County ending drought program June 30

Self-help Enterprises to take over

With more than 400 Tulare County residences still on tank water, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors Tuesday moved to make the drought relief program’s transition to a non-profit organization as seamless as possible.

Supervisors voted Tuesday to end the county-run program June 30 and turn the filling of some 449 tanks over to Self-help Enterprises which has been managing the tank program.

Jason Britt, Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency director, said the county has been assured the state will offer grants to keep drought relief projects going for another year. The state had initially said it was ending drought funding on June 30, but after several counties, including Tulare, lobbied to have that funding extended, the state agreed to do so by offering grants to counties or non-profits.

“A coalition of small counties have come together to bridge the gap,” said Britt, adding several non-profit organizations joined in that effort.

In a letter to the county, Mark Ghilarducci, director of Cal Office of Emergency Services, said funds will be made available for another year to allow more time for permanent solutions to be found for those whose domestic water wells went dry during the drought.

Britt said the state has not made it official it will offer the grants, but has assured the county it will do so. Britt said an official announcement should come by mid-june.

Tulare County has been the epicenter of the drought and at one time had more than 800 water tanks placed at residences, most of those in East Porterville. However, since the state decided to spend $50 million to extend the City of Porterville’s water system to East Porterville, more than 250 tanks have been removed because those residences were connected.

Phase II of that project, expected to begin construction next month, will hook up about 700 more homes, bringing the total to nearly 1,000 homes out of the 1,100 in East Porterville.

However, Britt said there are still dry wells and people relying on the tanks for their nondrinking water supply. The board on Tuesday also removed the moratorium it placed on new tank connections, with Britt saying there are 10 or 12 more applicants already with the county to get a tank. After June 30, however, no new tanks will be installed in the county.

Not impacted is the bottled water program which was done handin-hand with the tank program. The tank water is not for drinking, but residents got bottled water for that. That program is funded separately and will continue, although a county official said the number of homes on the bottled water program has dropped considerably.

Britt said there are still 33 residences where no solution has been found. He did say several homeowners have taken it upon themselves to drill a new well or repair their existing well and said the number of residences with no solution dropped by about 20 in the past couple of weeks. In some instances, the old wells began pumping water once again.

Self-help Chief Executive Officer Tom Collishaw said his organization was up to the challenge. Self-help has been installing and coordinating the filling of the tanks for more than a year. The state said this month that the tanks now belong to Self-help.

“We agreed it makes sense for Self-help to take the lead from here on out,” he told the board. He also noted there are only about half as many tanks being used as their were at the peak of the drought.

Despite the good news of the state saying it will continue some funding for up to a year, Supervisor Steven Worthley said he was concerned with the number of tanks still in use.

“There is a serious problem looming here,” he said of a need to find more permanent solutions, but noted it is up to the property owners. “People need to get with it,” he said, suggesting after the year is up, all water deliveries will come to an end.