HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE >> The Hidden Valley Lake Community Services District (CSD) addressed options on Tuesday. The discussion was made necessary by a compliance order from the State Water Resources Control Board to stop making new service connections and secure a more reliable, long-term water supply.
The compliance order had followed curtailment notices that were sent out by the state water board to thousands of junior water right holders throughout the Sacramento and Jan Joaquin River watersheds in late-May.
While Hidden Valley Lake”s three wells, fed by Putah Creek, are its only source of water for human health and safety purposes, the had board allowed for an exception in such cases. However, as California”s droughts are only projected to intensify and lengthen in coming years, the board placed the onus of finding alternative supplies of water on the shoulders of the district in the compliance order it sent on Oct. 17.
The CSD hosted about 40 community members, developers and property owners who spilled out of the board room and into the hallway for the presentation.
Headed by CSD General Manager Roland Sanford, the workshop began with simple explanations of what the compliance order called for and put the district”s issue of water rights into the larger context of the watershed that runs almost 500 miles from the Cascade Range to the Tehachapi Mountains.
Sanford believes the district had been mistakenly caught in a large net when the state decided to curtail junior water right holders” use and that the district held legitimate circumstances for why it should not be subject to such curtailments.
The district plans to argue the water board rescind the curtailment regulations for the district based on these circumstances as its first option, Sanford said. Although the wells” groundwater elevations are approximately 5 feet lower than their historic averages for this time of year, the groundwater basin fully recharges in all but the driest years and has such a capacity that Sanford considers the water source “remarkably stable.” No documented complaints from senior water right holders against the district have been made either, which could also strengthen the district”s case.
Arguing the curtailment regulations could still take six months to a year as the state water board is slammed with managing the state”s drought issues, though.
“Just getting their attention is tough,” Sanford said. “Hopefully it won”t take that long, but we have to work our way up the legal and political flagpole to begin discussion.”
Aside from one person whose paperwork had not been completed by the planning department for a connection to the system at the time of the order, Sanford said no “will serve” letters promising future connections had been sent out.
He also said the district had no idea that a compliance order would be given to the district until mid-October.
During the later part of the presentation, Sanford discussed Hidden Valley Lake”s water rights to the Grange Wells that sit adjacent to Putah Creek. Despite being underground, the water is considered surface, as underflow by the state Division of Water Rights.
However, about 20 percent of the district”s water is considered riparian, or a right to water where a creek, river or stream runs adjacent to property. Sanford said the district would also argue that those riparian water rights be excluded from the curtailment regulations as they have been previously acknowledged by the state board and riparian rights were also excluded from the curtailment regulations.
The district”s second option is was using Hidden Valley”s lake water in times of drought. The cost of treating that water would be significant though and fall on future water users” bills, Sanford said.
An option that has been unofficially supported by the Division of Drinking Water though is continuing to draw water from the wells while releasing an equivalent amount of untreated water from the lake. That plan could take an estimated one to three years to put into action.
The third and final option for the community is to build a new reservoir, which would require an amendment to the district”s water right permit and cost the district millions. The estimated timeline would be three to 10 years and would be the last resort for the district, Sanford said.
Lastly, Sanford urged residents to write letters to the State Water Resources Control Board”s Chair Felicia Marcus, the Division of Water Rights” Deputy Director Barbara Evoy and the Division of Drinking Water”s Deputy Director Cindy Forbes to help nudge the priority of the district”s needs upward.
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” Sanford added.
