WATER AGENCY ASKS FOR HELP
Thirty dry wells reported in Butte County
“They no longer take showers in their house. They don’t do laundry, and they don’t do dishes. They are more or less camping at their house.” — Debra Lucero, Butte County supervisor, talking about constituents who have a sputtering well
Drought conditions continue to worsen after an update was presented to the Butte County Board of Supervisors during Tuesday’s meeting.
Christina Buck, chair of the county’s drought task force and assistant director of Water and Resources Conservation said there are more dry wells being reported as well as a shortage of supplies like storage tanks and well materials.
As of Aug. 20, Buck said there have been a total of 30 dry wells reported in Butte County and the wells that have been impacted are less than 200 feet deep. The dry wells are self-reported so there could be other wells that are dry that the county is not aware of. On July 12, there were eight dry wells, mostly in Cohasset and Forest Ranch, that were reported.
Kelly Peterson, water resources scientist for Water and Resource Conservation, added that water levels are low in the areas of Vina, the Butte subbasin and Wyandotte Creek.
In north Vina, water levels are two feet lower than lows seen in the past, Peterson said.
Supervisor Debra Lucero said she spoke with a constituent in Chico who has a well that’s sputtering.
“They no longer take showers in their house. They don’t do laundry, and they don’t do dishes. They are more or less camping at their house,” Lucero said. “I don’t know how many other people are like that.”
Rath Moseley, general manager of South Feather Water and Power Agency, shed more light on the drought situation. The agency provides treated water service to Oroville, Palermo
and Bangor.
Moseley said they have added four to six new customers every month and the bulk water filling stations are seeing about 30 to 40 people every day. Moseley said the stations used to only have about three to four people a day.
Moseley said, however, that state water regulations have restricted the South Feather Water and Power Agency from delivering water to residents. The state, as part of its drought emergency declaration, is requiring a 15 percent reduction in water usage.
Moseley asked the board to consider working with the state so that the agency could be allowed to have licensed potable water haulers to deliver water outside the district and not be penalized for not abiding by a 15 percent reduction.
Board chair Bill Connelly said he would work with other government officials to get some kind of legislation going.
Drought conditions continue to impact agriculture and residential water supplies as well as increase fire risk according to Buck’s report.
Rice production is supplied by surface water and Butte County water district
saw their surface water supplies be reduced by about 50 percent. In the report, Cal Fire said that drought conditions are contributing to short and long term impacts that have led to “explosive fire” conditions.
Lucero said she was concerned about the residents who rent their homes that rely on wells. She said she’s concerned about landlords
who may not want to dig deeper into the well.
“These people are going to move out of Butte County because they can’t live that way,” Lucero said. “I don’t want to lose more people out of Butte County.”
Forest management
The supervisors approved a letter drafted by Doug Teeter regarding concern about wildfire management in the Plumas National Forest.
Originally, Connelly drafted a letter to Thomas
J. Vilsack of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Randy Moore, chief of the Forest Service. Connelly’s letter was about the fire that began in the Plumas National Forest that turned into the North Complex fires and burned Berry Creek, Feather Falls and Brush Creek in September.
The supervisors opted to go with Teeter’s letter which was less “terse” in wording, but still raised questions about the fires within the national forest.