Lake County approves LG Sonic contract for Clear Lake algae buoys; approval contingent on environmental review

The Lake County Board of Supervisors, sitting as the Lake County Watershed Protection District Board of Directors, voted 4-0 to award a sole‑source contract to LG Sonic for a Clear Lake harmful algal‑bloom mitigation project and to authorize the chair to sign the agreement and the Water Resources Director to execute it.

The project calls for purchase, installation and operation of 14 LG Sonic mitigation buoys and associated monitoring and training; Lake County officials said the contract award is $921,407.12, with an additional $60,000 identified in grant funds to cover staff time, bringing the project total cited by staff to about $981,407.12. The motion conditions approval on completing any applicable environmental reviews and approvals required under the contract’s Exhibit A, including CEQA and NEPA where applicable.

Why it matters: Clear Lake provides drinking water for roughly 60% of Lake County residents and sees recurring harmful algal blooms (cyanobacteria) that county staff say are driven by phosphorus, nitrogen and warming temperatures. County staff framed the deployment as a pilot to reduce toxic blooms and to lower treatment costs for water purveyors.

County staff summary and procurement: Dr. Upadhyay, identified in the meeting as the Water Resources Director, gave an executive summary saying the 24‑month project would install 10 MPC BuE Light units and 4 MPC BuE Pro units and would include interactive algae control software, data collection and staff…