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Lake Water Rights May Return

Posted on: Sunday, 1 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Andrew Silva, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

Dec. 31--The water supply won't be cut off to residents of Lake Arrowhead after all, provided the state water board agrees next month that water from the lake can be used for drinking and landscaping.

"It sounds wonderful to me. It's everything the doctor ordered," said Theodore Heyck, a property owner in Lake Arrowhead and a board member of the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District.

The district supplies water to more than 7,500 homes and businesses, with most of the water coming from Lake Arrowhead.

Before he was elected to the board, it was Heyck who initiated the complaint that challenged the district's water rights during a time when the lake was at record-low levels following a five-year drought.

In response to the complaint from Heyck and a separate complaint from the Arrowhead Lake Association, which owns the land under and around the lake, a preliminary order from the state went further than anyone expected.

The State Water Resources Control Board in August issued an order stating the district had no right to use any water from the lake for domestic uses.

If that order were to stand, the district would have to spend tens of millions of dollars to find alternative water supplies, leading to skyrocketing costs for community residents.

Following three days of hearings last month in Sacramento, a new draft order was issued Friday.

That order agrees the district does have rights to draw a limited amount of water from the lake, based on plans in 1923 to develop property around the privately owned lake.

The order says the district has rights to 1,566 acre-feet of water.

The district has pulled as much as 3,000 acre-feet from the lake, but has been working for several years to reduce its reliance on lake water by drilling wells, imposing strict conservation requirements and working out a deal to buy water imported from Northern California.

"It would be nice if we didn't have a fixed historical figure," said newly elected board member Mary Ann Dickinson.

She was happy the order recognizes the district does have rights to some water, but worried the number leaves the district no flexibility to take more water during wet years.

"We could take it from the lake and not pay $2,750 (an acre-foot for imported water)," she said.

If adopted, the order requires the district to develop a plan within 60 days stating how it will cut its use of lake water. It will have to meet the target by the end of 2007.

It further imposes a temporary moratorium on making new water connections, making it essentially a moratorium on new development, until a plan is approved.

The proposed order also imposes a $112,000 fine for illegal water diversions, which is less than the original proposed fine of $182,500.

The 1,566 acre-foot limit is almost identical to the 1,555 acre-foot limit in a separate agreement between the district and the Arrowhead Lake Association. That deal requires the lake to be kept at a certain level, and the limit is based on a 10-year average, meaning there is flexibility to use more water during wet years.

And it would prevent drawing the lake down too far during droughts.

Dickinson said district lawyers will be looking at the proposal next week.

A final decision on whether the district can continue to pull water from the lake is expected from the State Water Resources Control Board on Jan. 13.

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Copyright (c) 2005, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

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Source: San Bernardino County Sun

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