Sonoma Water wants to lower the required minimum flow in the Russian River past Guerneville from 125 to 70 cubic feet per second again, starting May 1, 2027.
Roger Coryell / Wine Country Gazette
State Water Board
Daily storage in Lake Mendocino through Water Year 2025 and Water Year 2026, from California Data Exchange Center readings at station COY. (Chart: Wine Country Gazette)
Lake Mendocino ends water year 5 feet lower than 2025
Lake Sonoma ended the year about a foot higher despite 12 inches less rain. Lake Mendocino closed Water Year 2026 holding about 9,100 acre-feet less than a year earlier, as Eel River imports through the Potter Valley Project keep shrinking.
Clear Lake, the only active drinking-water source for the Clearlake Oaks County Water District. (Federico Pizano via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, September 2013)
Clearlake Oaks water, sewer bills head 61% higher by 2031
Clearlake Oaks County Water District’s five-year rate schedule takes a home’s combined water and sewer base bill from $129.11 to $207.63 a month — while a $36 million state grant awaits a signed agreement.
Upper Lake, Lake County. (CrabTree13 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Upper Lake wells still pumping past a 2022 state deadline
State regulators gave the Meadow Pointe water system five years to get off gasoline-contaminated wells. The deadline passed in December 2022. Since 2017, $1.3 million has gone to studies and nothing to construction.