(Left) Peter Kampa, General Manager Lake Don Pedro Community Services District answers a question from the public during a Drought Emergency meeting held on March 9, 2015 at the Don Pedro High School in Mariposa County.
On Saturday Mr. Kampa said Lake McClure is still over 10% of capacity but the inflow has slowed down significantly with no more snow melt in the mountains and now more water is going out of Lake McClure than what is coming in.
The lake will drop about a foot a day and the district will not be able to access the lakes water with the emergency pumps after about the second week in October.
Currently their is about 80 feet of water under the pumps that will be gone by October. The Federal Government has told the Merced Irrigation District (MID) that it cannot deliver water to the Don Pedro residents below minimum pool (which is just a number of acre feet to be left in the lake). Below that level the Federal Government feels endangered species will be impacted. So the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District is restricted with their ability to get water out of the lake.
About two weeks ago the district was told this minimum pool was expected by about the second week of August so they made plans to not have water in August.
But on Thursday, July 2, 2015 the district received notice that the Federal Government authorized MID to deliver water to the district below the minimum pool. To do this MID has to perform a fish rescue plan and other requirements.
Speaking about problems that could occur Mr. Kampa said hotter than expected weather could increase evaporation shortening the period from the expected October cut-off. The hotter water could also effect the water quality and may not be usable. Hotter weather could also cause the districts customers to use more water and system failure could also occur.
The General Manager said there are four groundwater wells currently under construction that will cost $2,000,000 total.Currently they have $1,800,000 in grant funding. They are still looking for the additional funding of $200,000. The district has kicked in about $300,000 from their reserves to help pay for the wells.
Mr. Kampa said they have had great support from the Department of Water Resources, State Water Board and USDA Rural Development. The wells could not have been drilled without the grants.
They are looking at ways to get surface water from a deeper area in Lake McClure. Possibly even an emergency pump could be installed on Lake Don Pedro but that is a big hurdle to overcome. Mr. Kampa feels once the new wells are online they will be okay after October.
The District is looking for a large grant to replace their water surface lines because they had close to a 50% loss in their system last month. When the district was formed inferior pipe and construction methods were used when installing the water lines to the homes. This would be about a $2,800,000 project to replace the lines.
The districts customers have cut water usage by 55% during May 2015 compared to May 2014. And by 61% compared to May 2013.
