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Department of Water Resources California Water News: Agencies, Programs, People 1/11/10
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El Dorado Hills group fights plan to hike water rates Sacramento Bee Feuding Pajaro Valley water agencies head back to court Santa Cruz Sentinel Owner of Yermo water system says he's found a buyer Barstow Desert Dispatch Patricia Oygar elected to head Desert Water Agency Desert Sun A new look for Fort Bragg Santa Rosa Press Democrat Technology, mussels could halt wastewater project Oakland Tribune STPUD offering $200 rebate for water-efficient washers Tahoe Daily Tribune
El Dorado Hills group fights plan to hike water rates
Sacramento Bee-1/11/10
By Cathy Locke
Learning in mid-December that the cost of water and sewer service may sharply increase in the new year is sure to dampen the holiday spirit. But some El Dorado Hills residents say they are even more concerned that El Dorado Irrigation District customers awash in holiday mail may have overlooked notices of proposed rate increases.
Suspicious of the timing of the notices and upset about the series of rate increases that would start with a 35 percent hike this year, a group of citizens is encouraging ratepayers to submit letters of protest to block the increases.
"A loose confederation is working together to give voice to 40,000 residents of El Dorado Hills," said John Thomson, president of the Bass Lake Action Committee, a protest supporter.
Although the group calling itself Citizens Against Rate Extortion was launched by El Dorado Hills residents, Thomson said they are reaching out to the 100,000 customers in the district through their Web site at stopeid.org.
"EID, with its money and its power, has been able, in some people's eyes, to push the ratepayers around," he said.
District board members say the increases are necessary to meet bond obligations. The district has relied heavily on charges for new hookups, and the revenue gap is attributed largely to the near standstill in housing construction.
The board proposes a 35 percent increase in water and sewer rates for the current year, followed by a 15 percent increase in 2011 and increases of 5 percent for each of the next three years.
District officials said notice of the proposed rate increase was mailed to customers as soon as possible after the board adopted its 2010 budget Nov. 23.
Under Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, approved by California voters in 1996, public agencies must reject an increase if written protests are submitted by a majority of landowners.
The opponents' Web site includes a letter-of-protest form and alerts people to district-sponsored workshops as well as the Feb. 4 rate hearing. If adopted, the proposed rates would become effective Feb. 8.
John Raslear, chairman of the Four Seasons Civic League, said his group joined the protest because many residents of the Four Seasons development, for people age 55 and older, are retired and would be hit particularly hard by the increases.
But Paul Raveling of the El Dorado Hills Citizens Alliance said he is not prepared to take a position without better understanding the implications of rejecting the rate increases. The alliance's board has not yet discussed the issue, but Raveling said a unanimous vote is required for the group to take a position.
"We risk shooting ourselves in the foot," he said, arguing that if the district defaulted on its bond obligation, any future financing would carry a much higher price tag.
Raveling, who has done some "number crunching" for Citizens Against Rate Extortion, estimated his own monthly costs for water and sewer would rise about $30, an amount he could afford.
Placerville-area resident Doug Leisz, a member of the advocacy group El Dorado County Citizens for Water, said anger about the proposed rate hikes isn't limited to El Dorado Hills residents.
Leisz said he would prefer an assessment to cover specific capital projects. Although ratepayers would bear the cost, the assessment would end when the project was completed.
"The tendency, once you get a flow of money from rates, is to find a way to use whatever income stream you have," he said.
But Leisz said Citizens for Water is satisfied that the district is working to reduce its reliance on new hookup charges and pursue financing methods that would reduce ratepayers' vulnerability.
If protests prevented new rates from going into effect, district counsel Tom Cumpston said in an e-mail, the board's options to avoid violating the bond covenants would be to try to cut $13 million from its $43 million operating budget, reinitiate the rate- increase process, or some combination of the two.#
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2451962.html
Feuding Pajaro Valley water agencies head back to court
Santa Cruz Sentinel-1/8/10
By Donna Jones
More than $4 million in water fee refunds flowed to Pajaro Valley residents and businesses this past year.
But Pajaro-Sunny Mesa Community Services District didn't get a dime.
So the small Monterey County water supplier has filed a lawsuit against the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency that takes aim at the process for claiming refunds of fees overturned by a state appeals court in 2007.
It's the second time in as many years Pajaro-Sunny Mesa has taken the water management agency to court over what's known as augmentation fees, levied on groundwater pumping.
The first lawsuit, filed in 2008 in an effort to strike down a fee that survived the earlier court battle, was dismissed in superior court and is on appeal.
To get a refund for fees imposed in 2003 and 2004, the agency required claimants to give up the right to challenge a 2002 fee. But Pajaro-Sunny Mesa refused since its lawsuit over the fee is still working its way through the judicial system, and its claim was rejected.
Lawyer Gary Varga, who represents Pajaro-Sunny Mesa, believes the 2002 fee, like the ones that were overturned, was collected illegally under state tax law and he called the refund condition "extortion."
"We want all our money," Varga said. "You don't get to keep what you stole."
Tony Condotti, the water management agency's lawyer, said the claims process was set up in accordance with a 2008 agreement reached with parties in
the earlier litigation.
The parties were to get refunds of 2002 and 2004 fees, and in exchange the 2002 fee would stand while the agency developed a new rate structure, an effort now in process.
Varga contends Pajaro-Sunny Mesa isn't bound by the agreement, but if the court disagrees, the district should receive refund for the 2003 and 2004 fees, regardless of whether it followed the claims process, because the fees were collected illegally.
Pajaro-Sunny Mesa is seeking a $326,000 refund, plus interest, administrative and legal costs. In December, Pajaro-Sunny Mesa offered to settle for just under $1 million.
The water management agency, which has spent $113,597 defending against the first lawsuit, rejected the offer.#
Owner of Yermo water system says he's found a buyer
Barstow Desert Dispatch-1/8/10
By Jessica Cejnar
Ownership of the Yermo Water Company is still undecided, but its current owner says a firm has made an offer on the system and a sale should be finalized in 30 days at the most.
Company owner Don Walker, who lives in Florida, said a Tuesday mediation session between him and Yermo Community Services District board president Bob Smith at the California Public Utilities Commission has been canceled so a sale could be finalized. Walker refused to disclose the name of the firm that made an offer, nor how much that offer was.
Two other companies have also expressed interest in buying the water system, and Walker said he’s waiting on the Yermo Community Services District to make its offer. Walker went into an August mediation session at the CPUC with the name of the firm that wanted to buy it. Smith also attended that meeting.
Walker and Smith were supposed to attend another mediation session at the CPUC, Tuesday. At the meeting, the question of who would own the company or if it would go into receivership was supposed to be answered, Smith said. However, CPUC spokesman Andy Kotch said Tuesday’s meeting has been canceled and no future meetings have been set, but he couldn’t say why.
The Yermo CSD board is willing to sit down with Walker and negotiate a sale with him, but Walker hasn’t contacted them, Smith said. Since the Yermo CSD began pursuing ownership of the water company it has attended two CPUC mediation sessions with Walker that ended without the company being taken over by a receivership and Walker still owning the company. Tuesday’s meeting would have been the third mediation session, Smith said. .
“It’s just a continuing stalling tactic,” he said. “We have asked for him to sit down and negotiate with us at least 15 times. The only thing we are to him is a fall back in the event he can’t (find) somebody to buy.”
The San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission reactivated the Yermo CSD’s water jurisdiction in June. Smith said the Yermo CSD has been seeking to purchase the water company off and on for about three years. The CPUC has been investigating the Yermo Water Company since July 2006 when Yermo residents went three days without water. The Yermo CSD has considered seeking to condemn the company, but the process would be expensive, Smith said.#
http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/water-7647-barstow-yermo.html
Patricia Oygar elected to head Desert Water Agency
Desert Sun-1/8/10
By Victor Morales
The Desert Water Agency Board of Directors elected a new president at Tuesday's meeting.
Patricia Oygar was unanimously elected to the executive office and becomes the agency's first woman as president in the agency's 49-year existence, agency officials confirmed.
Oygar has served on the board for 18 years. She was appointed in 1992 to replace the only other woman that served on the board, Edith Spitzer. Oygar was formally the secretary-treasurer.
F. Thomas Kieley III was unanimously voted to vice president after serving as president.
The newest board member, Jim Cioffi, was unanimously voted to serve as secretary-treasurer.
Elections within the board are conducted every two years.
During the meeting, Cioffi said the agency will instruct the agency's Sacramento lobbyist to oppose two proposed state senate bills making their way through the committee system.
They include a bill that would extend the time a complaint can be made against local agencies, such as Desert Water Agency or the City Council, alleging a violation of state contract laws. The other bill would require a local agency to make publicly available bargained agreements with employees at least 15 days prior to a closed session.#
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101070344
A new look for Fort Bragg
Santa Rosa Press Democrat-1/10/10
By Glenda Anderson
Fort Bragg's rugged coastline is in public hands after more than a century under private ownership that kept both the land and its dramatic views off limits to visitors.
“It finally happened. We're very excited,” said Fort Bragg Mayor Doug Hammerstrom.
“We have never had the opportunity to open the entire coastline of a city in one fell swoop,” said Sam Schuchat, executive director of the Coastal Conservancy.
Fort Bragg, Georgia-Pacific and Coastal Conservancy officials sealed a deal last week that gives the city ownership of 92 acres of the 430-acre former G-P mill site. It includes 3.5 miles of coastline.
While the deal is complete, access to the land is expected to be restricted for another two years while plans for the parkland are completed and then carried out, city officials said.
Until its closure in 2002, the lumber mill's buildings largely blocked the ocean view from downtown Fort Bragg, a city of 7,000. Many have since been removed or have fallen to the elements, bringing Fort Bragg a new scenic backdrop.
The land transfer — five years in the making — includes 57 acres along the bluffs donated by Georgia—Pacific for a coastal trail. The rest of the land was purchased with a $4.2 million grant from the Coastal Conservancy, said Fort Bragg City Manager Linda Ruffing.
The city is planning a coastal trail that eventually will link the bluffs south of Fort Bragg to MacKerricher State Park, Ruffing said.
An unrelated purchase deal that also was sealed last week will add public access to and from Hare Creek beach and 5 acres just south of Fort Bragg at Highway 20 and Highway 1.
Both are slated to become part of the California Coastal Trail, which someday is expected to extend along California's 1,200-mile coastline, according to the Coastal Conservancy, the funding source for both purchases.
Opening Fort Bragg's ocean views and trails will be a boon to the city, which suffered an economic hit when G-P — its largest employer — shut the mill in 2002.
“It will be a real amenity. We will challenge places like Santa Cruz and Monterey for their access along the coast,” Hammerstrom said.
The north end of the former mill site provides views of the county's most extraordinary piece of coastline, Ruffing said.
“If it's a gorgeous day, you can see the whole Lost Coast,” to the north, she said.
The rest of the former mill site is slated for a mix of residential, commercial and light industrial uses under a specific plan being developed for the property. Officials expect a marine education center and industrial arts center to be included in the development.
The ocean views and trails should help attract the kinds of development the city wants and needs, Hammerstrom said.
“It will be a place people notice and maybe want to come here and start their business,” he said.#
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100110/articles/100119984
Technology, mussels could halt wastewater project
Oakland Tribune (Associated Press)-1/10/10
Local government managers are urging elected officials to force the Clean Water Coalition to scrap a plan for an $860 million pipeline to pump treated wastewater into Lake Mead.
The coalition project was once seen as a way to better mix wastewater with lake water, by pumping the treated water deep into the lake.
But new treatment technologies and the presence of quagga mussels are filtering the lake and could allow the valley to get by without the pipeline.
Killing the project could save taxpayers money on sewer bills and connection fees. Both have increased in recent years to generate funding for the project.
Now local governments want the money—roughly $60 million—returned.
In a Dec. 8 letter, managers from Henderson, Las Vegas and Clark County asked the coalition to determine a means of appropriately returning unspent funds.
Last month, the coalition's board delayed any decision on redistributing funds and voted to mothball the pipeline plan until 2012, when more water quality information will be ready.
The coalition was formed through an interlocal agreement in 2002 with the purpose of building the pipeline. In a June report, the coalition maintained that the Systems Conveyance and Operations Program, or SCOP, was still necessary.
More recently, Clark County Water Reclamation District General Manager Richard Mendes said the idea behind the pipeline—that dilution could solve pollution—no
longer holds true because growth in the Las Vegas area is stagnant and wastewater treatment had improved.
"We project that with the improvements (in treatment), we will not have a problem for at least 30 years, maybe longer," Mendes said. "That's even with no change in technology. So we don't think the project is necessary."
Mendes is pushing for the termination of the project and a repayment of funds.
Coalition General Manager and former County Commissioner Chip Maxfield said the issue will be raised a Jan. 26 board meeting. But Maxfield said coalition is looking at how its money could be used to improve wastewater treatment. Among those ideas are funding four valley treatment plant project and improvements to the Las Vegas Wash, where all treated water goes before flowing into Lake Mead.
"The underlying premise is maintaining water quality for this community," Maxfield said. "If (the pipeline) isn't needed, then what other water quality improvements have been done and what other water quality improvements need to be done that are cost effective?"#
STPUD offering $200 rebate for water-efficient washers
Tahoe Daily Tribune-1/9/10
The South Tahoe Public Utility District announced Jan. 8 that the district is offering a $200 rebate on water efficient clothes washers effectively immediately.
To be eligible, clothes washers must have a water factor of 8.5 or lower, must have been purchased between Jan. 1, 2008, and Jan. 15, 2010, and installed within the district's service area.
Applications must be turned in by Feb. 28, 2010, with a copy of the purchase receipt, manufacturer's information including model number and water factor, and an IRS W-9 form.#
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20100109/NEWS/100109807/1068&ParentProfile=1056
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