In a county where water is always a major concern, it is important that the community knows how it can be both protected and have a plan that makes sure everyone will have access to clean drinking water in the future.
Both Humboldt County and the City of Winnemucca adopted the Community Source Water Protection Plan (CSWPP) in 2016, which helped outline how the community would make efforts to protect public drinking water, but the CSWPP was recently updated and adopted in 2023. With the help of the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP), Humboldt County was able to secure high-level advisers, such as Resource Concepts Inc., to help put together the CSWPP.
A special team — the Community Source Water Protection Local Planning Team — worked hard to update the plan, according to Humboldt County Economic Development Officer Michelle Hammond-Allen, who was on the Team.
“This was a great effort in ensuring that our CSWPP remains relevant and up to date to best serve the citizens of Humboldt County. Our drinking water is one, if not the most important, resource we have. Our team including staff from the County, City and the surrounding communities alongside Resource Concepts Inc. worked together seamlessly on this project,” said Hammond-Allen.
Humboldt County has public water systems in the Winnemucca Area, Golconda, Paradise, Orovada, McDermitt, Valmy, and Denio communities and the CSWPP helps facilitate collaboration among entities like the City, County, and General Improvement Districts to provide education, attainable goals, and structure local ordinances.
The CSWPP also highlights action steps and goals to develop the plan, coordinate and collaborate to ensure the plan is effective, provide proper knowledge about protecting drinking water to the community, increase awareness, and promote responsible economic development through efforts that the NDEP can help fund.
Hammond-Allen explained that having a comprehensive CSWPP helps open up funding opportunities at the state and federal levels, not just through the NDEP, as many grants and other funding opportunities require that the funds be committed to a certain project and having one already outlined streamlines the process.
Another big proponent in protecting water is knowing the potential dangers that could contaminate it, which the CSWPP helps identify.
Some of the potential risks to drinking water in Humboldt County include: contamination from high concentrations of septic systems, accidental spills of petroleum in commercial areas like gas stations or other fuel storage places, during transportation by truck or train along the highway and railroad, and through agricultural irrigation with poor storage of fertilizers and other chemicals, according to the CSWPP.
Integrated Source Water Protection Program Manager for the NDEP, Ethan Mason, expressed gratitude to the Humboldt County Board of Commissioners, the City of Winnemucca, the Mayor and the City Council in their approval of the updated CSWPP recently, stating that “[NDEP is] confident that together, we can achieve our shared goal of safer and cleaner drinking water for future generations.”
The CSWPP outlines some of the ongoing actions to protect drinking water in Humboldt County which currently include:
• Coordinating and conducting educational meetings like the Water Quality Summit that was held on March 9, 2016, which provided information about the CSWPP, local drinking water sources, nitrate and septic system and well care.
• Working with entities like the Nevada Outdoor School to provide education about watershed, groundwater.
• Providing CSWPP documents in property sale documents and applications.
•Expanding education about the proper disposal of chemicals, prescription drugs, and other hazardous materials that can affect drinking water.
• Providing proper training regarding rural water sources and small public water systems through the Nevada Rural Water Association.
With the high concentration of septic systems in the Grass Valley area posing a significant risk to the safety of the drinking water supply to residents, the CSWPP can help County leaders to move forward with addressing the issues and stay in line with goals for the furniture, according to Hammond-Allen.
“Part of how this plays into the Grass Valley piece is nitrate mitigation and making sure that the residents understand what's actually wrong with the water and why it needs to be fixed… Because those elements are in our [CSWPP], we're able to work with [Resource Concepts Inc.] and they're experts in a lot of things,” explained Hammond-Allen.
Continued support of the CSWPP is key, according to Hammond-Allen, in securing the protection of local drinking water and having many local entities on board to continue implementing the Plan is important for the community.