$7 million from feds to cover wildfire repairs at Lake Mendocino, infrastructure projects in Sonoma County
A combined package of roughly $7 million in federal infrastructure and disaster relief funding is set to enable a host of badly needed repair and upgrade projects at recreation sites and reservoirs serving Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
Visitor shelters and foot bridges torched by the 2021 Hopkins fire at Lake Mendocino will be rebuilt with a $2.5 million award from a federal disaster relief bill.
The funding accompanies nearly $4.5 million from the $1.2 trillion congressional infrastructure bill designated for critical — but far less visible — improvements at Warm Springs Dam near Healdsburg and the Coyote Valley Dam at Ukiah.
The service gates to be replaced at Warm Springs Dam are 300 feet underground in the dam’s abutment and are the critical moving parts of the flood-control facility completed in 1982.
“That’s where the wear and tear comes from,” said Nick Malasavage, the Army Corps of Engineers official who oversees operations at both dams.
At a replacement cost of $2.95 million, the gates are the largest expenditure covered by the nearly $7 million in federal infrastructure and disaster funding.
“These are good investments in services that we deliver to the public,” Malasavage said.
Replacing the gates will allow “safe and reliable release of water from Lake Sonoma,” said Grant Davis, general manager of Sonoma Water, the county agency that delivers water to more than 600,000 residents in parts of Sonoma and Marin counties.
The releases also “ensure that clean and cold water continues to flow for endangered salmon at Warm Springs Fish Hatchery and in Dry Creek,” he said in a news release.
Infrastructure funding included $1.5 million for repainting the control tower bridge at Coyote Valley Dam, built in the 1950s.
The tower, which stands from the reservoir bottom to the top of the dam, has been coated with lead paint, an environmental hazard that will be eliminated with the new application of unleaded paint, Malasavage said.
The smallest allocation of infrastructure funds was $20,000 for continued monitoring of the Bodega Bay rock jetty that calms the bay’s waters.
“Waterways, dams and jetties are vital parts of our communities and the economy on the North Coast, but many are in need of repair,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said in a news release.
The federal funds will “ensure that these structures can continue to serve Californians and all who rely on them for decades to come,” he said.
Bodega Bay’s north jetty is a popular ocean fishing spot, while the Lake Mendocino Recreation Area, a park that surrounds the nearly 2,000-acre reservoir, offers boating, swimming, camping, picnicking, fishing and hunting.
Prior to the drought, the park drew nearly 1 million visitors a year, but last year — when Lake Mendocino shrunk to its second-lowest level in history — visitation fell to 267,288 people, said Poppy Lozoff, operations project manager at the lake.
At its low point, park rangers cut a trail through the horseweed that grew 8 feet tall on barren earth as the lake receded far from shore, Lozoff said
Compounding the park’s woes, the 257-acre Hopkins fire — an arson blaze driven by gusting winds and triple-digit temperatures — scorched about 30 acres at the lake’s northwest corner last September.
About a dozen day use visitor shelters in the Pomo Day Use Area were damaged or destroyed, along with two restrooms, a maintenance shop and two foot bridges on the Shakota Trail, Lozoff said.
Reconstruction costs totaled $1.4 million for buildings, $600,000 for utilities and $500,000 for land restoration, she said.
The campgrounds are now closed due to the wildfire damage and the pandemic, but Lake Mendocino has more than tripled in volume, rising nearly 31 feet amid runoff from strong winter storms.
By: Guy Kovner
Source: Press Democrat
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