Reply With QuoteDoes that mean we cannot refer to it as smellsomemore any longer?
v-drive
Looks like they finally got those wells running to help fill Lake Elsinore. Maybe now we'll be able to use the launchramps!
Here's the article courtesy of the Californian newspaper:
Island wells up and running
By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer
LAKE ELSINORE ---- The first gallons of water from three newly refurbished wells poured from the levee into Lake Elsinore on Friday in what many called a day of historical significance for the lake and community.
The wells will produce 1.7 million gallons of water a year, more than one-third of the lake's annual loss to evaporation. Throughout Lake Elsinore's history, alternating cycles of drought and heavy rains have seen the lake dry up completely or flood the surrounding area. Stabilizing the lake level has long been a dream in the city, both for residents and for owners of tourism-related businesses dependent on the lake.
The completion of the wells project represents a major step in realizing that dream, according to several speakers who participated in a brief ceremony at the lake Friday.
"There is no question that a clean, full Lake Elsinore benefits not only our city but the entire region," Mayor Thomas Buckley said.
"In the past, the lake has been called an economic engine, but it was one that sputtered like a Pinto," he said. "With these improvements, it will purr like a Ferrari."
The first major step toward the lake's stabilization came in the early 1990s with the completion of a major flood-control project that included the construction of the levee at the south end of the lake.
The island wells, as they are still known, were built on an island at the south end of the lake in 1965. The islands became part of the levee when it was built in the early 1990s. The project also raised the height of the land where the wells sit, helping to protect them from future flooding. But that protection came too late for the wells, which had been inundated and made inoperable by a major flood in the 1980s.
When the city and Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District signed a deal in 1990 to share responsibility for keeping the lake full, officials began discussing the refurbishment of the wells. But it would take another 14 years before that would happen, as the city and water district spent the ensuing years fighting over the terms of that agreement.
In 2000, a voter-approved state proposition provided $15 million in funding for water quality improvement to Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake and the surrounding 725-square-mile San Jacinto watershed. A joint powers committee was formed, consisting of the two cities, the county and a state water agency, to supervise the spending of those dollars. The Lake Elsinore-San Jacinto Watershed Authority's fund was used to finance the $1.2 million cost of refurbishing the three wells.
In early 2003, the city and the water district reached an agreement to share responsibility for keeping the lake full. The deal ended a lawsuit between the city and the water district over who had that responsibility. It also called for the opening of a trust account, into which the city and water district each agreed to annually chip in $650,000 to help keep the lake full, either through the purchase of imported water or other related expenditures. That money is also being used to pay for the annual $775,000 operating and maintenance costs for the island wells.
The comprehensive program for stabilizing lake levels also includes an experimental program, expected to be renewed late this year, using recycled waste-water to supply another one-third of the water the lake loses annually to evaporation. The remaining third of the loss, 5,000 acre-feet, will come from two sources: Mother Nature and the purchase of imported water from the Metropolitan Water District. An acre-foot is enough water to cover a football field in water a foot deep.
Almost all of the water in the lake comes from watershed runoff. The average annual runoff is about 5,000 acre-feet, but that amount varies from year to year. Officials believe that accumulation of money in the city-water district trust fund over the years will supply the necessary funding to stabilize the lake level during prolonged dry spells.
Another benefit of stabilizing the lake, officials say, is that it will improve water quality and prevent the fish die-offs that have periodically plagued the lake, resulting in hundreds of tons of fish carcasses floating to the surface.
The main cause of the die-offs is an excessive quantity of nutrients like phosphorus in agricultural runoff from farther up in the watershed. Algae feed off those nutrients and also compete with fish for available oxygen in the lake.
To better distribute the available oxygen to all levels of the lake and thus reduce the likelihood of fish die-offs, the joint powers authority is also investing in an aeration system that will come online early this summer. The system consists of five large platforms that will be anchored in the lake, each with a giant underwater propeller that will draw the oxygen-rich water from the surface and send it to the deeper part of the lake. That system cost $1.9 million to manufacture, money that will come from the joint powers fund. The $150,000 annual operation and maintenance costs of the aeration system will be paid for out of the city-water district fund.
Does that mean we cannot refer to it as smellsomemore any longer?
That sounds great. Thanks for the update. Do you think it will do anything to help the clarity of the water?
Thanks for the info, this sounds like great news!
Still need rain. The lake is very low. They've been talking about getting those well pumps going for years now. See you guys at RWYB
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