Collins Lake down to the dregs

The valve that supplies water to Browns Valley Irrigation District irrigation users has been shut off, after several months of rationing, until Collins Lake recovers to normal levels.

Saturday, the water supply was halted altogether to users, district General Manager Walter Cotter said, because there was sufficient rainfall for irrigation customers. The precipitation, though, was not enough to bring the lake back to normal levels.

"I don't know what that means," Cotter said, referring to a "normal" level.

Cotter said the district Board of Directors will discuss lake levels every week until it feels the lake is at a level in which water can again to provided for irrigation.

The lake received 2.75 inches of rain over the weekend.

Scheduled releases of water for Nov. 7 and 8 were also canceled, Cotter said, because of the rainfall last weekend.

The irrigation district issued a notice of a drought and a plan to begin rationing water in July. That ration system limited water allocations for users to two days each week during the summer. Cotter said release of water two days a week is typically a winter protocol, but the low levels of precipitation forced the district to ration early in the season and completely cut off supplies now because conditions have not improved.

The lake was at 38 percent capacity when rationing went into affect. Monday, the lake was down to 14 percent of capacity. Normally, he said, the lake would be between 20 and 25 percent.

"If we didn't have rationing, we'd be dry at this point," Cotter said. "We're not doing well, but the bleeding's stopped."

Though water is turned off, Cotter said, additional water the district receives in ditches after rainfall will be distributed to users.

"But we don't know how much or when that will be," he said.

Collins Lake, which is supplied solely by rainfall, has 120 miles of pipes and 60 miles of ditches to supply irrigation water to foothill communities in and around the lake. The district has 1,500 users.

Though Collins Lake is in a pinch, Curt Aikens, general manager of the Yuba County Water Agency, said Bullards Bar reservoir is faring better.

"We're doing reasonably well considering it was a dry year," Aikens said. "This is a good start, especially compared to others."

Aikens said Bullards Bar is about 51 percent of storage capacity and the weekend rains added 1 percent, or 10,000 acre feet. An acre foot is about 326,000 gallons.

Aikens said he won't know how well the reservoir is doing overall until April, after the rainy season and the snow pack is measured.

Cotter, though, is counting on big rains to get Collins Lake back on track.

"Hope it rains," Cotter said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or akoskey@appealdemocrat.com