Our History:

The Redwood Valley County Water District was incorporated on January 16, 1964 under Sections 30322 and 30323 of the Water Code according to the laws of the State of California. The Board of Directors searched for many years for a water supply for its project. At an election on May 27, 1975, 82% of the voters of the District approved of the District entering into a contract with the United States of America for a construction loan of $4,800,000.00 pursuant to the Small Reclamation Act of 1956 for the construction of an agricultural and municipal, industrial and domestic water use and distribution system, and other related works used for the purpose of delivering water to lands within the District for industrial and domestic purposes. At another election on April 8, 1980, 78% of the voters of the District approved of the District entering into an escalation construction loan contract in the amount of $2,513,000.00 pursuant to the Small Reclamation Act of 1956, as amended, in which the United States of America advanced loan funds to the District for construction of agricultural and municipal, industrial and domestic water use and distribution systems, and other related works used for the purpose of delivering water to lands within the District for irrigation and municipal, industrial and domestic purposes.

Facilities under the original construction loan were constructed between 1977 and 1979, and the District went into operation with the dual distribution system for irrigation water service in April 1979 and for domestic water service in November 1979. Facilities under the escalation construction loan were completed in 1983.

In January 1989, the District was found by the Superior Court of Mendocino County to have a potentially undependable water right which required it to purchase excess water from the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control & Water Conservation Improvement District during the summer months and ordered a moratorium on new domestic connections. The resulting moratorium on new domestic water service connections brought a near halt to the growth of domestic water service customers. State legislation in 1998 enabled the installation of 135 domestic water service connections to relieve hardship water service on property parcels with existing structures and certifiable water quality or water quantity problems. The moratorium upon new domestic connections remains in effect.

In 2001, the Board of Directors recognized irrigation distribution system delivery deficiencies and declared its own moratorium on new irrigation water service connections until the delivery deficiencies could be corrected with expansion of sections of the irrigation distribution system.

The population of the service area of the District is approximately 3,000 people. The size of the service area is roughly 15 square miles in a valley 5 miles long by 3 miles wide. The original irrigable acreage in the District was estimated irrigated acreage in the range of 3,300 to 3,500 acres. That acreage has grown to a gross area of 5,470 acres as reported in the most recent Crop and Water Data report (2001) to the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation.