The Willow Creek Community Services District drinking source water comes from the Willow Creek.

The watershed consists of thirty square miles of mountainous terrain along highway 299.

The Willow Creek watershed is primarily impacted by particulate sediment from seasonal rainfall, natural and man caused landslides.

Recently, during a storm on February 11th we experienced high turbidity levels in the Willow Creek and from one of its tributaries in particular.

The Willow Creek experienced high levels of clay and dirt particles that exceeded over 124 Nephelometer Turbidity Units (NTU). Normal NTU’s are less than 10 for this time of year in the watershed.

After investigating the watershed, our staff and other governmental agencies, determined that the high levels of fine particulate mater were from a man caused landslide one mile west of our Water Treatment Facility.

Our District staff was particularly concerned about damage to our watershed and the possibility of contamination to our drinking water.

Community members also voiced concerns about the safety of our drinking water.

The District would like to assure you that our drinking water is safe to consume.

The Water Treatment Facility did an excellent job of removing the high levels of particulate from your drinking water.

The filtration removal process exceeded all requirements that were necessary to make your drinking water as safe as possible.

The land owner’s involved in the restoration and repairs of the landslide are also concerned with the situation. They are doing everything possible to rectify the situation.

The repairs of the landslide will hopefully alleviate future damage to our watershed.

Watershed Management is an essential part of the operation of the Willow Creek Community Services District. We will, to the best of our ability, help the community maintain a strong, clean and safe watershed.

Willow Creek Folks,

Panther Tank Installation

New Roof At Veterans Park

Al Hodgson Water Treatment Facility Dedication

The Community Services District has recently completed a water rate increase which began with an engineered study and was followed by notification, a forty five day period for public response and a public meeting on the eighteenth of December to adopt new rates.  There were 13 respondents who protested the increase, representing  31 parcels out of 1238. The Board of Directors amended the rates downward for the fourth and fifth years of rate change.  This effort to soften the impact of water rates is the result of public input, particularly from the area’s small farmers.

The District is facing the replacement of three major water storage tanks, Bussell, Bigfoot, and Hodgson, and is hoping to build a major storage facility on Brannan Mountain Rd. above the Danco Site to improve the Hwy 96 portion of our water system and increase storage potential.  We currently have a storage capacity of 1.2 million gallons and use @ 1.7 million gallons on a hot summer day.  This makes it necessary to pump water 24 hrs. a day during the summer.  This frequently results in electricity costs in excess of $13,000 per month in the summer time (avg. $16.00 per month/per service).   Bussell and Hodgson are 40+ year old redwood tanks which have been repaired often as the dry rot and age deteriorate the tanks.  Bigfoot tank is a bolted metal tank which has thirty eight years of service in the District following a career in the oil fields.  The Bigfoot tank has had a liner in it for over a decade and continues to deteriorate from rust and corrosion. The cost to replace the three tanks is @ $950,000 and the new tank on Brannan Mountain. could cost over $600,000 with 2/3 mile of trenching and new pipe.  We are currently working to identify these needs for the anticipated Federal Infrastructure Program expected in the first days of the new Administration in Washington.

The State of California has ceased to fund its Proposition Grants of past years and this has ceased work on Creekside park’s electrical project and cut off funds expended to roof our bathroom at Veteran’s Park.  The State has severe economic woes and is passing them down the line to the smallest entities like ourselves.  There is a constant effort by the state to capture our portion of property tax revenue which they did for the years 2005 and 2006 leaving us with two years of $40,000 shortfalls in our budgeted revenue.

The need for a public forum or newspaper is acute in our community so we will attempt to include a local news format in our website and print copies for local distribution.  Please forward information regarding our citizens, our students, awards, deaths, and interesting tidbits.  We would also like to supplement the Chamber calendar with a list of current events.

Lynn White, of Campora Gas and Buddy’s fame is our new office manager and brings her knowledge of our community and the utility business along as great assets.  We invite you to drop by and visit Lynn with any questions about your water service, reservations for our parks and campground, or just to say hi.

See willowcreekcsd.com

This year 4th of July falls on a Saturday and we hope that the Community has a large event @ Veteran’s Park including Fireworks and Food & Music. Please see Algena @ the Post Office to offer support and help make this happen.  “Fire will be our only deterrent!”

As our community ages we lose dear friends.  A few of those recently removed from our community include Florence Elkins, Martin Berger, and Leroy Hames.  

We do not have any news regarding births but encourage your sharing that information.  Our healthwatch extends its concern for Jack Foster to return to good health.


Happy New Year,
Your CSD Staff