From Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, this is the KZYX News for Friday, Sept. 3. I’m Sonia Waraich.
Eric Hillesland and his wife Elaine own two inns in the town of Mendocino – the Raku House Inn and Alegria Oceanfront Inn and Cottages. They’re across the street from each other and have an amazing view of the ocean.
In the two decades that they’ve owned the place, Hillesland said they’ve usually had to buy water for the inn, but it’s never been at the magnitude it is right now.
Hillesland has had to pay more to haul that water, too. He was paying $300 per truckload at the start of the year when water was available from Fort Bragg and was paying $600 per truckload last month when it was coming from Irish Beach.
Demand has been high. Summer is Mendocino’s busy season and people have been flocking to the coast more this year than in years past.
Hillesland and other coastal business owners say they’re not worried. They feel confident that the local government is going to handle the situation. Especially since Tuesday when the county supervisors unanimously decided to cover most of the cost of long-hauling the water to the coast for businesses. So far that’s only for the first four or five weeks of countys new water hauling program.
Josh Metz has been hired by the county to coordinate its drought response. He describes the program.
Earlier this summer, the City of Ukiah agreed to send some of its water supply to the coast, but how to deliver the water in an efficient and cost-effective is still a question. The county was initially considering using the Skunk Train to get the water to Fort Bragg, but that plan fell apart. For the past few weeks, the county has set its sights on trucking the water to the coast, but it’s still searching for a way to pay for it.
Despite that,at the virtual meeting on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors said it would subsidize 100% of the long-hauling cost for residents and 80% of the cost for businesses. Residents and businesses would still have to pay the water and local delivery costs.
Last month, the supervisors decided to start the program with just under $1 million from the county’s $22 million PG&E disaster settlement fund. Supervisors expressed the desire to replenish the PG&E funds quickly through other funding sources like tax revenue generated by tourists or state grant money. That’s because the settlement money has become a bit of a sore spot.The board almost approved a list of projects to fund with the PG&E money last month until it got negative feedback about how it was planning on using the money.
The county already submitted a couple of grant applications to the state to cover the cost of the program.
The county’s drought coordinator Josh Metz says that none of the funding is guaranteed and it’s not certain whether the state would cover the entire cost of the subsidy. Depending on how things go with the grant process, the state may pick up either a percentage or all of the tab.
The county’s deputy CEO Janelle Rausays finding an affordable water hauler in the area has also been an issue. So far only one qualified business has expressed interest and it’s from out of the area. That means the company’s drivers would likely need a per diem. Rausays it’s also unclear how many gallons per day the company would be able to transport. The county needs to transport about 75,000 gallons per day at 27 cents per gallon.
Back in Mendocino, Hillesland says he has enough water for the time being and he can find ways to navigate around the drought, like cutting back on reservations or passing on higher water costs to customers. Residents can’t do that.
For the KZYX News. I’m Sonia Waraich, a Report For America corps member. For all our local stories, with photos and more, visit KZYX.org. You can also subscribe to the KZYX News podcast where you get your podcasts.
