December 1, 2022 — The Fort Bragg City Council voted unanimously this week to purchase over 580 acres from the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District, for the purpose of building three 45-acre-foot reservoirs. That’s about 14.7 million gallons each, which is also the capacity of the currently existing Summers Lane reservoir. John Smith, Fort Bragg’s Operations Manager, reported to the Council that, even with that reservoir and the desalination plant, the city, which sells water to nearby communities, is likely to be dependent on stored water for quite some time. The city relies solely on surface water from the Noyo River and two spring-fed sources, Newman Gulch and Waterfall Gulch. Smith said production from the gulches is way down, and dry conditions are likely to continue.
“Newman Gulch and Waterfall Gulch, as I've mentioned before, have been decreasing steadily in the last ten years,” he told the Council. “Most recently in the last five years, Waterfall has decreased by 67%, which is a lot. And Newman, as well, 42% down. Where we do gain some ground in the reverse osmosis world, we’re losing ground elsewhere.”
The city is now in the process of purchasing the six parcels in the property, which, including escrow, could take 4-6 weeks. The maximum amount the city agreed to pay for the land is just over $2.4 million. Though the reservoirs will be covered to reduce evaporation and algae growth, Smith plans to make accommodations for helicopters to pull water for fire suppression. He’s optimistic about finding grant funding to build solar panel covers and a substation for each reservoir, but Smith was careful not to raise the council’s expectations for that particular benefit. “The reservoir solar cover,” he specified; “that’s not a promise. That’s a hope, and something that we will definitely be pursuing.”
In a brief interview after the meeting, Smith said that when he looked into the solar project in 2015, the estimated cost was $7-8 million for each reservoir, at $5 million per substation and $3 million for the solar panels. The whole array could generate a total three megawatts of energy, enough to power the city’s facilities.
Smith expects the reservoirs themselves will take thirty acres of land, leaving 550 acres for basic outdoor recreation. The property is currently zoned for timber production, but the city plans to annex it and place it in conservation.
“Develop a community forest is what we expect to do with it,” he said. “Most of those sensitive species and habitat, you just can’t touch it. You can’t move it. There’s no development, really, that’s possible out there. It’s so sensitive and so rare.”
The reservoirs themselves will not be available for aquatic recreation. According to a staff report, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has six recommendations to protect and rehabilitate the native plant life, which has suffered from illegal dumping and off-road driving. The recommendations include installing wildlife-friendly fencing, removing concrete rubble and barriers, placing boardwalks on the existing trails, removing invasive species, and installing an on-site manager to discourage illegal use of the property.
“Water supply for the reservoirs,” Smith said: “We’re going to fill them during the winter months, as mentioned. We’ve got the pump station at the water plant to help fill them.” He reported that he has spoken with LafCo (the Local Agency Formation Commission), which found nothing complicated about the city’s plans to annex the property. He added that the water rights are based on the reservoirs’ status as off-stream storage of diverted water, which is the same as the Summers Lane reservoir. “The Department of Drinking Water (is) always happy to see us add something that’s going to help our water situation,” he noted. As for Fish and Wildlife, he assured the Council, the agency is “very excited about off-stream storage.”
Mayor Bernie Norvell said he was glad to preserve the majority of the property, and be in a position to continue delivering water to other towns. “It was really difficult, certainly for me, last year, to have to shut off those outside water sales,” he said. “So this goes a long way in that direction. I’m really proud of that. So thank you.”
Rain is in the forecast for Fort Bragg through the weekend, but the amounts have decreased drastically over the last ten years.During public comment, Shelley Green reminded the council that conservation is an important strategy as overall rainfall dwindles.
“Folks in the community did conserve 30% of their water use this year,” she told the Council; “and when we had the Fort Bragg bucket brigade, I developed a simple spreadsheet where people could determine exactly where and how much water they were using in their homes, and learned simple behavior changes and perhaps adapt their plumbing, between $30-$50 per household, in order to cut their use by 50%. So that’s another great resource we can always use, when or before necessary.”
The city is currently working on several other water projects: an $11 million grant-funded overhaul of the water treatment plant and the $8.8 million raw water line project, also funded by a state grant.
Work on building the reservoirs won’t start until after the city annexes the property and lines up a contractor to design them. Smith doesn’t expect to break ground on the project for another 18 months to two years.