"We Control Our Destiny" 

County wins control over water service 

By Phil Hayworth

Pioneer Press Staff Writer

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

530-468-5355

mailto:pioneerp@sisqtel.net

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Page W 1 

Siskiyou County's farmers and irrigators have just dodged a major bullet.

The state Department of Water Resources was set to bump water-monitoring costs more than 500 percent, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed off on legislation that allows counties to take over their water "master" service.

The water service is run by the Department of Water Resources and requires that every county waterway, river and tributary each week be monitored for water taken for uses such as irrigation.

But now, thanks to the newly minted law, counties such as Siskiyou, along with Shasta and other nearby counties, can hire an "independent" monitor, cutting the state's bureaucracy-heavy apparatus out of the whole process.

"We control our destiny," said Jim Wilson, SOSS member. "This allows us, if we can have an independent water monitor, to not be at the whim of the state."

Word of the newly signed bill was announced Saturday night by its sponsor, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, at the third Save Our Shasta and Scott Valleys' fundraiser at the Siskiyou County Fairgrounds.

The problem, said SOSS president Stan Sears, was that the state wanted to increase the charges for water-monitoring service by 500 percent. And that would have sunk small irrigation districts. For example, it costs the Montague Irrigation District over $12,000 to pay for the service now. That cost would have jumped to more than $60,000 if the bill hadn't been signed, he said. 

"For an irrigation district like Montague, with a budget of $200,000, that's a lot," Sears said.

He said the state's explanation for the huge cost increase is that it simply costs that much to do the job. But Sears sees it differently.

"You've got one guy in the field and ten others back in Sacramento pushing papers around," he said. "Government can't do it better than private industry."

The SOSS event was expected to rope in nearly $100,000 -- and it looks like the coalition of ranchers and businesses that make up the SOSS's membership is going to need the money.

That's because the group, while still reveling in its victory over the water master bill last night, will likely continue to be embroiled in a fight over how much organic and other runoff can be allowed into the Shasta River. Called the Total Maximum Daily Load, the Environmental Protection Agency is threatening to change the loads now allowed, and any change could negatively affect ranchers and farmers in the county who, among other things, would have to curtail their "tail water" by implementing expensive changes to their operations.

The SOSS paid big bucks for lawyers and others to write legislation and lobby Sacramento politicians to allow the county to take over the "water master" service. At least four other counties are now inline to take over their own water service. 

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