July 29, 2015 - At the July 28, 2015 Mariposa County Supervisors meeting the Board listened to a presentation on the Dry Well Program in the county.

Mariposa County Environmental Health Specialist Dave Conway said it is wonderful to be able to see people that you are helping and there is no greater basic public health need than water.

Governor Brown signed an executive order in September of 2014 authorizing funds to provide drinking water and sanitation water to individuals and households.

The Mariposa County Board of Supervisors in December of 2014 gave authorization to apply for funding and in February of 2015 Self-Help Enterprises was selected as a private non profit to run the program.

The reimbursement rate is 100% and currently around $75,000 has been spent.

Water deliveries to homes in Mariposa County began in April of 2015.

As of July 24, 2015 there are 74 households that have been approved for water deliveries, with three pending inspections. Three households have decided to wait on having water deliveries.

18 homeowners did not meet the standards, the well was not dry.  Some of those homeowners just wanted to be on the list as they anticipate problems in the future. Several had an electrical or piping problem in the well and they were helped to get the system back in operation. Total contacts have been 101.

41 homes needed to have water tanks installed.

100,000 gallons of water have been delivered by the end of this week. Each home has averaged 1,331 gallons of water a week with an average of three persons in a home. 22 homes have an evaporative cooler.

Deliveries by Supervisor District: 14 in District 1, 7 in District 2, 31 in District 3, 23 in District 4 and 26 in District 5.

Calls have been coming in from people saying they were running out of water before their allotment was up. The Health Department had not factored in the water usage by evaporative coolers. The average evaporative cooler can use up to 66 gallons a day.

Some of the wells produce a small amount of water and those have been plumbed into the water storage tank, which reduces the needed number of water deliveries.

There are NO income requirements to participate in the program

Dave Conway said the process begins with a citizen calling the Health Department with about a 15 minute interview for gathering basic information. Then an inspection date is set up, which could be that same day.

The Health Department inspects the well to verify that the well is dry. The department then sends the information to Self-Help Enterprises. If the owner has their own storage tank water is immediately ordered and sometimes will be delivered the same day.

If the homeowner does not own a storage tank then Self-Help Enterprises is contacted with a 72 hour commitment to the Health Department that a site assessment will be performed to determine the best location for a tank.
Then a local contractor is selected to install the tank system, the contractor installs the system and water deliveries begin.

A water budget is setup according to how many people live in the residence.

Each person is allowed 50 gallons a day. For houses with evaporative coolers an additional 66 gallons a day is added in to the daily allotment. Most people have stayed within that budget and if they exceed it the program will not pay for it.

Residents drilling new wells or deepening their wells almost equals the number of people enrolled in the water delivery program.

The department is currently looking to see if after the program is over if the homeowners could keep the storage tanks.

Funding for this program is projected into 2018.

This program is currently a yearly program and the homeowners are going to be encouraged to begin saving money for a well. Self Help Enterprises also has a $11,000 loan program to eligible families for a well. 

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Supervisors packet information:

Receive an update on the results of the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA) Dry Well Program. Dr. Ryder and Mr. Conway seek an opportunity to up-date the BOS on this activity during its first 2.5 months

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY:
The CDAA Program was first implemented on May 1, 2015. Under the terms of this act, eligible Mariposa County citizens or renters of properties within the County were able to have:
(1) a 2500 gallon plastic tank properly placed on the premises (if one was not previously on the premises);
(2) proper hook-up of the tank to the existing household water distribution system;
(3) have water delivered at no cost to the property owner/occupier with the proviso that water consumption be limited to daily use of 50 gallons/day for each occupant spending nights at the premises.

The County subsequently subcontracted with Self-Help Enterprises (SHE) for tank installation and hook up. SHE in turn subcontracted with Bezak Liquid Transport for water delivery. Bezak is the only licensed water hauler in the County.

On December 14, 2014, the Board approved the Health Department’s application to the state for a CDAA dry well funding application with Resolution 14-662 that included the proviso that the Health Department bring back an implementation plan once it had been drawn up. The County was subsequently awarded this opportunity. On February 10, 2015, the Board approved the plan for implementing the CDAA with Resolution 2015-74. On February 25, 2015, the Board approved establishing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Self-Help Enterprises (SHE) with Resolution 2015-87.