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Issues:
Groundwater use throughout Placer County
PCWA addresses groundwater use in three areas of the county, in three very different ways. Those areas are:
Western Placer County, where there is a large valley groundwater basin defined by the American, Bear, and Sacramento rivers — a groundwater plan has been completed for the area, and monitoring of groundwater levels is ongoing. A conjunctive use project is underway with Sacramento Suburban water district, where PCWA makes surface water sales to allow recharge of the groundwater basin. Details can be found in the 2006 Integrated Water Resource Plan (PDF*, 74 MB). Eastern Placer County, where PCWA has established a water supply system drawing from the Martis Valley groundwater basin near the Truckee airport that serves Zone 4 customers — PCWA refers to this as the Eastern Slope water system. Mid-Placer County, where there are no groundwater basins, but groundwater is found in fractured rock formations and accessed by private wells — increasingly, groundwater supplies seem to be overdrawn in some areas. Little is known generally about groundwater in these mid-elevations. PCWA becomes aware of problems as wells fail, and residents look to the countywide water agency for help. PCWA has no authority to oversee or manage groundwater in fractured rock areas.
Let's look closer at the mid-Placer groundwater situation to better understand what is going on.
Mid-Placer's groundwater conditions vary enormously from one area to another. Those of you who have drilled wells know that well yield can vary dramatically within a dozen feet horizontally on the land, or vertically in the myriad geologic strata that make up the Sierra. Three examples might offer a better understanding of what PCWA can and cannot do in differing circumstances: Dry Creek, Applegate, and Foresthill.
Dry Creek. Along Dry Creek Road, residents of the Black Oak Estates started to experience well failure, and there was not adequate water for fire protection. Residents organized into an Improvement District, and partnered with a developer whose multi-unit project was in the permit stage adjacent to Black Oak. PCWA used its countywide tax resources to do a preliminary engineering design, and to assist the neighborhood in organizing the improvement district. Fortunately, the project price was affordable. PCWA's engineering department then finalized plans, put the project out to bid, and oversaw construction with its inspectors and legal department. The project is nearing completion, bringing dozens of residents onto treated water who had been plagued with failing wells. Now their fire protection is up to standards for both available hydrants and fire flow requirements. From the public comment period remarks on September 4, 2008, a Black Oak resident said:
"I want to thank the PCWA staff and the engineering department for really stepping up and cutting through the red tape and solving the issue of our well, which had been very productive in the past, but suddenly went dry and we had nothing. Staff had water to us within a day. It was incredible, and we appreciate it." Applegate. Along Crother Road, wells have begun to go dry as the area becomes more built up and more people are relying on the groundwater resource. Frustratingly, for over five years the situation was studied diligently by neighbors seeking a solution. PCWA again brought tax money to bear and did a preliminary engineering study; the unfortunate result was that because the line distance was long and the density low, the cost was prohibitive, coming in at over $65,000 per resident. PCWA's experience has been that when the cost of an improvement district gets much over $20,000, the efforts seem to unravel due to lack of affordability. The Applegate situation was looked at by all the neighboring water purveyors in addition to PCWA's study, including Weimar Water, a private company, Midway Heights, and Meadow Vista water district. Local residents looked at private sector options, even took an entrepreneurial approach which included an unsuccessful push to get Placer County to seed the effort with $200,000. None of the close to dozen entities were able to overcome the fundamental challenge: too much pipe for too few residents and too high costs. There are new opportunities coming, which I'll look at below. Foresthill. Foresthill PUD got requests from residents in the Yankee Jims Road area for assistance. Wells started to fail as more houses drilled more wells. PCWA made grant funds available from tax money to Foresthill PUD so they might study the situation. The PCWA grant was handled through PCWA's Financial Assistance Program, which has distributed over $1.8 million to public agencies in Placer County; this program relies on the tax revenues PCWA receives, and is made available to water agencies outside PCWA's service areas.
This fractured rock groundwater problem is getting worse in Placer County. I am very aware of this problem, since I have two wells and will shortly drill a third, as one of my wells is 900 feet deep and yields one gallon per minute. One thing we can all do is make information about our private wells available for study, so that we can benefit by more information on what is actually happening in the fractured rock areas. One way to do that is through Groundwater Watch in Nevada County. One of my wells is a test well in their program, making information available so trends can be determined, and our knowledge of what is happening can be improved.
Another source of help will be available post-2013 when Middle Fork Project funds become available to assist water-related problems in Placer County. PCWA's policy statement reads: "Development of new or extension of existing water systems to serve existing homes, neighborhoods and communities that do not have adequate domestic water supplies." Until 2013 and beyond, there are modest grant opportunities available through PCWA's Financial Assistance Program that can help fund planning and needs assessments. Send me a question if you would like more information.
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