See what your neighbors think in Community Views

Published Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Lake Clementia will no longer be a swimming lake once the community grows to 3,500 housing units. That’s about 1,300 homes from now.

The information seemed to come as a surprise to residents and to Murieta Holdings developer Robert J. Cassano at the December “town hall” meeting last Thursday.

But it shouldn’t have been news to longtime residents, said Ed Crouse, Community Services District general manager, when he was contacted a few days after the meeting.

In 1990, the CSD developed a water policy after studies were conducted to reassess the community’s water needs. The policy required new development to pay a per-unit fee to fund the additional water storage that would be needed at build-out.

The same policy also required making Lake Clementia a drinking-water lake after the community reached a threshold of roughly 3,500 units, he said.

“Regardless of who the developer is, whether it’s on the North or the South, a full build-out scenario is going to require the use of all of our lakes, plus an additional augmentation supply to carry us through the 1976-77 equivalent drought, which is a 200-year event,” Crouse said. “It just so happens that the timing is such that the Murieta Holdings projects will push the development beyond the threshold of when we need that additional supply. … This day was always going to come.”

Crouse said Lake Clementia would be tapped for drinking water only during a severe drought. “The problem is … you can’t predict with any certainty when you’re going to have droughts and when you’re going to have years of plenty. In the Department of Health Services’ eyes, once you swim in a lake, you, quote, contaminate it,” he explained. “And our lakes are different than Folsom Lake, inasmuch as Folsom has the river flowing in it and out of it on a daily basis, so you have flushing flows, so over time you can kind of flush it out and/or dilute it. Whereas our lakes, once the water’s in there, the only way to get it out is to have it evaporate out or seep out or use it. Whatever contaminates it, stays in there.”

Which is why banning swimming only in drought years is not an acceptable solution.

“The Department of Health Services says you can’t drink that water because, the summer before, you swam in it and contaminated it,” said Crouse.

There is a possibility part of the lake could be preserved for swimming. The swimming area would be separated from the drinking water by an impervious barrier. The water in the swimming area would be chlorinated and filtered.

The reduced densities proposed by Murieta Holdings won’t change the decision to convert Clementia for use as a drinking-water lake. The developers have been planning a build-out of about 4,100 units. The 200 homes announced last week as part of the commercial development behind the Country Store would increase that total. Rancho Murieta is approved for a build-out of 5,200 units.

In 1990, the developer at that time reduced the build-out figure by 400 or 500 units in response to the findings about water needs. But that reduction didn’t outlast the developer.

At present, CSD is gearing facilities and an augmented water supply for a full build-out figure of 5,200.

“That’s great you’re saying you’re going to reduce it down to 4,100, but who’s to say that somebody’s going to come back in later and say, ‘Look, we can build up to 5,000, so I want to upsize the density on some of these parcels’,” Crouse said.

“In the absence of any deed restrictions on development, we would have to plan for the full build-out scenario. “What’s happened on that commercial property is what we’ve always feared. … I’m not saying there’s anything right or wrong with the commercial development, but until something restricts the ultimate density, vis-à-vis the number of build-out units, we’re obligated to provide water for the full 5,200.”

Do you have comments about this topic or story? Share them at RanchoMurieta.com's Community Views page.