 2,000 acre-feet of that amount, depending on annual rainfall.
In addition, O”Halloran said plans to draw no water from Clear Lake for irrigation in Yolo County have changed. O”Halloran said earlier this month that it wasn”t likely the district would draw surface water from the lake, because not enough was available to supply a full irrigation season.
“It has not been formally decided yet, but we are now contemplating a limited, approximately two-month release of water, from approximately mid-May to mid-July,” O”Halloran said Wednesday.
Contact Tiffany Revelle a trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
