46 shareholders still need to vote to seal the deal

By Patric Hedlund, TME

Lake of the Woods hasn’t had a lake for over 55 years. In fact, since May 2013—early in the five-year drought—Lake of the Woods has had very little water at all. It was among the first towns in California to go dry. Output of the Cuddy Hall well plunged from 330 gallons per minute (gpm) in 2001 to 10 gpm in April 2013. That’s when the “Urgent” signs went up on surprised residents’ front doors.

There were tense moments in the Lake of the Woods Mutual Water Company meeting last Thursday, June 1. One man was told to leave the building. Another—Claudio Escobedo—said he felt threatened with…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Bob Stowell hates what has happened to his town, but he is fighting to save it. He needs help.

[Chart showing] CUDDY CREEK Groundwater Sub-basins

This chart was made by The Mountain Enterprise from data provided by civil engineers, Dee Jaspar & Associates, to assess the capacity of the western and middle Cuddy Canyon groundwater sub-basins to serve Lake of the Woods and Frazier Park, combined. The data showed that in a 10-year drought, both towns could continue to be served.

Otilia Herrera was watering her plants when Rafael Molina, Jr. handed her an emergency water conservation notice on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Molina went door to door alerting the community about the crisis for the water company.

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This is part of the June 9, 2017 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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