Tulare County reports household counts for hauled tanks and bottled water as drought risk grows

County staff told the Tulare County Water Commission on May 11 that while the National Weather Service had not formally declared a drought, local indicators and a reduced snowpack point toward increased drought risk.

"Technically, we're still not in a drought, according to the National Weather Service, but certainly with the winter that we had and the snowpack that we no longer have, we probably are headed that way again," Denise said.

Denise reported that a single tank was installed in April and that 131 households are enrolled in the hauled-tank program. She said just under 1,600 households receive bottled water; of those, about 123 are drought-related and the remainder are due to contamination.

On well permits, staff said March and April permit counts are higher than last year and cited a West Goshen project that destroyed some wells as a likely contributor to the trend. Commissioners asked for a geographic breakdown of hauled-tank and bottled-water delivery locations; staff agreed to provide a map at the next meeting.

The commission set its next meeting for July 13 and asked staff to return with the requested mapping information and any updated enrollment data.