WILLITS, CA., 9/29/26 — Friday marked 14 years since California became the first state in the nation to recognize the human right to water, declaring that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.”
What that means on the ground is that the state provides water to those without a piped supply. At the Little Lake Mobile Home Park, in the unincorporated part of the county about a mile north of Willits, residents get their water by truck. And because there is still no piped supply, the state has extended its contract to haul water to the park through January 2029, and nearly doubled the budget to do so.
The State Water Resources Control Board amended its hauled-water agreement for the park, home to about 38 residents, and raised the budget to $638,534, board spokesperson Blair Robertson said in an email Sept. 25. The state has spent $205,698 so far.
When the hauling was approved in January 2024, the board’s list of urgent drinking water projects showed $332,100 to provide piped water with a completion date of Jan. 31, 2026.
The park’s only well began failing in 2023 and failed completely in 2025, according to a Willits city staff report. The state first put Little Lake on its list of failing water systems in November 2024, took it off in June 2026 and put it back on Aug. 13.
“Staff are reviewing the reason for the June removal,” Robertson said.
The same law that declared the right to water also says it “does not expand any obligation of the state to provide water.”
Waiting on the pipe
The permanent fix is a city water line about 1.1 miles up North Main Street. The Willits City Council voted 4-0 on Aug. 26 to seek a state grant to build it.
That grant hasn’t been awarded. Robertson said the board expects to award it by the end of this year or early next, and estimates construction would run from Oct. 1, 2027, to March 31, 2028, “assuming the project proceeds as planned.”
Dusty Duley, the city’s community and economic development director, put the project at $3.4 million, covering construction, environmental review, design and city staff time. That figure isn’t in the written staff report, and the agreement behind it isn’t signed.
“Because of the failure of … their existing water system, the state is essentially making the city extend our water utilities to it,” Duley told the council Aug. 26, according to a recording of the meeting. “The good part of that is they’re agreeing to pay for that a hundred percent.”
“The State Water Board did not order the City of Willits to extend service to the mobile home park,” Robertson said. According to Robertson, the city was asked to consider connecting the park and agreed, pending a feasibility study.
“Now we’re waiting for a signed agreement, so we’re not making too many moves until then,” Duley said.
The staff report describes about 6,000 feet of new main tied to the city’s existing 10-inch line, a master meter at the park, three fire hydrants and an attachment to the Upp Creek bridge. The new line is a 6-inch pipe. “The pipe is upsized for future use,” city staff told the council.
The vote authorizes an application, not construction. The staff report says an environmental study for the project “has been prepared.” Duley told the council the city is “in the process of completing” it. As of Sept. 25, no filing for the project appeared in the state’s environmental review database.
The council member next door
Council member Bruce Burton stepped out of the room before the vote. He told the council he had a conflict of interest and said, “I own the property next door.” With Burton gone, council member Larry Stranske asked how a neighbor could connect to the new line, using Burton’s parcel as the example.
“So if I owned Burton’s property… then how am I going to tie into that?” Stranske said.
The answer from staff: apply to the Local Agency Formation Commission, get the county’s approval, and the city would run a line off the main and set a meter.
The city’s extension also needs LAFCo’s approval, but it is being fast-tracked as an emergency because the park’s water system failed, council member Gerardo Gonzalez said. A city normally serves land outside its limits on the understanding that the land will later be annexed, he said, “but in this case it’s a special circumstance.”
Drilling or up sizing the current well should not cost anywhere near $3.2 mil. Seems like a fairly wick answer unless there are other issues with the well site.