Even a small dam can generate some dispute and in it we see the kernels of the larger dispute that occurs whenever technological solutions, many see as progress, meet the desire to keep things as they are, which many also wish.
An excerpt.
Reservoir reservations
Neighbors say dam would disrupt farms, put homes at risk
By Beth Curda/Enterprise staff writer
When Yolo County flood and water official Tim O’Halloran looks at the 320 acres of hilly landscape northwest of Woodland that his office and an environmental group purchased this summer, he sees a variety of possibilities.
Among those are improved water quality, flood control around Road 95, a water source for the recreational rafting industry and other needs, a possible solution for problematic ground subsidence in the Yolo-Zamora area, and a habitat area.
When some of those who live next to the land consider the dam, reservoir and habitat area O’Halloran’s organization and the California Conservation Fund want to create there, they see potential, too.
But, for them, it’s potential damage to their farm and ranch and the homes their families have lived in for generations.
O’Halloran’s office, the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, and the California Conservation Fund have in mind a reservoir and habitat area for 320 acres of land around County Roads 18 and 95, between two of the district’s canals and near a handful of area farmers.
The details of the project would have to be determined through months of environmental, economic and engineering studies and review by the district’s board, the public and other agencies, O’Halloran said.
But, the idea today is to run a dam from one hill to another, allowing for storage of up to 30 feet of water that would drain to small basins in the summer.
“From my perspective,” O’Halloran said, “there’s a lot of benefits to it.”
The district and California Conservation Fund bought the land because they figured it would be easier to look into the project if they owned it, O’Halloran said. The purchase price was about $1 million.
The problem, though, is the dam could cut off a corner of a neighboring cattle ranch and olive grove and run close to homes farming families have lived in for generations.
The neighboring families — Herb and Marlene Schuler, their daughter Laurie Schuler-Flynn and her husband Tom Flynn, and neighbor Bill Debo — don’t like the idea of a tall earthen dam cutting off the corner of the Schulers’ ranch and the olive grove for the 3-year-old olive oil business Laurie Schuler-Flynn co-owns with a friend.
They don’t want 30 feet of water changing the landscape and view they have enjoyed. They don’t want the dam to break, changing their wintertime water experiences from a nuisance of an overflowing slough to a destructive flood.
They don’t want to be in an eminent domain battle with the district. That’s something the district, too, would like to avoid.
And dams mean development, the neighbors say. They provide a source of water that developers can cite when pitching a project to decision-makers.
