Drought Task Force to form water resources team
August 16: The Drought Task Force Committee met Monday morning to hammer out more details about how to form a water agency, now being called a water resource team. But questions about where the entity is going, and what it will ultimately do, remain.\n \nThe formalization of the task force, which is now a Board of Supervisors standing committee currently meeting under the rubric of the Public Health, Safety, and Resource committee, is part of a state mandate to respond to the drought. While potable water and ag water are top of mind at the moment, the scope of the drought is immense. And the extent of local expertise is unknown, with regional experts scattered among 42 water agencies. There are no licensed hydrogeologists in Mendocino County, and hydrologists are thin on the ground.\n\nThe county did not use all the funds from last year\u2019s $2 million grant from the State Department of Water Resources to haul water from Ukiah to Fort Bragg. That program was administered by the Department of Transportation, which is where the water agency is currently housed. DoT Director Howard Dashiell gave committee members Supervisors John Haschak and Glenn McGourty an update on the remaining money.\n\n\u201cIf you just look at the contract commitment we\u2019ve got, like, eight or nine hundred thousand dollars for sure that\u2019s available, but if we don\u2019t start hauling water and we don\u2019t meet some of those contract commitments, it could be a million. Those are the estimates\u2026I looked at the grant eligible activities, and didn\u2019t see a lot of flexibility there. Some of the other things like, I know the community would really like to do groundwater monitoring in many of our basins, and trying to get a handle on what the capacity of some of our aquifers are, I didn\u2019t see those kinds of activities, which have been popular in the past, as eligible under that particular grant.\u201d \n\nIn the meantime, the state is opening up applications for $300 million in urban grant awards, and Round Valley won a grant of close to half a million dollars to monitor groundwater in Covelo.\n\nFor now, the Board of Supervisors has agreed to work with the UC Davis Cooperative Extension to hire a consultant to come up with proposals for countywide water projects. The process of hiring the consultant could take four or five months. The county hired GEI Consultants last year to work on establishing a standalone water agency. Depending on how much more work they do on their current $306,000 contract, there is between $40,000 and $80,000 left over.\n\nDashiell told the committee what he\u2019s looking for, in response to his request for proposals from a consultant. \u201cA lot of times I\u2019ll put out a proposal for a bridge \u2014 I\u2019m sorry to keep using road and bridge examples, because that\u2019s really what I know,\u201d he began. \u201cBut I know I want to get from this side of the river to the other side. And often I\u2019ll get a proposal that just blows my socks off on how to do that. So to some extent I\u2019m looking for whoever proposes on this, how to take this bucket of things we said we want, and gives us a nice proposal on how to do that. And obviously, that\u2019ll be translated into a contract the Board and the public will get to look at.\u201d\n\n\nDevon Boer, the Executive Director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, wants more clarity on who will be responsible for what. \u201cIn terms of the consultant, I\u2019m still not 100% clear on what role UC potentially could play,\u201d she said. \u201cWho is going to be in the role of the standard everyday water agency requirements related to the quagga zebra mussels, some of the issues with water rights up here on the east side of Ukiah, the USGS gauge and other things, are sort of the everyday responsibilities of the water agency\u2026if there\u2019s going to be money expense, we want to see it be productive and complementary to what\u2019s happening, and at this point in time, I\u2019m just not sure, personally, where this is going.\u201d\n\nDuring the budget workshops, the Board authorized $250,000 from the PG&E settlement funds for the water agency. Earlier this month, they agreed to spend up to $190,000 a year on assembling the team. If the money is not spent, it will go back into the PG&E fund.\n\nJim Shields, the manager of the Laytonville County Water District, urged the committee to compile the expertise he says the county already has, and argued for a five-member technical advisory committee that would prioritize capital projects. \u201cWater production is overseen and managed by local government public utility professionals who are the true experts in water related matters,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re the most valuable resource the county has available to rely and depend on at this time for their expertise and professional insights into water related matters. What we need to do is send out a letter to all the water agencies in the county, requesting they get this information to us\u2026I believe this is something we need to get started as soon as possible.\u201d\n\nDeborah Edelman, the water program manage...