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Indian Valley Record " Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 5A
Water: Valley residents' frustration grows
from page 1A
office of Keith Mahan,
Plumas County agricultural
commissioner.
People have had since 2004
to figure out an alternative,
yet the state kept funding the
program temporarily -- until
now.
Anderson explained this
to supervisors before that meet-
ing in Taylorsville, and he told
them how letters were sent out
to the water users after the
governor's 2004 decision to stop
funding support of the water-
master service program.
"There was a large outcry
from the water users," he said.
"The Farm Bureau, legislators,
various people got involved."
That is why the temporary
funding was restored, to give
them time to find other alter-
natives.
"There are other areas that
have decided to have other
entities provide watermaster
service," Anderson said.
"And that's allowed by the
California water code."
If there are other ways
to provide a watermaster
service, and people want to
move forward, Anderson's
staff members will be able to
help do that, he added.
Brian Morris, general man-
ager of the Plumas County
Flood Control and Water
Conservation District, ex-
plained one such alternative.
He has been working with
water rights holders and super-
visors of both P!umas and
Sierra counties, and fornally
proposed they form a joint
powers agreement.
"So why would we wish
to step into a position of
once again inserting another
layer of government into the
picture?" Supervisor Sherrie
Thrall wondered. "Why
couldn't the water users form
their own district without the
county involvement?"
Morris said they could,
and that would probably be a
better solution, but the time
element was a problem -- it
would take at least two years.
"We've tried to do every-
thing we can within a joint
powers agreement to make it
financially self-supporting
and indemnify the counties,"
Morris added.
Besides forming their own
district, water users could
also use an existing public
agency as their watermaster,
Morris explained.
Later in Taylorsville, water
users liked both options, a
joint powers agreement and
using a public entity, which
they chose as the agricultural
commissioner, since much
of the equipment needed is
already available.
The startup and overhead
costs, they figured, would be
minimal.
Morris hopes to have some-
thing in place before the
county must turn over the
watermaster fees to the state
Jan. 1.
Anderson explained that
in Lassen, when they took
Over their own watermaster
program, the money that was
owed to his department was
taken out of those fees, and
the rest ,was retained to help
with the startup costs.
In Siskiyou, the county
loaned the new water district
$25,000 for startup.
"If you can find a way to do
it cheaper, I would have done
that yesterday," Anderson
told the crowd in Taylorsville.
Can rancffers just do
their own watermastering?
This question was posed on
District 2 Supervisor Robert
Meacher's porch in Genesee
by a couple of ranchers, and
in the board meeting room by
Harry Rogers, of the Key
Brand Ranch.
"That would have to be
petitioned to the judge,"
Anderson said.
They would need to explain
why the program is not
needed anymore.
"It was created for a
reason, and you would have ;
to say why that is no longer
the case," he said- and later
on the phone said no one
really knew any longer what
those original reasons were.
Supervisors agreed to the
joint powers concept in a 3-2
vote.
Meanwhile; Andrea Oilar
from the agricultural com-
missioner's office is helping
study the issue to see if they
will be able to help, as agreed
to without opposition by the
ayes of gathered ranchers.
Editor's Note: Staff Writer
Dan McDonald contributed
information from the Plumas
County Board of Supervisors
meeting Tuesday, Sept. 20.
Watermaster history in Indian Valley
Alicia Knadler
Indian Valley Editor
aknadler@plumasnews.com
Indian Creek Decree
Superior Court Judge Ben V.
Curler finalized, adjudicated
and decreed the Indian Creek
system water rights in Decem-
ber 1950, with an amendment
in 2004 to add a movable
diversion point on the main
creek at the request of peti-
tioner Gonzalo Gonzales to
benefit parcels 008-160'-23 and
008-160-24.
Five petitioners, including
water rights holders F.H. Dill,
D.R. Strong, J.E. Cardoza,
W.A. Snyder and Arthur Peter,
initiated this decree process.
After the state investiga-
tion, water resources person-
nel decided the public interest
would be served by the
adjudicated decree the five
petitioners had asked for.
There followed more state
investigations and studies of
the streams and diversions,
and all the legal notices,
proofs and time for objections
required by law for such pro-
ceedings -- all paid for by
some, but not all of the water
right holders.
A list at the end of the court
documents showed that the
state had underestimated the
costs entailed in this process
and apportioned out the re-
mainder, which was divided
up between 25 of the rights
holders, mainly ranchers at
the time, the most being
charged to the owners of
what is now known as the
Heart K Ranch.
Watermaster service areas
California Water Code Part
4, Chapter 2, requires the
state to be divided into water-
master service areas.
On the state water website,
the claim is that watermaster
service areas are created by
the Water Resources Depart-
ment either at the request of
water users or by order of the
Superior Court.
Proof of why the Indian
Creek Watermaster Service
Area was created is missing,
though, according to North-
ern Region Water Manage-
ment Branch Chief Bill
Mendenhall.
If they do still have those
old records, they are buried
somewhere in a tunnel, or
archived in a location
unknown to him.
The local watermaster
service area was created by
order of a state engineer in
the public worksdepartment,
A.D. Edmonston, who did not
include in his order any history
of requests by users or judges.
He claimed the most practi-
cal and economical super-
vision of the distribution of
water on the part of the state
would best be accomplished
' by the creation of the water.-
master service area.
Edmonston also included in
his order which water rights
holders would be included in
the service area, and which
would not.
This too is provided for in
the code: The state may also
enlarge, reduce, consolidate
or abolish the areas "as conve-
nience of administration may
require."
Excluded from the water-
master service area at the time
were those with rights to the
mineshaft water in Crescent
Mills, Bidwell Water Company,
several ranchers and others.
Then in 1959, officials ex-
cluded rights holders in the
upper reaches, because eight
years of experience had
proven the need for such
service no longer existed.
This decision seems con-
trary, though, for in the
watermaster report that year,
it claims the Clover Valley
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system required regulation;
that by July there was about
80 percent of the allotments,
and that the supply from then
through the rest of the season
remained "fairly constant."
Upper reach water users
were in much better shape
than those inthe lower
reaches.
According to the report, a
subnormal snow pack com-
bined with unseasonably
warm and dry weather created
"one of the poorest water
supply years since the water-
master service was initiated."
There were no extraordi-
nary notes to follow for Indian
Creek, just that this irrigation
season followed practices of
past seasons and that the
automatic water stage
recorders were operated by
the state water personnel.
There were notes on Wolf
Creek, though, that by the
end of July no water was
available for third priority
rights holders, and that
seconds were receiving only
about half of their allotments,
while a pump installed in 1958
continued to be operated ,
for use on the Posch and
Frederickson ranches.
And the flow of Williams
Creek was only able to pro-
vide stock water to the Dodge
Ranch.
On Lights Creek that year,
water did not reach the De-
Fanti Ranch'by the end of July,
though stock water in the
lower ditch on the Peter
Ranch was maintained
throughout the season.
There was also an issue with
the Mill Race that year,
though when users fixed a
leaky gate, it was somewhat
resolved.
It is interesting to note that
exactly the same report for
this diversion is given again in
1960.
Last Chance Creek experi-
enced problems as early as the
beginning of April, and in
June rotation was stopped
even for first priority users.
The lack of problems in
some areas during 1959 was
attributed to a large carryover
of stored water where there
were reservoirs.
There was another amend-
ment to the service areas in
1960, this time with an expla-
nation.
The changes were needed
for the convenience of admin-
istration, so state water offi-
cials excluded three more
rights holders, and put back in
one of two ranchers with
exclusive rights'to Hungry
Creek water, and the only
ones to store water in Taylor
Lake -- the Heart K.
Mendenhall insists changes
like these are only made when :
the rights holders are involved i
somehow. "
Maybe they asked to be
excluded, he explained, and !
maybe officials agreed after
investigating the situation.
The decrees, the water-
master service area history
and other official documents
pertaining to water rights in
the Indian Creek watershed
are available online at
water.ca.gov/watermaster.
Once there, click on Service
Areas in the gray box that lists
northern region items, then
on Indian Creek.
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