Chowchilla leaders eye water storage options
Madera County officials are working on having more water available in lean times as a meter ordinance and a plan for a water balance program will be unveiled in November.
“We need storage, storage and water meters,” said Johannes Hoevertsz, Madera County’s public works director.
“We have these projects we’re calling them water harvesting areas. They’re little areas instead of a big ponding basin and all these collect water.”
Hoevertz said the harvesting areas will be outlined at a Madera County Board of Supervisors meeting next month.
The proposal is part of a larger plan to bolster water storage.
“We’ve got to get it done before the end of the year. If we happen to luck out and get a wet year, people will start forgetting about it and it’ll be 10 years (or) whenever the next drought comes,” District 5 Supervisor Tom Wheeler said at the Oct. 7 meeting.
District 2 Supervisor David Rogers, who represents Chowchilla, agrees that now is the time to act.
“The best hope for us is storage in our own region. When we get the big hit like we did in 2011, stack it away. Our children’s children will bless our name because we used wisdom in this approach. We can’t ignore this situation and expect it to go away. One year’s rain is not going to change it unless we’re prepared,” he said.
Rogers also backs a water balance plan that would include all industries rather than just focusing on agriculture.
One way water balance can be achieved is through recycling water or setting up a one to one ratio in which every gallon of water pumped must be replaced.
The well pumping issue has become a focus for the county because of the drought. Officials want to know how well pumping is impacting the county’s water table.
Meters required on new wells would give the county a way to track how much water is being pumped out of the ground.
The county already monitors the public systems, but he has no idea how soon monitoring can be implemented for private wells.
The Board of Supervisors also is in the process of increasing well permit fees to pay for additional staff to monitor well use.
The new permit fee is estimated to generate $75,000 to $100,000 annually.
District 1 Supervisor Manuel Nevarez said he worries that the board’s attempts to slow down water usage may appear anti-agriculture.
“At the end of the day I really don’t want people to think we hate ag, we don’t, but I am a firm proponent that there’s some times you have to go backward before you go forward.” Nevarez said.
“If we had adequate water storage and we had started to see our aquifer go backwards, hey let’s bring more ag online; but we aren’t there right now.”
This story was originally published October 15, 2014 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Chowchilla leaders eye water storage options."