LAKEPORT — The county will soon be trying another tactic to deal with algae blooms on Clear Lake after the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday approved an agreement with a contractor who can remove the materials with vacuum dredging.
“We need to get the material out of the lake,” District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing said.
The BOS supported a five-day pilot program allowing Synagro WWT, Inc. to remove algae in Manakee Cove in Clearlake using a process that involves vacuum dredging and dewatering. The remaining materials will be transported to a nearby recycling facility.
“If it works, then we may be able to move it around the lake,” Water Resources Director Scott De Leon told the BOS.
De Leon said Manakee Cove was “probably the most impacted” of the algae-affected spots on the lake.
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said he wanted Synagro to remove algae around Soda Bay. Many resort owners in the area have canceled reservations all summer because of the algae conditions, he said.
“Our businesses are suffering from this,” Brown said.
The other Supervisors indicated support for keeping the initial test limited to Manakee Cove, and the entire board voted to approve the agreement for the five-day program in that area.
The trial will cost more than $50,000 and could begin by mid-August. De Leon said he met with Synagro representatives onsite Thursday and was told the company would need a week to get its equipment mobilized in Lake County.
De Leon will report on the results of the program at a future BOS meeting. The BOS could decide whether to implement Synagro”s process lake-wide after learning of the trial”s outcomes.
In other business, the BOS indicated support for granting an appeal that would allow an existing billboard in Lakeport to remain in place for another five years.
The Lake County Planning Commission in March denied a use permit request by La Monica Signs for a five-year extension for the billboard located at 131 Soda Bay Road. The sign faces Highway 29 and currently contains advertisements for Konocti Vista Casino Resort and Studebakers Coffee House.
The commission based its decision on a provision in the zoning ordinance, which was amended in 2009 to create new operating conditions for billboards in the county. The section allows billboards within an incorporated city”s sphere of influence or in, or within 1,000 feet of, community growth boundaries.
The La Monica sign is located in an industrial area roughly 500 feet outside the city”s sphere of influence. There is no community growth boundary in unincorporated southern Lakeport.
Some Supervisors indicated support for overturning the commission”s decision because they said the intent of the 2009 amendment was not to disallow existing billboards deemed to be in appropriate locations.
“It just makes sense for it to be there,” Brown said.
The BOS voted 4-1 in favor of an intended decision to grant the appeal and direct the County Counsel”s Office to draft a findings of fact document. Rushing dissented. The findings of fact will be presented for BOS consideration during a future meeting, at which time the BOS will issue its final decision.
The Lake County Health Services Department presented a report on the Syringe Exchange Program (SEP).
The BOS designated Any Positive Change in March 2009 as a community-based organization interested in operating an SEP in Lake County. The report provided an update of the second year of the Any Positive Change program.
The SEP distributed 83,195 syringes and took in more than 100,000 between March 2010 and March 2011. Both totals were increases of better than 30 percent compared to the previous year”s statistics.
Lake County Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait said the SEP helps reduce the risks to the public created by unclean or improperly disposed needles.
“The program has operated without apparent negative impacts on the community and has resulted in the appropriate disposal of approximately 100,000 used syringes over the past year,” Tait wrote in a memo to the BOS.
An exact number of drug-users served by the program is difficult to calculate because many people exchange syringes on others” behalf, according to Tait.
The BOS presented a proclamation commending the service of Val Kuhn, a member of Health Services since April 2000. Her accomplishments as immunization coordinator included coordinating annual vaccination clinics that served about 1,000 people a day in both Lakeport and Clearlake.
BOS Chair Jim Comstock read the proclamation aloud as Kuhn stood for recognition and was applauded by colleagues in the audience.
The BOS continued for another week a discussion of whether to award the bid for the Middletown Senior Center and Library project.
The project”s construction estimate was nearly $3.1 million but the low bid, submitted by R?E West Builders, Inc., was almost $3.7 million. County staff requested another week to continue discussions with R?E West about ways to reduce construction costs.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
