Bridgeway Lakes in West Sacramento at their lowest levels in 11+ years
WEST SACRAMENTO - A neighborhood lake is dropping fast but will a new plan help save it?
Rick Barrett bought his home on Bridgeway Lakes 11 years ago and has never seen the water levels this low.
"Just in the last month, I'd say it's really dropped down," he said.
The lake is one of the main reasons he purchased this property.
He says water that is usually about halfway up a retaining wall is now not even touching it and is replaced by a ring of mud.
"I've got a boat over here that's just in the mud," he said.
"All the water that's in there you see comes from runoff from the rainy season, and we're in a third year of a drought," said West Sacramento city spokesperson Paul Hosley.
The 45-acre manmade lake is operated by the West Sacramento Parks Department.
"People that live around the lake can see the levels going down and they're concerned and they let us know about it and we're concerned too," said Hosley.
West Sacramento officials planned on drilling a new well to pump water into the lake -- but they say state drought restrictions will no longer allow that. The city also tried pumping 500 gallons per minute of water from an existing well into a canal that flows into the lake but all the water evaporated or seeped into the ground before it got there.
Now a new emergency plan is being considered: The city would spend more than $120,000 to line portions of the canal walls with a layer of rocks known as riprap in an effort to guide water into the lake.
"I think that would be a good idea; anything they can do to keep the water levels up is fine with me," said Barrett.
But the city says even that won't be enough to get water back where it once was.
"We really need a lot of rain," said Hosley.
And this week's rainfall is just a drop in the bucket of what's needed. The West Sacramento city council is scheduled to vote on the emergency water plan this Wednesday.