Leaky canals costly to Placer Water
Leaks created wildlife habitat and problems to fix
By: Gus Thomson, Reporter/Columnist Auburn Journal
A $500,000 program to mitigate for destruction of artificial habitat created by Placer County Water Agency canal leaks has ended. The Water Agency started working in the mid-2000s to fix ongoing leaks along its canals and confronted a problem of its own doing.
The leaks had created what state Environmental Quality Act standards defined as artificially established wetlands and habitat for wildlife. As a result, the agency partnered with the Placer Land Trust in 2007 to establish mitigation funding to allow what was considered damage to 8,865 acres of habitat as the leaks were fixed. That program has amounted to just more than $503,000 in water agency contributions to the wetland mitigation account, according to Land Trust figures. Land Trust Executive Director Jeff Darlington reported to the Water Agency this past month that the funds have now been spent and the account has a zero balance.
