Big Bear Lake officials review water ownership, treatment options and status of ‘Replenish Big Bear’ project

City of Big Bear Lake officials and regional water managers spent a special Feb. 11 meeting outlining the tangled history of Big Bear Lake’s water rights, the city’s groundwater system, and the status of the Big Bear Area Regional Wastewater Agency’s (BARWA) “Replenish Big Bear” program to treat and retain reclaimed water on the mountain.

The presentations, led by Sean Sullivan and featuring Bear Valley Mutual Water Company managers George Hansen and Sam Fuller, Big Bear Lake Department of Water and Power (DWP) General Manager Reggie Lampson and BARWA General Manager David Lawrence, framed the technical and legal choices the valley faces as water supplies tighten and regulatory standards evolve.

Why it matters: the valley relies entirely on local groundwater for drinking water, the lake is both a recreation asset and a shared storage reservoir with multiple legal owners, and BARWA’s proposal would treat secondary effluent to a very high standard and return roughly 2,200 acre-feet per year back to the mountaintop for storage and recharge rather than sending it to Lucerne Valley for disposal.

Bear Valley Mutual, the lake and the 1977 judgment

George Hansen, general manager of Bear Valley Mutual Water Company, told the council Bear Valley Mutual was incorporated in 1903 “to supply agricultural water to shareholders down the hill,” and he described the company’s long‑standing role in building and operating the dams and conveyance facilities that created Big Bear Lake. Sam Fuller, Bear Valley’s consultant and the watermaster appointee, summarized the 1977 stipulated judgment that resolved years of litigation between local water interests and established the current accounting system for lake storage and in‑lieu deliveries.

Fuller said the 1977 judgment gave Big Bear Municipal Water District control of the dam and reservoir facilities and provided that Bear Valley Mutual retain the natural inflows and a right to take up to 65,000 acre-feet in any 10-year period unless in-lieu water is provided. Fuller said the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District now supplies most in-lieu deliveries under a 1996…