{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"Drought Task Force to form water resources team","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":389,"description":"August 16: The Drought Task Force Committee met Monday morning to hammer out more details about how to form a water agency, now being called a water resource team. But questions about where the entity is going, and what it will ultimately do, remain.\r\n \r\nThe formalization of the task force, which is now a Board of Supervisors standing committee currently meeting under the rubric of the Public Health, Safety, and Resource committee, is part of a state mandate to respond to the drought. While potable water and ag water are top of mind at the moment, the scope of the drought is immense. And the extent of local expertise is unknown, with regional experts scattered among 42 water agencies. There are no licensed hydrogeologists in Mendocino County, and hydrologists are thin on the ground.\r\n\r\nThe county did not use all the funds from last year’s $2 million grant from the State Department of Water Resources to haul water from Ukiah to Fort Bragg. That program was administered by the Department of Transportation, which is where the water agency is currently housed. DoT Director Howard Dashiell gave committee members Supervisors John Haschak and Glenn McGourty an update on the remaining money.\r\n\r\n“If you just look at the contract commitment we’ve got, like, eight or nine hundred thousand dollars for sure that’s available, but if we don’t start hauling water and we don’t meet some of those contract commitments, it could be a million. Those are the estimates…I looked at the grant eligible activities, and didn’t see a lot of flexibility there. Some of the other things like, I know the community would really like to do groundwater monitoring in many of our basins, and trying to get a handle on what the capacity of some of our aquifers are, I didn’t see those kinds of activities, which have been popular in the past, as eligible under that particular grant.” \r\n\r\nIn the meantime, the state is opening up applications for $300 million in urban grant awards, and Round Valley won a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}