Memorandum
Date: June 13, 2023
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: District 3 Supervisor, Eddie “EJ” Crandell
District 2 Supervisor, Bruno Sabatier
Subject: Consideration of project plan for South Lake Algae Bloom Abatement in the Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks areas and submit project plan for funding to ARPA committee for their consideration, and/or to consider using Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund, and/or to submit as a potential project to Congressman Thompson for the annual Congressional Community Project Funding.
Executive Summary:
Over the course of the past ten years, the county has paid approximately $200,000 per year for Aquatic Weed Management equating to approximately $2 million. It is important to keep the weeds down to ensure that recreational activities such as boating don’t get tangled up, proliferate the invasive aquatic weeds, and have adverse impacts on boats which in turn can have adverse impacts on tourism.
However, algae blooms offer similar issues in its impact to economic development including the potential health hazards that come along with them. Between 1969 - 1990, the county has documented spending less than $500,000 in efforts to mitigate the algae in the lake. Between 1990 to the present, studies have been done such as the Clean Lake Grant project to monitor/study water quality and impacts on algae. In 2006, due to the aforementioned studies, the Clear Lake TMDL stakeholder ground was created to address both nutrient and Hg TMDL’s. Since 2009, UC Davis has been evaluating our data that has been collected.
While the Middle Creek Restoration Project is not a silver bullet in dealing with our lake’s algae, it is an important project that will help. However, it will not be completed for many more years to come. During this time, we have met with multiple groups that work with lakes to reduce algae blooms and have found LG Sonic to offer a very hopeful solution.
The solution for both the Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks areas will cost a total of $1,509,020 for 28 LG Sonic Buoy Pro. This includes anchoring, transporting, and the equipment itself. The LG Sonic Buoy Pro has a potential lifespan of 15 years and run on solar panels. It creates an under water sonar wave that breaks down the algae prior to it rising to the surface which can eliminate or minimize the amount of algae blooms that can be experienced during the summertime months which are high profile months for tourism in those areas. This would greatly reduce the visual and odorous nuisance that algae blooms can create for our shoreline communities.
We request the board review this proposal and look at these three options to help pay for this project.
1. Utilize Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund. We have received approximately $1.5 million with another $1.5 million in the near future. Thus far $1.5 million has allocated for potential use for updating our accounting system for the County. Also Approximately $30,000 was approved to be submitted to help support the establishment of a National Center for Public Lands Counties. The remainder has not been allocated.
2. Send it to the ARPA committee to see if it is possible to fund while other, previously approved, projects are being cancelled due to time limits of spending the funds by December 31, 2024.
Submit this project for future submission for our Congressional Community Project Funding.
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Estimated Cost: ________ Amount Budgeted: ________ Additional Requested: ________ Future Annual Cost: ________
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☐ Well-being of Residents ☐ Public Safety ☐ Disaster Prevention, Preparedness, Recovery
☐ Economic Development ☐ Infrastructure ☐ County Workforce
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Recommended Action: Approve the South Lake Algae Bloom Abatement Project, and select one or more of the options provided in order to fund the project.