- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
State Water Board hears from residents, officials about Clear Lake’s total maximum daily load program
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Monday meeting state officials hosted to receive input on possibly putting off the compliance date for Clear Lake’s total maximum daily load, or TMDL, drew a standing-room-only crowd to Lakeport City Hall.
More than 80 people filled the council chambers for the meeting, which ran close to two hours and 15 minutes.
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Central Valley Region hosted the public outreach meeting on potential amendments to the Clear Lake Nutrient Total Maximum Daily Load Control Program, including its compliance date, which was June 19.
Water Board staffer Michelle Wood said the meeting’s purpose was to hear the public’s comments, concerns and ideas about the program.
“We’re not going to be making any decisions today,” said Wood.
In fact, Water Board staff during the meeting would explain that they hadn’t yet made any recommendations on program changes to the board, and that the process ahead would be a detailed one involving more opportunities for public comment.
The questions and concerns raised at the meeting will be evaluated by Water Board staff, who will then write them up in a new report that’s put out for public review, update that report with any new information that arises from the public review and then take suggestions to the board. At that point, the public will again have the chance to give input.
Staffer Taran Sahota said Clear Lake has a long history of algae due to being a eutrophic lake. It’s a nutrient-rich lake due to the area’s geology, which is rich in phosphorous.
The increase in earth-moving activities and loss of 80 percent of wetlands led to Clear Lake being placed on a federal list of impaired water bodies in 1986, Sahota said.
Sahota said the lake had been getting better, but then beginning in 2009 algae bloom conditions have increased.
The TMDL, adopted in 2006, calls for a limit of 87,000 kilograms of phosphorus going into the lake each year, Sahota said.
The Water Board reviewed the TMDL program in 2012 based on five years’ worth of data. At that point, Sahota said they realized the program goals may not be realistic due to the Middle Creek Restoration Project being behind schedule.
That project – meant to restore close to 1,700 acres of property along the Northshore to wetland – was identified by the TMDL and other studies as a critical component, as it’s predicted to reduce nutrient loading to Clear Lake’s upper arm by almost a third, she said.
While there are a number of other critical parts of the program, Water Board staff indicated during the meeting that a main issue with moving forward is the delay in the Middle Creek project, with only half of the needed properties acquired.
Lake County Water Resources Director Phil Moy told Lake County News on Monday that funds for Middle Creek property acquisitions were first obtained in 2004.
Moy said $12.8 million has been spent to date for 30 parcels totaling about 850 acres. Another 39 acres totaling about 825 acres remain.
During the meeting it was estimated that $15.2 million is needed to make the remaining property purchases.
Moy said the biggest obstacle is funding, and he’s not yet heard about additional money being made available.
Due to the delays with the Middle Creek project, Water Board staff said they are looking at amending the TMDL program and compliance date.
Community members express frustration, ask questions
Community members during the public comment raised questions about who was responsible for guaranteeing the program followed its deadlines, complained about a lack of enforcement on local and state levels, a complex bureaucracy and not enough state staff to enforce compliance.
Wood explained that program compliance is handled under many different permit programs, all of which have consequences.
She said there also are staffers under multiple regulatory programs, with five people assigned to the Central Valley area – a number that would be faulted for being insufficient.
“Clear Lake is a priority area because of the nutrient TMDL,” she said, noting that staffers have been to Lake County for numerous inspections over the last several years.
Wood encouraged community members to notify them of areas – particularly for irrigated agriculture – that should be inspected.
In response to questions about technologies that are being reviewed to help the lake, Wood confirmed they have investigated them. “One of the struggles with Clear Lake is that it's a huge lake,” and so they haven’t found anything cost effective that would do more harm than good.
Daniel Green, who has extensive experience in permaculture, said he’s discovered that there are approaches that everyone can take to implement permaculture and natural design to help prevent erosion and nutrient load.
He said that every time a cut is made in the dirt, it’s important to replant natural species to catch sediment rather than letter it flow into the lake.
Victoria Brandon, representing the Lake County Sierra Club and Lake County Resource Conservation DIstrict, said nutrient sources have been identified in a general way, but that work needs to be done more in depth in the upper and sub-watersheds.
She said they know that Scotts Creek is producing a lot of nutrients, but they don’t know specifically where it’s coming from.
Peter Windrem, chair of the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch, a fish native to Clear Lake at the state has listed as threatened, said the Middle Creek project is critical both in reducing algae and increasing hitch numbers.
“Money is the issue. Money. Money,” he said, explaining that the county has to come up with the funds to purchase the remaining properties so the US Army Corps of Engineers can remove the levees.
“We are asking that y’all get that money over here, as soon as possible,” he said, noting that the state committed in its 2012 report on the TMDL program to help with the funds.
Tom Smythe, a retired water resources engineer who worked for the county of Lake for 29 years, said the TMDL isn’t adequate as it only focuses on erosion control while not looking at internal nutrient loading on the lake.
He said monitoring of the lake by UC Davis and the county over 25 years showed 500 tons of phosphorous coming out of the lake’s sediment every year, particularly in the summertime. He said that’s more than five times the allocation allowed in the TMDL program.
Smythe said the upper arm of the lake has phosphorous levels in its sediment similar to those of 150 years ago, while in the Oaks and lower arms the sediment level is twice as high.
“We need to know what was happening with this lake 150 years ago and before that,” Smythe said, adding that the US Geological Survey’s studies of Clear Lake have found that it’s been nutrient rich for the last 10,000 years.
While he said tules are important – and 85 percent of them have been lost around the lake – the Middle Creek project will only restore 10 to 15 percent of what was lost.
He would note in followup comments later in the meeting that the Middle Creek project isn’t going to fix everything. “There's no magic bullet. There are a lot of bullets.”
Mike Dunlap said the Middle Creek project isn’t going to happen until eminent domain is allowed. He said that at least three farmers in the area have said they won’t sell under any circumstances.
Sarah Ryan, environmental director for Big Valley Rancheria, said there are many weaknesses in dealing with the lake’s problems, from lack of monitoring for irrigated agriculture, use of septic tanks, herbicide use, off-highway vehicles, illegal marijuana grows and well drilling during the drought. She said the recent fish kills can be linked to cyanobacteria blooms.
While everyone is waiting for Middle Creek, Ryan said other work can be done, including reducing erosion and planting tules.
“To delay it another 10 or 20 years? What does that mean?” she asked of putting off the compliance date.
She said Big Valley Rancheria had to delay its annual tule boat races due to the tribe’s monitoring program finding, for the first time, toxin levels along the rancheria shoreline. Work to aerate the water in that area resulted in the cyanobacteria blooms disappearing, along with toxins no longer being detected.
There also are issues related to water quality, with 70 percent of Lake County’s residents getting their drinking water from Clear Lake. And Ryan said she wasn’t even getting into the impacts on tourism or home values.
“Delay is just not acceptable because the beneficial uses are not being met,” Ryan said.
Harry Lyons, retired biology and ecology professor at Yuba College, is now secretary of the Middle Creek Restoration Coalition. He said they are requesting the water board’s help in connecting to the California Department of Water Resources in order to get grant funds for the project.
Pointing to the $1.9 billion being dedicated to restoring Lake Tahoe, Lyons said $15.2 million is a small amount to dedicate to the world’s favorite shallow green lake.
Brenna Sullivan, executive director of the Lake County Farm Bureau, said the county’s farmers don’t apply phosphorus in their fertilizer because of the soil’s high levels of the nutrient, so reducing phosphorus loading in irrigated agriculture comes from erosion control.
Sullivan agreed with Brandon that more water quality monitoring is needed to get a clearer picture of the sources of the nutrients.
County resident Bill Wetmore said the water is undrinkable, tens of thousands of fish have died off this summer, and the physical and economic well-being of Lake County depend on taking care of Clear Lake – sooner rather than later.
Wetmore said it’s unacceptable to have a lake he and children can't swim in, and reported that he’s hearing from people that the algae and fish kills have become worse.
Ricky DeHerrera, a student at St. Mary’s College whose mother owns a home in the county, said he missed his first day of classes to make the meeting.
A bass fisherman, DeHerrera said he’s been around Clear Lake since 1998 and said conditions are the worst that he’s ever seen, which he blamed on “limp-wristed enforcement.”
“How long do you want to kick this can down the road?” he asked, noting that the county’s economy relies on Clear Lake’s health.
This year he’s seen not just shad and carp die off, but trophy-class bass, catfish and bluegill, and pointed out that bass fishing brings in at least $1 million to the local economy annually.
In followup comments, DeHerrera said that the Water Board needed to hold meetings at times that are more convenient for community members – not in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
Lake County District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele told the group that evidence-based management is critical, and said that since 1994 there hasn’t been the necessary monitoring.
Steele said he worked on Clear Lake decades ago, and said that in 1975, 1976 and 1977 – which were drought years – there was an algal bloom on Clear Lake that was worse this year’s by a long shot.
“Back then we were saying the same things we are today,” he said.
He said there is a need to do more monitoring of vineyards and of the 26 sub-watersheds that feed Clear Lake.
Steele said weather episodes like what occurred this winter drive what happens on the lake. A lot of loose soil is generated by activities all year long, but that makes no difference. What does make the difference is one good storm, he added.
Comments are due on the proposal to amend the TMDL by Sept. 15 and can be sent to Water Board staff: Holly Grover, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Michelle Wood, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; or Taran Sahota, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To subscribe to the Water Board’s Clear Lake TMDL mailing list visit http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/resources/email_subscriptions/reg5_subscribe.shtml . Enter your name and email address and check “Clear Lake Nutrient TMDL.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.