Mixed signals as Clear Lake reopens

Public health officer: ‘I am aware that there was some confusion’

Dozens of out-of-county travelers were allowed to launch boats onto Clear Lake over the weekend despite messaging that the lake would be open only to locals, causing confusion among residents and county officials.

Clear Lake, one of the top bass fishing lakes in the country, was reopened Saturday following a sevenweek closure meant to help stem the spread of coronavirus. The lake had been partially reopened on April 23, allowing locals to fish from shore and non-motorized vessels to launch by hand, but ramps and motorized boat use had remained off-limits until the weekend.

Quagga mussel inspectors checked vessels at boat ramps around the lake to ensure the invasive species did not enter the water. Monitors at these ramps logged incoming boats’ points of origin as they issued validation stickers to those that passed inspection— a prerequisite for launch.

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, Lake County Water Resources Director Scott De Leon said, these monitors counted 252 “resident boaters” and 36 “non-residents.”

To some, it came as a surprise that non-local boaters were being allowed on the lake, when official government communications leading up to the reopening had stated otherwise. A May 6 press release issued by Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace was titled, “Clear Lake Expected to Reopen to Local Residents Only Saturday; NonEssential Travel Remains Restricted.”

“I was under the impression that we were only conducting the (quagga mussel) stickers that were in- county,” District 3 Supervisor E. J. Crandell told Pace during a board of supervisors meeting Tuesday. Making a reference to opening Clear Lake to nonlocals, Crandell continued: “I thought that we were going to discuss it at another date.”

Supervisors Moke Simon (District 1), Tina Scott (District 4) and Bruno Sabatier (District 2) voiced similar thoughts.

“The messaging was very, very clear that only local residents were allowed on the lake,” Scott said. “So I think for me, as government, I think people really struggle with trusting us… We have to be very clear with our messaging and making sure that we are not putting one message out but doing something else.”

The decision to open the lake was not made by the board of supervisors, but by Pace—who as a public health officer during a declared emergency has broad powers to limit public activity to prevent the spread of disease.

Responding to questions from this newspaper, Pace offered an explanation for the presence last weekend of non-local boats on Clear Lake.

“I am aware that there was some confusion about the lake opening,” he said. “As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts to what we are trying to do here, and they don’t always get put in place in the proper order. The messaging has been consistent, I think, in that (California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s) shelter in place order is still in effect and people should not be traveling out of the area for boating or use of the lake.”

While boaters coming into Lake County to recreate on Clear Lake are not being forced to turn away— an enforcement-side impossibility, Pace maintained— the public health department’s goal is to discourage them from traveling here in the first place.

“The intent was to open the lake so the local people could benefit from this resource,” Pace said. “I can see that the implication was that some sort of enforcement for people coming from out of town would occur, but we really don’t have that capability to do it. The attempt was to be clear in messaging that people should not travel from out of the area.”

Supervisor Sabatier during Tuesday’s meeting indicated closing Clear Lake to some people but not others would have invited lawsuits.

“It’s either we sell ( boat stickers) to none, or we can sell to all,” he said. “Because if we choose who we sell to then we have the problem of discrimination…If we don’t do it equitably then we have the chance of getting ourselves in some legal troubles.”

Supervisor Crandell said this week that he had received multiple calls from residents confused about the reopening of Clear Lake. Some have raised concerns that out- of- county boaters traveling to Lake County would pose a coronavirus transmission risk.

“Everybody is still considered to be in the sheltering in place, so there shouldn’t be anybody coming here,” said Crandell. Still, he added, “people still travel… that’s just something that is uncontrollable.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Lake County had confirmed only eight patients with the coronavirus inside its borders, every one of which had recovered. Whether more cases of the virus were transmitted last weekend as non-local boaters travelled to Lake County to recreate remains to be seen, given that coronavirus’ incubation period can last up to 14 days, according to the CDC.

“We’ll know in two weeks,” said Crandell.