LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. — The residents of the neighborhood that’s right off of Barlow Road, South of the Lake Isabella Auxiliary Dam say by this time of year, the field next to them is usually dead and dry. However, right now it's green and full of vegetation. This is due to the excess seepage water that the Army Corps of Engineers is pumping from under their property and releasing into a ditch, where it then runs through multiple properties, ultimately ending up in a field that has become swamp-like.
“How would anybody else like your neighbor dumping what on their property without first sending a letter or a phone call?” Gerald Wenstrand, owner of the Wenstrand Heartfelt Hereford Ranch, told me.
His ranch property is South of the Lake Isabella Auxiliary Dam. Wenstrand says since April, after the lake filled up he’s had to deal with a continuous flow of water running through his property and eroding his drainage system.
“The erosion of this draining system we developed mainly for rain water, and to keep the water drawing away from the cattle corrals. It has a shelf life because it’s not designed to be flowing 24/7.”
At the heart of the issue, the new system the Army Corps put in place during the five year long renovation on the dam that finished earlier this year. The renovations changed the way the Army Corps dealt with seepage water – that’s water that naturally seeps into the ground from the dam. The Army Corps says this seepage does not affect the structural integrity of the dam and is a natural part of any earthen dam.
Before, this water was diverted into the now out of service Borel Canal. As part of the renovations, the Army Corps installed an underground tank that captures seepage water, which is then pumped through a pipe that runs up the dam and deposits the water back in the lake.
“The pumps are too small, the pipe is too small to carry it up over the dam. The excess seepage that is not pumped back into the lake is being pumped into the Army Corps property on an open ditch train,” Wenstrand says.
The Army Corps said over email that there is currently more seepage than anticipated, so they are letting a portion of it run downstream, which is through several properties.
Wenstrand had to install culverts over the new stream in order to move his equipment from one part of his property to the other.
“The ground is so wet that it's filling up my tanks,” said Julie Chapman, a resident who lives in the small community south of the Auxiliary Dam off of Barlow Road.
Chapman says she's had to pump her septic tank 3 times this year, which is more than she’s had to in the last 25 years, due to groundwater infiltrating the tank.
“It's full again. I'm gonna wind up having to have it pumped again. That’s 350 to 400 dollars every time I get it done.”
She was told by a plumber that due to the increased water in the ground, she will need to replace the leach line for her septic system.
“My estimate to get it done is over 40 thousand dollars.”
Moving forward, she’s worried about long term impacts.
“How long are they going to let it continue to go before it’s under all our foundations and messing things up?”
Resident Rhonda Rupert, who lives in the same small community off of Barlow Drive, says she’s dealt with her property being saturated by groundwater in the past, but this year it has been especially bad.
“The entire thing just sunk right into the ground because of the water content,” Chapman said, “This entire ground gets totally drenched, I can't even walk into my own yard to get anything done.”
Wenstrand says he wasn’t given any warning from the Army Corps about the excess water they were releasing.
“It's quite frustrating to tell you the truth because it's been a long process.”
The Army Corps said over email that they are working on installing temporary pumps in order to be able to pump all of the seepage water back into the lake, and say they hope eventually to install permanent pumps for this purpose.
Wenstrand hopes that can happen before more precipitation comes.
“We're supposed to have an El Nino Winter and if that is accurate, with all the snowpack and rainfall, it won't take long to fill back up and then we’re back to square one,” Wenstrand said.
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