Lake County Record Bee
Published October 13, 2005

Cache Creek Bill SIgned

By Terre Logsdon

SACRAMENTO -- Last Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1328 designating 31 miles of Cache Creek in Lake and Yolo counties as a state Wild, Scenic and Recreational river.

This designation begins one-quarter mile below Cache Creek Dam ending at Camp Haswell; another section begins at the North Fork of Cache Creek from the Highway 20 bridge and ends at the confluence with the main fork.

The designation will not affect current water diversions on private property along the creek, nor will it affect any changes for current public water agencies.

The bill states that a "special provision must be made to ensure that serving the reasonable water supply and flood control needs of the County of Lake are balanced with protection of the designated segments of Cache Creek."

Victoria Brandon, Lake Group chair of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter, said group members "were absolutely thrilled" with the bill's passage.

In June, the Lake County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support this bill. However, the board had initially voted 5-0 against the bill in April, only changing its stance after a series of meetings were held and provisions added to protect the county's water rights.

"This bill protects the environment and the water rights of many diverse stakeholders. The governor did the right thing, not only for local residents, but for all Californians" Ed Robey, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, told Cache Creek Wild, a group who organized to protect Cache Creek.

But Jeff Sutton, executive director of the Family Water Alliance, said the designation "is truly unfortunate."

"The process was bad, the policy is bad, and the message to Northern California agricultural communities is bad," Sutton stated.

He said he feels that this bill did not take into account effective local management of Cache Creek. "People will continue to work together, but there will be more hoops to jump through," he said.

"This amounts to nothing more than a designer label sought after by environmental organizations," Sutton stated. "We're worried that the language will be insufficient to protect other interests. It takes away flexibility."

Mercury pollution remediation will not be affected, providing that it does not require the building of a dam, reservoir, diversion or other water-holding facility, which Sutton said will be a problem because remediation will be "more expensive and less effective."

Detention dams, he said, which let particulates settle out, won't be an option any longer.

Mercury pollution remediation is an ongoing concern in Lake County (see Saturday's Record-Bee about the Red Elephant mine) and much of Northern California. Cache Creek has already been designated an "impaired waterway" because of levels of mercury.

In 1995 the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) determined that almost one ton of mercury can be transported down Cache Creek during heavy runoff. This runoff can make its way all the way to San Francisco Bay.

Invasive and nonnative plant species (plants that are not native to the area and may out-compete native vegetation that our wildlife depend upon) and animal species, will continue to be removed and native plants restored.

"This is the first step toward federal designation that will bring with it even further regulatory hurdles," said Sutton, although specific language in the bill prohibits proponents of the bill to seek federal designation.

Conservation groups who backed the bill, according to the Cache Creek Wild Web site, include Friends of the River, Cache Creek Wild, Trout Unlimited, Sierra Club and numerous other organizations. Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP America) also endorsed the legislation.

© Copyright 2005 by Lake County Record Bee