More Water Issues

my 2 cents:. CalFire (CF) road watering is likely more for purpose of compacting the fractured road surface, not for dust control. if Michael thinks it's possible to ensure replacement of water drawdowns a week or 2 from now after this main fire threat is past our area, then perhaps it'd be better to do it then. that way 'water-tender' contractors can be more coordinated and landowners informed of what's going on.* but loose road surfaces will get worse until watered sufficiently during a narrow time-frame to be effective.
those of you who want water replacements need to try to calculate (w/ defensible rationale) how much water was removed from your ponds. put it in writing, date it, while details are clear from memory and/or observation of pond wtr level changes over last 48 hrs. Michael is wonderful but he has to follow CF protocols. we've heard from CF folks friday that many people put in bogus demands for water replacement or payments when they never had any taken. CF has to sort out what's credible.
I ask that if anyone sees water-tenders drawing from creek, to please inform them Eldridge is steelhead (SH) stream and it is illegal to draw water from SH stream without a 1600 permit. i just confirmed this w/ Region I CA Fish &Game enforcement officer. if water-tender continues to draw streamwtr, pls get their truck ID# & call or email me. thank you.
meca

Forwarded from Chiah
Well my bad-
I prematurely said things were resolved. We thought Calfire would return our water, which they did some. But we discovered it was coming to us from Emrys' pond. We would not like that to happen either. He may need that for fire season....We would like the water to be returned just from another outside source. We received 6,000 gal yesterday. After further investigation when we saw the water level rise slightly 1/2 in. to 3/4 in. we discovered we still need about 12,000 to 18,000 to make up for the loss. Our pond had been pumped about 4-5 inches down...a lot of water 18,000-22,000 gal or so ( hard to estimate, unless they kept a tally, we were not home for most of it). John and Jim received about a load and a half, 4500 gal., John thought they needed more back as well after seeing the water rise only slightly with that amount returned. We think it should come from the Redwood Valley water district or something like that. Don't get us wrong, we would be happy to have our water go to fire suppression use, but not for the roads. This is our only source of water for the year. Since CDF is mostly in a restoration phase- for the most part, this is an issue needing attention. We understand CDF is trying to make good the damage they did to our roads, but they will just be dusty tomorrow. I am waiting for a call back from Mike Maynard today. We will keep you posted... Chiah