When the State Water Resources Control Board warned the public away from the Oaks Arm of Clear Lake last August, its advisory named the source of the data in a single sentence: “The Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians conducted the testing.”
That’s not a courtesy credit. It’s a description of how public health works at the largest natural freshwater lake entirely within California. The state’s advisory goes on to say that “water quality monitoring for HABs in Clear Lake is conducted by Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians” — HABs being the state’s shorthand for harmful algal blooms — that Lake County posts its warning signs off those results and that the Water Boards update the statewide California HAB Reports Web Map from them.
The tribe pays for that work with tribal and federal money. The state’s own Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake said so in its December 2025 annual report: the monitoring program “is funded by Tribal and federal sources.”
That same committee moved about $3.4 million in state money to a private vendor for a phosphorus treatment demonstration. Grant funding was made available in January. The board took up the contract in March. The material went into the lake in April. Seven projects the committee had already approved for Big Valley — worth about $2.7 million — are listed in the same report as “awaiting contract.” Some have been waiting since 2020.
Who tests the water
Big Valley began sampling Clear Lake for cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in 2014, together with Elem Indian Colony, another shoreline tribe. Big Valley has run the program alone since 2021, though Lake County’s public health pages still credit both tribes.
The county says testing happens about every two weeks at more than 20 locations around the lake. Those results drive the Caution, Warning and Danger signs posted at beaches and boat ramps, and the fish consumption advisories that matter to people who eat what they catch. The Blue Ribbon Committee’s report calls the data “critical for understanding toxin levels for the development and distribution of fish consumption advisories throughout Clear Lake and those dependent on the Lake for cultural, subsistence fishing, water supply, and recreation.”
The state has said why they started. The State Water Board’s harmful algal bloom strategy, written by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, says Big Valley and Elem built the program “with the absence of routine cyanotoxin monitoring from other local or state agencies.”
Other testing does happen on the lake. The public water systems that draw from Clear Lake test their supply for microcystins, and the U.S. Geological Survey has a cyanotoxin validation task on the lake under a separate committee grant. But the routine, lake-wide monitoring that the county and the state actually post advisories from is the tribe’s.
The $3 million that moved
The demonstration project that drew the cameras this spring belongs to EutroPHIX, a division of SePRO Corp. In April, the company spread EutroSORB G — a bentonite clay modified with lanthanum — across about 400 acres of the Upper Arm, roughly 1% of the lake, to bind phosphorus in the sediment and starve the algae that feed on it.
The Lake County Watershed Protection District awarded EutroPHIX the contract on a sole-source basis, waiving competitive bidding under the county code. The contract is for $3,361,116.38. The Blue Ribbon Committee’s allocation line is $3,379,671, drawn from the 2025 General Fund. At a March town hall in Lakeport, the number given to the public was $3 million from the state.
It’s the largest single award the committee has made. The next largest is $2.3 million.
County staff wrote that “grant funding for this project was made available in January 2026,” and that “due to the unique nature of the technology, the project qualifies as a sole-source procurement.” The board took up the contract March 10. The clay went in the water April 13.
The $2.7 million that hasn’t
Appendix B of the committee’s December report lists what each approved project is waiting on. Against seven Big Valley entries, the contracting status column reads the same thing seven times: awaiting contract.
They include a harmful algal bloom bank erosion project at $756,500 and a groundwater dependent ecosystems and wetland restoration project at $656,500, both approved in 2022 on Proposition 68 funds. A Kelsey Creek fish ladder restoration at $626,000 and a tule replanting and invasive vegetation removal project at $220,300 were approved back in 2021. A review of existing best management practices, at $60,000, was approved in 2020. Also waiting: $250,000 for a web-based data clearinghouse and citizen science app, plus $150,000 for Adobe Creek hydrology and groundwater monitoring.
The total is $2,719,300. Robinson Rancheria’s common carp project, at $903,400, is marked “contract finalized.”
The money isn’t all the same kind. Big Valley’s awards draw on Proposition 68 and the 2023 General Fund. The EutroPHIX award draws on the 2025 General Fund, which the report says “must be complete by 6/30/26.” That date has passed. Whether the older tribal awards carry a deadline of their own, and whether any of that money is at risk, is a question only the Natural Resources Agency and the county can answer.
‘Still trying to setup a meeting time’
The committee required every applicant to answer one question in writing: how will the seven Native American tribes in Lake County be actively included in project design and implementation, starting with concept development?
EutroPHIX’s answer, filed with its proposal, said the company had met with environmental directors from Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake and Robinson Rancheria. On Big Valley, it wrote: “We have had communications with Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, but are still trying to setup a meeting time.” It said it would keep trying with Elem Indian Colony and the Scotts Valley Band, and added, “We understand the value in this and working to bridge this gap.”
The committee funded the proposal anyway, at more than $3.3 million.
The gap isn’t one of access. Sarah Ryan, Big Valley’s environmental director, holds the tribe’s seat on the Blue Ribbon Committee and chairs its technical subcommittee, according to the committee’s own roster. The tribe wasn’t hard to find.
It was also, on the state’s own paperwork, running the monitoring program that tells California when Clear Lake is too dangerous to swim in, paid for out of tribal and federal pockets. The company that hadn’t managed to schedule a meeting with it took the biggest check the committee has written.
What is still unanswered
Lake County’s Legistar file for the March 10 contract award lists no final action, so the board’s vote on the $3.36 million sole-source award doesn’t appear there. The minutes and the county’s meeting video would settle it.
The rest is for the agencies. Why do seven Big Valley projects remain uncontracted, and does the holdup sit with the county, the Natural Resources Agency or the tribe? Is any of that money at risk now that the June deadline has come and gone? What does it cost Big Valley to run the monitoring program each year, and has state money ever paid for a dollar of it?
And the one EutroPHIX can answer: did the meeting it told the state it was trying to schedule ever happen?
Frequently asked questions
Is Clear Lake safe to swim in right now?
Check the California HAB Reports Web Map and the signs posted at the shoreline. Advisory levels change through the season and vary by arm of the lake. Both the map and the signs are based on the tribe’s sampling.
What is EutroSORB G?
A bentonite clay modified with about 10% lanthanum. It is spread on the lake bed, where it binds phosphorus in the sediment so the nutrient cannot cycle back into the water and feed algae blooms. The April application covered about 400 acres, roughly 1% of Clear Lake.
Did the treatment work?
The application finished in late April. The demonstration is meant to show whether binding phosphorus in the sediment of a 400-acre patch changes the water above it. Any results so far are a question for the county and the vendor.
What would it cost to treat the whole lake?
EutroPHIX’s project lead told the March town hall it would run $100 million or more. The company has separately been reported as estimating up to $200 million over 10 to 20 years.
Who is the Blue Ribbon Committee?
A state committee housed at the California Natural Resources Agency, created to guide the rehabilitation of Clear Lake. It includes representatives of all seven federally recognized tribes in Lake County, along with state and county officials. By its own description, it plays a “significant role in determining appropriate projects for funding.”