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COMMUNITY NEWS
Development opponent Ted Hart, left, questions lawyer Daniel F. Gallery, who helped obtain the community's water rights 40 years ago.
Longtime water-rights lawyer disputes anti-development view of lake levels
Published
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Development opponents' claims that the Community Services District is required to maintain high water levels in the community's three drinking water reservoirs -- Calero, Chesbro, and Clementia -- won't hold water, according to an attorney who helped secure the community's water rights 40 years ago.
Development opponents say the community was sold a promise that the lakes would be used for recreation and the CSD would endeavor to keep drawdown from exceeding 18 inches, although the drawdown of Lake Calero is currently about 15 feet annually.
"My understanding from some comments that had been made over at the Board of Supervisors' hearing a couple months ago was that the water rights require you to hold reservoir levels up for recreation. And that just isn't the way water rights are written," water rights attorney Daniel F. Gallery countered during his presentation on lake levels at the March Community Services District board meeting. "… Obviously you have to draw these storage reservoirs down to supply your project needs. … That's what they're for, to get you through the summer months.
"You only have the right to take water out of the river from November to May and you've got to get through June, July, August, September and October by pulling water out of those storage reservoirs. There's no other way to do it," Gallery told the board and about 20 people attending the meeting.
Members of the Rancho Murieta Development Concerned Citizens Committee have made the lake levels an issue in their opposition to development plans, contrasting photos of Lake Calero when it's full in the spring with photos taken in late autumn and stating that the three lakes will be reduced to mud puddles during the summer because of development.
At present, Calero is the only lake that's drawn down to provide water during the dry months. According to the CSD's Integrated Water Master Plan, the draw down would increase from 15 feet to 31 feet at low, medium and high build-out. Calero's depth is estimated at 50 feet in the water master plan.
Lake Chesbro is presently filled by Calero. Both Calero and Chesbro would be used to meet the community's water needs in normal years at build-out. Chesbro would be drawn down four feet in normal years at a medium density build-out.
Lake Clementia drops about five feet annually due to natural evaporation and seepage. It would only be drawn down to provide drinking water during drought years, according to the water master plan.
The plan is available here.
The RMDCCC references Rancho Murieta Association CC&R requirements and documents filed with the state Department of Real Estate to support its position that lake levels are required to be maintained.
In making his presentation, Gallery referred to state Water Resources Control Board records from the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Pension Trust Fund for Operating Engineers secured the water permit for the community. He read testimony from water board hearings of the time as he traced the history of the community's water supply and described how it was meant to function.
Gallery was involved in the effort to secure the water rights and still serves as the CSD's water rights attorney. He worked on the recent extension of the community's main water rights permit to 2020.
"It was clear from the evidence that we presented to the water board that those lakes would be drawn down each year as necessary to meet the project water needs, including keeping the recreational reservoirs up," Gallery said.
"If you stop growing you're going to be taking less water out of those reservoirs. However, when you got your permit, you got it for an estimated ultimate population of 25,000. If you're going to stop now at 25 percent of that, when the water board comes out to inspect your permit in another 12 years, and you're not using that 4,300 a feet of water for domestic services because your growth has stopped, you're probably not going to get a license for the amount of your permit."
According to a comment letter Gallery provided for the environmental impact report for the Residences of Murieta Hills and Retreat projects, the water board carries out California water code policy intended to serve existing and future uses for water by allowing "municipal-type users" like the CSD time "to complete full beneficial use of the water."
Before Gallery spoke, CSD General Manager Ed Crouse provided a brief overview of the district's water operations and concluded it by saying, "We feel we have been complying with the requirements of our water rights, as far as maintenance of lake levels and diversions."
The following points were made during Gallery's presentation.
• A much larger Guadalupe Lake was originally envisioned as a storage lake, along with Chesbro, Gallery said, passing around an early map. By 1970, the plan was revised, and Calero, Chesbro and Clementia were designated to meet four types of uses -- domestic, irrigation, recreational, and industrial.
• The community's main water right allows up to 6,368 acre feet of water to be diverted from the river annually, provided flows are high enough. Of that amount, 3,900 acre feet can be stored in the three reservoirs.
•"The major use of the water was forecast to be for domestic," Gallery said. "It was going to use about two-thirds of that water at ultimate build-out of Rancho Murieta. At that time, the Pension Trust Fund was forecasting an eventual 25,000 people at Rancho Murieta. … It was clear from the evidence that we presented to the water board that those lakes would be drawn down each year as necessary to meet the project water needs, including keeping the recreational reservoirs up."
According to the CSD's Integrated Water Master Plan, the community uses over half its domestic water supply outside the home for irrigating landscaping.
• Under the terms of the water permit, Guadalupe Lake, Bass Lake and Laguna Joaquin are recreational lakes that are limited to two uses -- recreation and stock watering.
• By 1982, Calero had been enlarged by the Operating Engineers to provide more storage capacity. It's the only reservoir that's currently drawn down to supply the community's domestic water needs during the dry months.
• Drawdown of the storage lakes was anticipated to "increase gradually as the project grew in people" and the lakes were expected to be drawn down to dead storage levels in drought years, according to Gallery.
Development opponent Don Sams reacted to Gallery's presentation by asking, "If I walked out of the room this evening with the understanding that the more that we develop the closer to mud we become, is that true?"
Gallery replied, "It has to be true. … I would think in normal years you're not going to have the mud problem. …. The more you develop, the more water you're going to use out of your storage reservoirs. That's a given."
RMDCCC member Ted Hart told Gallery the role of the lakes had changed as far as residents are concerned and the lakes that are designated for recreation are not used that way by residents.
"What's developed out of this is Clementia is the primary recreational lake. … The problem that we have is the community has for the first time been told by CSD that with the development as it moves forward that these lakes that are perceived to be recreational reservoirs will be drawn down to zero or five feet."
Gallery responded that the recreational use is included among the four uses "so the storage lakes can be used for recreation both on-site and they can also be used to feed the recreational lakes to keep them full."
Hart said he wasn't suggesting the lakes should be maintained at "an unbelievable, unreasonable level. … What we're faced with, instead of being at a reasonable level, it's down at the mud."
Hart said adding a fourth reservoir would keep water levels up at the existing storage reservoirs. Another audience member suggested the use of ground water to augment the water supply from the river, which is considered in the water master plan.
Later in the meeting, Hart asked what 700 more units of development that's currently in the planning stage would do to reservoir levels, asking, "Are we looking at mud?"
When told he would see a reduction of about 10 percent at Lake Calero when it is at its lowest.
"Which is almost down to mud now," Hart said.
Crouse said that was not the case, estimating the lake was still 25 feet deep before diversions from the river began.
"All I'm trying to do is make sure the community knows what this adds up to," said Hart.
Board and GM challenged over wastewater handling
Irate residents questioned the board about the $200,000 fine the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has imposed on the CSD, and one speaker said General Manager Ed Crouse should be fired for mismanagement.
The water board issued a notice of violation to the CSD in December, citing the district for failing to keep wastewater treatment plant ponds lowered to the required level, exceeding the limit specified in the cease and desist order for annual wastewater inflow to the treatment plant, and for discharging wastewater to surface waters in April 2006 in violation of wastewater discharge requirements.
The CSD delivered approximately 13 million gallons of tertiary treated wastewater to Bass Lake in April 2006 to relieve storage constraints at the wastewater treatment plant during the wet spring.
Crouse said it was a choice between releasing the water to the river or to Bass Lake.
In February, the CSD was fined for the violations and the matter is now being discussed with the staff of the regional board and the CSD has waived its right to a hearing within 90 days of receiving the fine.
The CSD contends that a percentage of the recycled water reached the Cosumnes River, but not the entire amount.
Resident Don Martin, one of three Murietans who offered criticism, faulted the CSD's handling of the situation and Crouse's management.
"This $200,000 fine we have seems so arbitrary. Something should have been done about it before it happened," said Martin. "It just annoys me that we don't have the expertise to keep this from happening in the first place. ... I'd say (the general manager) is mismanaging, rather than managing. If it were up to me, I would have fired him retroactively if I got a $200,000 fine. ..."
President Wayne Kuntz said the storage situation at the wastewater treatment plant has improved over last year. An evaporation system has reduced the amount of wastewater carried over from 2003 when the treatment process had to be changed and deliveries to the Country Club were delayed. The system consists of fountains that can be seen from Highway 16 in operation at the wastewater treatment plant. The fact that it's been a drier winter has also helped.
The district is sealing manhole covers to prevent storm water and run-off from entering the sewer system and increasing flows to the plant.
In additional to the short-term storage issue, Crouse said the district is addressing long-term storage needs in a report that's due in July to satisfy another requirement of the cease and desist order. He said the district's goal was to get a commitment from the Country Club for its recycled water use for planning purposes, and the club has provided a range of 400 to 600 acre feet to cover wet, normal and dry years.
Kuntz said the district notifies the regional board "when we're out of compliance and what we're doing to correct it," but doesn't know what the regional board's response will be.
“They have taken so much flak over the last two or three years in regards to not being stringent enough that they have become extremely stringent lately,” Kuntz said.
Board approves terms of developer agreement for services
The Community Services District board of directors approved the terms for an agreement with developers that provides infrastructure necessary for their developments.
The financing and services agreement addresses development plans that are now before the county.
The terms provide for the expansion of the water treatment plant and additional wastewater disposal at the developers' expense.
President Wayne Kuntz said the developers will provide "spray fields on Van Vleck property to dispose of excess recycled water. … They also will be responsible for the expansion of the water treatment plant for the amount of units they will be building. That's how our operation works. … They're responsible for that, not the existing homeowners."
General Manager Ed Crouse said the additional outlet for recycled wastewater affords the district "flexibility for unknown circumstances, either change in regulatory environment, change in irrigation practices at the Country Club or other things beyond our control…" to prevent the sort of storage problems at the wastewater treatment plant that triggered the cease and desist order.
The Country Club is the only user of recycled water, which the CSD supplies without charge for the irrigation of the golf courses.
At the CSD Improvements Committee meeting earlier in the month, Crouse said negotiations with developers began last spring, languished through the fall and picked up when the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors began the hearing process in January for the Residences of Murieta Hills East and West and Retreat projects proposed for Murieta North. The next hearing on those projects is scheduled for April 11.
In addition to the Retreats and Residences, the agreement includes the Lakeview and Riverview subdivisions on the South and the Murieta Gardens I and II shopping center and residential projects.
The Sacramento County Project Planning Commission approved the map for the Lakeview subdivision last year and heard comments from the public on the Riverview project at its March 26 meeting. The commission is expected to approve the project after the final version of the environmental document is prepared. The two subdivisions would complete the build-out of Murieta South. Both projects were originally approved by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in the 1990s, but their maps expired.
A draft environmental impact report for Murieta Gardens I and II was issued March 22 and the comment period concludes May 7.
Crouse said water needs for the proposed developments total about 680 units and an additional 50 units were included in the agreement to allow for public uses such as school or fire station.
The term sheet will be part of the services and financing agreement that will "ultimately run with the land," said Crouse. It will state the developers' obligations for fees and financing, and contain a financing plan.
"What this really means is that the development pays their fair share for development improvements necessary to serve their project and we will not construct any of the improvements until we have money in place or a funding mechanism," Crouse said.
CSD policy requires infrastructure to be funded by developers at no cost to the district or existing residents.
The developers' cost for the water treatment plant expansion has been estimated at $8 million and the arrangement to use ranch land for wastewater at $3 million.
The Pension Trust Fund for Operating Engineers, owner of much of the remaining undeveloped property in Murieta North, is not among the participants in the agreement and there are no provisions in the agreement for the 750 acres of undeveloped PTF property on the North.
At the board meeting, Andrew C. Zinniger, developer representative for the Woodside Group, was asked if "purple pipe" solutions had been considered as a way to deal with the wastewater the developments will generate.
Zinniger said the use of recycled water for residential landscape irrigation was considered many times but ultimately rejected. "It would take full build-out of the future lands to provide the capacity. … It's a timing issue," he said. "Purple pipe makes a lot of sense … but it only makes sense if you do it from Day One."
Crouse has characterized the ranch land spray fields as "a safety valve" that will allow the district to get rid of excess wastewater quickly to address storage issues at the wastewater treatment plant. It offers the opportunity for beneficial use of up to 500 acre feet of recycled water a year as opposed to disposal of the wastewater, he said.
Crouse said once wastewater that's been carried over from 2003 is gone, increased flows to the wastewater treatment plant will be allowed, with or without new development occurring. The carryover storage resulted from new requirements for the processing of recycled water that delayed deliveries to the Country Club for several months of the irrigation season. In addition, two wet years and changes in the club's operations reduced demand for the water and contributed to the problem.
Long-term storage capacity at the plant and costs are being evaluated in a report that's being prepared in compliance with the cease and desist order.
Bill White, right, who resigned from the board after six years, is congratulated by President Wayne Kuntz.
Former director honored
Bill White, who resigned from the board effective Feb. 28, received a resolution from the board recognizing his six years of service to the CSD and the community as a board member. In accepting the plaque and resolution from President Wayne Kuntz, White complimented the staff and his former colleagues, saying, “I don’t think I’ve seen a finer staff in all my working years. … I feel very comfortable that our board will work through the issues.”
Tank replacement approved
The board approved the removal and replacement of an underground diesel tank with an above-ground tank at a cost not to exceed $80,000. The outer wall of the existing double tank is failing, but the inside tank containing the fuel is believed to be intact. The tank fuels the back-up generator for the main sewer lift station on the South. The low bid for the replacement was $62,000. There is $50,000 allotted in reserves for tank replacement and an in-ground tank would have cost double that amount and required permits and inspections after installation, according to staff.
