Memorandum
Date: June 9, 2026
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors, serving as the Directors of the Lake County Watershed Protection District
From: Dr. Pawan Upadhyay, Director, and Michael Bedar, Program Coordinator, Water Resources Department
Subject: Consideration of Water Resources Staff Presentation on the Maintenance Area 17 (MA 17) Status Update and Strategies for Expenses and Relation to MCRP
Executive Summary:
The Lake County Watershed Protection District request that the Board of Supervisors receive an update on Maintenance Area 17 (MA 17), the April 24 Central Valley Flood Protection Board (CVFPB) meeting, and land use and constituency in MA 17, and provide direction related to dissolving the DWR maintenance area in coordination with state partners.
MA 17 has been maintained by the DWR for decades, and DWR operates a pumping plant in MA 17. Most of the property that the DWR Pumping Plant protected has been acquired for Lake County for the Middle Creek Project and are non-producing agricultural properties. Flood water has never overtopped the levees in this area. Lake County also has its own pumping plant covering an overlapping area in case of extraordinary water levels.
In the last five years, the costs for DWR to maintain its pump to keep these properties unnecessarily dry has increased fivefold from $122,521.13 to $558.262.94 in FY 25-26. These costs are disproportionately expensive per mile of levee as compared to any other CVFPB Maintenance Area.
Staff is seeking Board direction on enacting the Maintenance Area dissolution process as enumerated in CA Water Code section 12878.22 as determined appropriate after due diligence.
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