Mendocino Winegrowers Weigh Drought Options

(Wines&Vines) - With its major reservoir water level at a crusty 37% of normal capacity, and most flow from that reservoir diverted to neighboring Sonoma County and the Russian River, Mendocino County Supervisors adopted a resolution declaring “a local emergency and imminent threat of disaster…due to drought conditions.”

Resolution No. 14 (read it here) cited unprecedentedly low levels in Lake Mendocino, Ukiah Valley vintners’ and farmers’ reliance on the lake as their “one and only source of water” and effects of the second parched year.

Ironically, Mendocino is not one of the 27 California counties listed by the USDA as disaster areas because of the drought. Neither are Napa or Sonoma counties, although a report from the Sonoma County Water Agency issued on Dec. 15 called 2013 the driest year on record in 120 years.

This is hardly the first time Mendocino and Sonoma have fought for water on behalf of agriculture, the environment and the public at large. In 2009, the issue also came to the fore, creating problems for vineyards and necessitating inventive solutions from wineries.

Although forecasters currently predict a scant chance of “showers” later this week north of San Francisco, and any amount of precipitation will be welcome, what’s needed are some steady rains—not gully washing deluge—to refill reservoirs, aquifers, wells and ponds.