MENDOCINO CO., 6/2/25 — With the Mendocino coast a popular tourist destination, many Northern Californians are aware of the water scarcity that caused thousands of gallons of water to be trucked in from Ukiah during the drought of 2021-2022. But inland regions in the county suffered dry wells and severe water rationing in that same drought.
More of the same is ahead according to the final report prepared by the county’s Drought Task Force, a committee formed to fulfill the state’s 2021-22 mandate that every county must draft and submit a drought resilience plan. Mendocino County’s committee included several county departments, major public water suppliers, such as the cities of Ukiah, Willits, and Fort Bragg, the Ukiah Valley Water Authority, eleven tribal groups, the State Water Resources Control Board, special water districts, and others. The task force chaired two public meetings, one in Ukiah and one in Fort Bragg, and created a survey on the group’s website.
On May 20, Daly City-based environmental consultant EKI Environment & Water’s Ayman Alafifi presented the final report to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to adopt. Said Alafifi, “What we do during non-drought years is prepare for drought.” He quickly ran through some of the task force’s earlier findings during its assessment phase: that there are nearly 8,000 domestic wells in Mendocino County, with a third shallow wells less than 100 feet deep. There are 27 small water suppliers, each supplying drinking water to 25 or fewer people; called State Small Water Systems or State Smalls, these are especially vulnerable as most find it difficult to respond to emergencies and conditions of long-term drought.
The task force also assessed the likelihood of future droughts, predicting that climate change will increase the temperature by five to nine degrees by the end of the century, and that rainfall will be more intense yet occur in a shorter season, with longer periods of dry weather. Moreover, wildfire risk increases with these weather patterns, as does groundwater degradation and depletion. The report even mentions sea level rise as a risk of saltwater intrusion into shallow coastal wells, something that has already happened near Point Arena.
Based on a variety of factors and using the state’s Department of Water Resources water shortage vulnerability scoring system, the report concluded that a significant portion of the county, 84% of its domestic wells and 93% of its State Small Water Systems, is at high risk from future drought and water shortages. What differed in the final report from earlier drafts is that recommendations were given to try to mitigate a looming crisis.
Steps to take rely on triggers and consist of short-term and long-term actions
Because rainfall varies between the coast and inland areas, triggers of water shortages that generate monitoring, warning, or declaring a severe and emergency shortage are, on the coast, reports of dry wells and low precipitation, while triggers for inland areas are reports of dry wells and reservoir storage levels. Stage two, drought warnings, will result in voluntary water cutbacks and temporary ordinances, while stage three, severe drought, will result in a county emergency proclamation, a pursuit of funding for emergency and interim water supplies (filling stations, water hauling, bottled water), and more frequent meetings of the drought task force to facilitate mutual aid systems.
The short-term strategies are meant to address emergencies. The state also mandated that the task forces develop long-term strategies. One of these is more research, such as investigating groundwater on the coast (around 40 wells ran dry during the 2020-22 drought). Another is assessing high-risk wells with consideration of rehabilitation and deepening. This means seeking funding for such projects, and the report recommends that the county begin to identify funding sources and provide a hub for well owners to communicate about possible actions.
Another suggestion is to consider consolidating some of the small water suppliers. The county does not have the authority to do this, but the State Water Resources Control Board could investigate this path. Also, the county has already begun meeting in a government-to-government status with tribes, specifically the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, to try to assess ongoing water supply concerns.
Success will boil down to funding—or lack of it
Concludes the report, “Because the County is not a water supplier and does not have an annual budget for water supply reliability and resiliency projects, successful implementation of this DRP is dependent on collaboration and coordination between the County and local entities to achieve meaningful improvements in water supply resiliency. The County’s primary role in the implementation of this DRP is to facilitate education and coordination, provide access to drought resiliency and mitigation resources, and support domestic well owners and State Small Water Systems in identifying and pursuing opportunities to improve their water supply reliability and resiliency.”
The task force is a standing committee, which means it will continue to meet as a group to assess, do public outreach, and recommend actions. Progress starts with investigation and recommendations, and that part is well along, with studies continuing on the coast and inland. Finding funds to implement improvements will be the hard part, but understanding why concern, even alarm, is warranted, is a step forward.
In the board comments following the presentation, board President John Haschak summed it up: “How do we go about pursuing funding that is so critical to get us into a place where we are prepared for drought?”
The board voted 5-0 to approve the final report, and it now goes to the state to assess.
Read our prior coverage about the drought plan:
- Work on Mendocino County Drought Resilience Plan continues and
- Mendocino County Drought Resilience Plan released for public comment.
The final report is available on Mendocino County’s website.