And Not a Drop to Drink

Is there reason to worry when government comes calling with promises to solve a problem? Ask the people of Portola, a town of 2,045 in the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Sacramento. They have been so thoroughly messed up by government that it is hard to imagine how government can fix it.

When it began, state Fish and Game Department officials told the skeptical townsfolk that they knew exactly what they were doing. They had to get rid of the predator northern pike--not native to the region--that had been found in nearby Lake Davis. If the pike were allowed to spread, much of California’s salmon and striped bass populations would be threatened.

The solution was simple, said the officials. They would catch all the trout they could in Lake Davis to save for future restocking and then saturate the water with rotenone, a potent fish poison. Within a month or so, before winter came, the dreaded pike would be dead, the poison would be gone and the trout would be back. Portola resisted but finally relented.

Six months later, a residue of the chemical remains in the lake and consequently it cannot be restocked with trout. Without the trout, the local tourist business is a bust. And Portola is without its major water supply. No one knows when the lake waters will be potable.

The town now faces a disastrous tourist season and a critical water shortage. State workers are trucking in water as fast as they can, but there is no way they can provide the 1.5 million gallons a day needed in the summer. The city and several residents have filed claims with the state demanding an alternative water supply and compensation for business losses. Given the assurances the state made last year and the outcome, the state should give Portola just about anything it wants. There is no point in further explanations, excuses or resistance by officials.

What went wrong? Nothing really, one agency official said, except that the department promised more than it could deliver. And the poison’s residue did not degrade as quickly as the manufacturer said, added biologist Nick Villa.

“I wouldn’t say we lied,” Villa told The Times’ Maria LaGanga. “We pushed the envelope of our capability. . . . It’s not a good way to do business.” That’s one way to put it. You might hear that expressed in spicier language up around Portola.

At least they got rid of the dreaded pike, right? Uh. . . . Well. . . . Last Friday, an Associated Press story told of an angler who reported catching a 29-inch northern pike in the middle fork of the Feather River where it enters Lake Oroville, downstream from Lake Davis.