About Cambria

In my email box when I got home this evening: the agenda for a special meeting of the Cambria Community Services District next Tuesday. Below is the entire one page agenda. The Cambria CSD website was unavailable as of this writing, so I haven’t been able to check if the agenda packet was available on the district’s website. Download the agenda packet with the details at the Cambria CSD website.

?CAMBRIA COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT
CALL BY THE PRESIDENT AND FINAL AGENDA
FOR SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
I, Greg Sanders, President of the Cambria Community Services District Board of Directors,
hereby call a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors pursuant to California Government Code
Section 54956. The Special Meeting will be held: Tuesday, January 05, 2010, 12:00 PM, 1000 Main Street, Veterans Memorial Building, Cambria, CA. The purpose of the special meeting is to discuss or transact the following business:
AGENDA
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CAMBRIA COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 05, 2010, 12:00 PM
1000 MAIN STREET
Cambria, CA
1.     OPENING
A.     Call to Order
B.     Establishment of Quorum
C. D.     Pledge of Allegiance Adjourn to Closed Session 1. CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS
Agency Designated Representatives: General Manager
Employee Organization: IAFF Local 4635, Cambria CSD
E. Reconvene to Open Session – 12:30 PM F. Report from Closed Session
2.     PUBLIC COMMENT Members of the public wishing to address the Board on any item described in
this Notice may do so when recognized by the Board President. Public comment on this agenda will be
limited to 3 minutes per person.
3.     SPECIAL MEETING BUSINESS
A.     Consider Adoption of Resolution 01-2010 Approving a Geotechnical and
Hydrogeologic Study at Santa Rosa Creek Beach and Directing Staff to File a
Notice of Exemption, Pursuant to Title 14 California Code of Regulations § 15306
4.     PUBLIC COMMENT Members of the public wishing to address the Board on any item described in
this Notice may do so when recognized by the Board President. Public comment on this agenda will be
limited to 3 minutes per person.
5.     ADJOURN
Notice of this special meeting shall be delivered to each member of the Board of Directors and
to each local newspaper of general circulation and radio or television station who have
requested such notice. Notice must be received at least twenty-four (24) hours before the time
set for the special meeting.
Dated: December 30, 2009
By:
_/s/__________________________________
Gregory W. Sanders, President

This interesting idea appeared in an article in the Press-Democrat in Northern California:

At the last regular Cambria Community Services District meeting of 2009 the Board chose it’s new leaders. Bucking the usual tradition of selecting the Vice President to be the next president, Muril Clift nominated current board president Greg Sanders to continue in that role. Director Sanders didn’t refuse the nomination and was unanimously elected to serve for 2010 as the Board president.
Then Director MacKinnon nominated Director Chaldecott for Vice Chair, citing the logic of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. When there was no second to his motion, Director DeMicco nominated Director Clift for Vice Chair. His reasoning included ensuring the Executive committee becoming more balanced between the experience of Sanders and the fiscal responsibility represented by the recently elected Clift. It almost appeared that DeMicco’s motion would also die for lack of a second when Director Chaldecott quietly seconded Clift’s nomination.
Director Sanders responded “Always the gentleman, Peter.” It was hard to hear exactly what Chaldecott said in response, but the gist of it seemed to be that choosing Clift as Vise president would ensure some continuity, since he would be retiring at the end of 2010. Chaldecott’s term is up in 2010 and he apparently isn’t planning a run next year.
The president and vice president make up the executive committee of the Cambria Community Services District. This committee sets the agendas for the monthly meetings and provides much of the direction for what policies the Board will consider over the year.
Whether or not you agree with Sanders or Clift on individual matters, I think these two men will serve the community well in 2010. The monthly meetings are professional and usually run smoothly by president Sanders. Unlike other Board presidents, Sanders allows some latitude in time available for public comment and manages the action expertly. Clift has shown strong political acumen in his year and a half on the CSD and we will benefit from his ability to ask the right questions at the right time.
More on the rest of the meeting (which was packed for the Army Corps of Engineers presentation) in tomorrow’s post.

At the November 16, 2009 meeting of the Cambria Community Services District meeting, District Engineer Bob Gresens did a presentation on the costs of various potable water supplies for Cambria. If you missed the meeting and don’t have Charter Cable, you were out of luck on seeing the powerpoint. The Cambria CSD added the presentation to its website at least a week ago as an addendum to the November 16, 2009 agenda packet. It took me a while to find it there, but here is the critical page. (Download the full presentation here.)

There are a number of questions we should be asking, starting with the most important one: how much will it cost Cambrians to go from 90%  to 100% reliability from their water system?**(see below) Note that when the aquifers are completely recharged, we have enough water to meet current demand without threat of saltwater intrusion or habitat destruction.

Director DeMicco asked Gresens to show how he arrived at the numbers shown below and will likely do so in a utilities committee meeting. The information in this chart is incomplete or comparing apples with oranges and could be misleading if misunderstood. I encourage you to take it with a grain of salt (no pun intended). I look forward to hearing Mr. Gresens

Cost of Various Water Supply Alternatives

PRESENT WORTH COST SUMMARY OF POTABLE WATER SUPPLY ALTERNATIVES

**In Task Two of the District’s Master Plan (a.k.a. the Kennedy Jenks baseline water supply analysis)  the following conclusions were developed:
• The District’s current water supplies are marginal to inadequate to provide a 90 percent level of reliability (i.e., in about one out of ten years there may not be enough water for current customers, who will have to cut back on water use).
• The District’s current water supplies are inadequate to provide a 95 percent level of reliability (i.e., in about one out of twenty years there may be a severe water  shortage and current customers will have to cut back on water use).

The recurrence frequency of incomplete refill in the San Simeon Creek basin has been estimated at 1 year in 34. The return frequency for the same event in Santa Rosa Creek basin has been estimated at 1 year in 25 (Yates, 1991).

It also assumes “Public water utilities should have a water supply reliability of 90 to <100 percent, recognizing that the cost to achieve high levels of reliability may be difficult and expensive. Accordingly, alternative criteria of 90 and 95 percent reliability are presented.”

Based on the evaluation criteria presented in the previous section, the analysis  indicates  the projected ending groundwater level in the San Simeon Creek basin is expected to be above the minimum groundwater level criterion if the basin is completely recharged at the beginning of the Dry Season and the probability that groundwater levels will be sufficiently high at the beginning of the Dry Season to maintain the minimum criteria is near the 90 percent reliability objective but well below the 95 percent reliability objective, particularly in critically dry years.
Also, the expected production requirements from each basin is within its dry season water rights limitations. The results of this dry season evaluation indicate that all of the evaluation criteria except for the 90 percent reliability criterion during extreme critically dry years and the 95 percent reliability criterion are met for current water demands. Therefore, the District’s current water supplies are marginal to inadequate to provide a 90 percent level of reliability for current water demands and are inadequate to provide a 95 percent reliability level.

Additional analysis from the Kennedy Jenks study will follow. Download a version marked with my highlighting here.

The “opening act” at the December 14, 2009 meeting of the Cambria Community Services District will be Colonel Thomas H. Magness, IV, 58th commander, Los Angeles District, Army Corp of Engineers. According to Director Chaldecott, the Colonel will provide an update on the status of the desalination project.  Out of respect for his time, he is scheduled at the start of the meeting.

Some information is available, if you really look for it. There is a little information available about funding for Cambria’s project and some brief information about a $70,000.00 contract awarded to San Francisco-based Noble Consultants at the beginning of November,  chosen from a field of eight other interested parties. Visit this site for the  complete source. To read the October 30, 2009  news release issued by the Army Corps of Engineers about the award, click here.

The Cambria CSD recently approved a payment of $166,000 in  matching funds and is awaiting a decision on how much of the money we’ve already spent on desalination will count toward the 25% required matching funds. It seems unclear what amount this is a match for. As of October 16, 2009,  Estimated Recovery Act Funds Allocated of $950,600 and  Recovery Act Funds Obligated was $255,945  Download the excel spreadsheet here.

This project will not be inexpensive or easy or accomplished quickly. I look forward to hearing right from the Colonel’s mouth what the status of our project is.The meeting is Monday December 14, 2009 at 12:30 pm at the Veteran’s hall. I’ll post more agenda information once its available.

See you there!

At its November 10, 2009 meeting, the Arroyo Grande City Council enacted an interim moratorium on new water meters. After 45 days, the council will hear from staff more about the issues and expect to extend the moratorium at least 6 months. According to staff reports, Arroyo Grande citizens used 99% of their total water entitlement in 2008 and the aquifer is threatened with seawater intrusion. They’ve instituted mandatory conservation and are talking to other communities to ensure they have contingencies in place if they run out of water.

The AG moratorium is not the same as Cambria’s. The moratorium instituted by the Cambria Community Services District relies on Water Code section 350 of California law. Arroyo Grande’s moratorium is based on an entirely different law (section 65858), which allows for an immediate moratorium on new building. Specifically, the law states a city can adopt

an urgency measure an interim ordinance prohibiting any uses that may be in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the legislative body, planning commission or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time. That urgency measure shall require a four-fifths vote of the legislative body for adoption. The interim ordinance shall be of no further force and effect 45 days from its date of adoption. After notice pursuant to Section 65090 and public hearing, the legislative body may extend the interim ordinance for 10 months and 15 days and subsequently extend the interim ordinance for one year. Any extension shall also require a four-fifths vote for adoption. Not more than two extensions may be adopted.

This is a finite moratorium with a defined and limited length meant to address development that conflicts with the plans for the community. The City of Arroyo Grande has authority over land use and building permits as well as development of a general plan, specific plans and zoning. Cambria’s land use authority, with authority over development, general and specific plans is the County Government.

Fortunately for Arroyo Grande, it  is in the process of updating their housing element and the conservation element of their general plans. Otherwise they might be subject to a moratorium of unknown and undefined length, like Cambria.

A press release from the AG city manager is included below.

Due to issues related to Arroyo Grande’s water supply, at the November 10, 2009 meeting, the Arroyo Grande City Council unanimously adopted an Interim Urgency Ordinance establishing a 45-day moratorium on the approval of development projects. The City is in the process of updating the Conservation Element of its General Plan. The moratorium will enable the City to address water supply issues and tasks necessary to complete the update.
The purpose of the moratorium is to provide the City the time necessary to:
• Develop a short-term plan to address potential seawater intrusion in the groundwater supply;
• Develop updated long-term water supply and demand projections taking into account projects that have submitted applications and those already approved and not yet constructed;
• Establish requirements on new development to mitigate water usage;
• Make decisions regarding future water supply alternatives;
• Incorporate comprehensive water supply strategies into the Conservation Element; and
• Obtain public input regarding these decisions.
The City anticipates the need to extend the moratorium for a period of up to six months in order to complete these tasks.
The City’s water supply has been an ongoing serious concern and issue. Mandatory conservation measures and a comprehensive incentive program have been in place since 2008 when the City utilized 99% of its water supply. While conservation efforts have been effective, concerns remain regarding the City’s ability to meet future water demand with existing resources. These concerns have been heightened recently by groundwater test results that indicate the potential for seawater intrusion. If left unchecked, seawater intrusion could threaten the region’s groundwater supply, which provides over a third of the City’s overall water supply.
The moratorium applies to all new development project applications that will require a new water service connection. Projects that have already received approvals or those with applications that have been accepted for processing and deemed complete are exempt. Projects that will utilize an existing water meeting are also not impacted by the moratorium. During the moratorium period, other project applications will be accepted and processed, but not approved.
According to City Manager Steven Adams, “The groundwater test results are very preliminary. We encourage everyone to avoid overreacting, but we also must take the situation seriously. The moratorium enables the City to effectively develop water supply strategies without having to respond to a moving target with regard to additional demand. We expect it to be completed in a
timely manner. However, there are no easy solutions. Whether we can rely solely on conservation efforts or rate adjustments become necessary to fund water supply projects,  residents will be impacted and need to be involved in this issue. Whether or not the test results are confirmed, the seawater intrusion findings highlight how vulnerable our water supply is given the lack of adequate excess resources that are available to the City.”