MendocinoFun.com

Even though the village of Mendocino is surrounded on three sides by water, none of it is drinkable because it’s salt water in the Pacific Ocean. Unlike most towns in the country, the village does not have a water system — virtually all of the residents and businesses in town draw their water from wells, and the aquifer is running low. It’s always running low by this time of the year, since it gets recharged each year by the rains that we get from November through the spring. All those wells are like a bunch of straws sipping from the same drink, and we’re running very low this year because we only got 75% of the normal rainfall last season (a mere 30 inches instead of 42 inches on average).

Accordingly, the Mendocino City Community Services District is now asking residents to voluntarily reduce consumption by 10%. Mike Kelley, MCCSD superintendent, has asked for the reduction because “we’re completely dependent on the previous year’s rainfall for our next year’s ground water supply.”

According to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, officials in Fort Bragg (9 miles north) feel no need to request conservation, since they have a plentiful water supply from the Noyo River. One inaccuracy in the article is the statement that there is no river to help recharge the aquifer. If you look at the right side of the picture, you’ll see a very large river, Big River. It could have been used to supply drinking water for the town if people had planned ahead, but a friend told me that efforts to investigate the possibility years ago were unsuccessful. It would have taken money and will, both of which were in short supply. Since a huge chunk of the Big River watershed was donated to the State Parks system a few years ago, the likelihood of using it as a water source is even less now. The town is a golden goose for the county, generating a significant chunk of Transient Occupancy Tax for the county, which is forced to spread the money around this huge (3500 square miles) but poor county. Residents have long complained that not much comes back in the way of services. Of course, everything that happens in Mendocino is politically charged, and I’m sure this was the same. There are people who resent the growth of the tourist industry, and they felt that having a water system would open the floodgates of tourism.

Mike Kelley once told me that studies show there would be sufficient water in the aquifer to supply the town if the extraction was entirely controlled by official pumps. But doing that would require money and political will, and it seems unlikely. (Cynicism alert: It would also be different than before, and hence bad in the minds of some people.) Because the village is unincorporated, all money decisions are controlled by the Board of Supervisors, and it seems that most of the supervisors only care about Mendocino to the extent that the bed tax revenues are flowing in.

So if you’re coming to visit the town in the next few months, expect to have to ask for water in restaurants. I’d also recommend showering with a friend, but I also recommend that anytime. 🙂

This year, twenty-five north coast beaches will be targteted for the California Coastal Cleanup Day, “the premier volunteer event focused on the marine environment in the country.” On Saturday, September 15, from 9 am to noon, over 700 cleanup sites statewide, with an estimated 50,000 volunteers, join together to care for our fragile marine environment, and to learn about its impacts and prevention of marine debris. Volunteers should show up at one of the following beaches, and a beach captain will direct you (VanDamme, Big River, Caspar, Judhandle, Noyo Harbor, Hare Creek, Ward Avenue, Virgin Creek, and MacKerricher). The Mendocino Land Trust will once again coordinate the area’s volunteers. For more information contact Holly at 963-0470 or hnewberger@mendocinolandtrust.org. A hosted BBQ for all volunteers will take place at Big River Beach directly after the cleanup.

In a surprising development, Chevron has withdrawn its application for a wave energy prototype off the shores of Mendocino. Apparently, the lengthier approval process in California led Chevron to drop this proposal in favor of a proposed project in Alaska. Chevron has even scheduled a community meeting in October to discuss the project – the first such meeting since the application was filed.

This episode was very instructive, since it demonstrated that local input is not necessary in order for a large corporation to stake a claim on the ocean. In the picture above, taken from the Mendocino Headlands, the proposed wave energy plant would quite possibly have been visible. The huge floating sections could have been located as close as a half-mile from shore, well within visual range. Now that people are awakened to the situation, I hope that people will be galvanized to ensure that the local population can have a say in what happens locally (a radical concept, I know).

We obviously need green energy sources, but there are enough questions here that it seems like caution is in order. Why can’t a wave energy plant be located offshore, away from people and viewsheds and whale migrations? The Mendocino Coast has waves in abundance (although not particularly good for surfing), but it also has wind and sun in abundance. Where are the wind farms and solar panels?

There are many questions to be answered, but at least a little time has been bought with which to find some answers.