Memorandum
Date: September 24, 2024
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Pawan Upadhyay, Water Resources Director, Angela de Palma-Dow, Water Resources Coordinator, Michael S. Green, District 4 Supervisor
Subject: (Sitting as the Board of Directors, Lake County Watershed Protection District) Consideration of Reallocation of District 4 discretionary cannabis tax funds for advance planning in the Scotts Valley and Highland Springs watersheds
Executive Summary:
On May 9, 2023, an item was brought to your board to consider the Scotts Valley Community Advisory Council's recommended uses of $165,000 in District 4 discretionary cannabis tax funds previously allocated by former Supervisor Tina Scott. Per the board minutes, board direction was given to Water Resources staff to work on three (3) project alternatives:
* Scotts Creek hydrological survey
* Aerial Electro Magnetic (AEM) imaging studies of groundwater basins
* In-stream flow monitoring stations
Since that time, the Lake County Watershed Protection District has secured about $1 million total in grant funds, from several different sources, dedicated to the Scotts Creek/Tule Lake watershed. These grant funds will support a hydrological flow study of Scotts Creek and Tule Lake, and a county-wide AEM project that includes Scotts Valley in its scope of work. District staff also have confirmed with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that they will maintain their stream flow gages in Scotts Valley and federal lands along Scotts Creek for the foreseeable future.
In sum, grant funding has been allocated to fully address two of the three project alternatives recommended by the Scotts Valley Community Advisory Council in 2023, and there is no current need for the district to fund or expand in-stream flow monitoring stations. Accordingly, discussions began in spring 2024 between district staff and Supervisor Green to identify alternative uses for the previously allocated cannabis tax funds. St...
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