Well Levels Drop In Upper Lebec; Added Impact of Drought Unknown

By Doug Peters

Data collected in the Frazier Mountain High School well (located near the Flying J in Lebec) over the past year shows that the water table is falling at a remarkable rate. In just one year the water table has dropped 53 feet, an average of over four feet per month. As a very dry winter comes to a close, it remains to be seen how low water levels will reach this year.

Monitoring is being done in part because Paso Robles developer Arciero & Sons wants to build about 660 homes in the same area, a plan called Frazier Park Estates (to be built by Fallingstar Homes). The group’s contractors are conducting environmental impact report research at this time.

The water supply for all homes and businesses in our area is groundwater pumped out of the aquifer or running out of springs. Each year this groundwater gets replenished by the winter rain as it soaks into the ground.

The rainy season of 2004-05 was the second wettest year on record in Lebec and the groundwater supply was thoroughly replenished. The following rainy season was below average and the water table started falling (see larger graph at right).

One well does not necessarily represent an entire groundwater basin, but it does indicate what is happening in that region of the aquifer. The water supply well for the proposed Frazier Park Estates housing tract is just 500 feet from the high school well and would pump an additional 185 million gallons per year.

Frazier Park Public Utility District (FPPUD) manager Greg Keenburg reported that measurements taken last December showed that the water table is not dropping similarly in Frazier Park. The California Department of Water Resources, in Bulletin 118, reports that Lebec and Frazier Park are in separate groundwater basins.

The difference in water table measurements may be partially due to the fact that Frazier Park gets much of its water from springs, while Lebec pumps all of its water from the aquifer.

As we enter into this very dry period, local water managers should monitor groundwater levels monthly so that any necessary conservation measures can be planned in advance.

Michael Callagy, an engineer for the Arciero development company, is scheduled to appear before the Lebec County Water District Board on April 2 to make a formal proposal, asking them to annex the proposed Frazier Park Estates site.

Seeking annexation is a requirement of the Local Agency Formation Commission (known as LAFCO).

Rejection by adjacent water districts is necessary before the developer can apply to create its own water district. Frazier Park Public Utilities District rejected an annexation proposal in January, citing the fact that they had "too much work to do to serve their own customers better" to try to take on 660 new ones, plus management of a municipal water treatment plant. The Lebec County Water District is smaller, with about 300 customers.

Callagy said in an interview March 15 that he is confident the developer "has its own water," sufficient to support about 2,700 new people and the business areas planned for the development to be built on the hills surrounding the high school.

(Special thanks to Shelly Mason and Stan Pyle of El Tejon Unified School District for making this important information available–dp.)

Doug Peters is superintendent at a University of California agricultural center. He lives in Lake of the Woods.

This is part of the March 30, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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