You may have missed the presentation at the December 14, 2009 Cambria Community Services District meeting by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) on our desalination project. If you don’t have Charter Cable TV, you aren’t able to watch the meeting on Channel 21 and are limited to the audio download from slo-span.org. Since Gordon and I recently cut our internet/phone/TV expenses by getting the full Charter package, I recorded the December meeting when it ran tonight so more Cambrians can see for themselves what ACE has planned. This is especially good timing considering the “emergency ” meeting that was just called by President Sanders for this coming Tuesday (January 5, 2010).
The Cambria CSD did post Colonel Magness’ PowerPoint presentation on their website. Download by clicking here.
Watch the Army Corps of Engineers presentation from December on You Tube.
The presentation is split into 8 segments because youtube has a maximum limit of 10 minutes for the videos you can upload for free.
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Thanks for providing the videos of this meeting – it presents a lot of info on the desal issues. One commenter mentioned that the old plan was to use two test wells, but the current plan is to use eleven test wells – does anyone know why this change was made? Also, the possibility that San Simeon might get some of the desal water appears to still be unknown – apparently even Sanders feels that it might be a good idea. This means that the amount of desal water to be produced could easily be more than what is needed to meet the BRP objectives. Thanks again for making this information available to everyone.
Would it be fair to believe that it will take upwards of 20 years for all 666 names on the water waiting list to actually get water once a Desalination plant is built, if ever?
Having heard the presentation by Colonel Magness several times (live and audio/visual), I decided to send him this letter.
Elizabeth Bettenhausen, Ph.D.
345 Plymouth Street
Cambria, CA 93428
5 January 2010
Colonel Thomas H. Magness, Commander
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Los Angeles District
P.O. Box 532711
Los Angeles, CA 90053-2325
PublicAffairs.SPL@usace.army.mil
Dear Colonel Magness:
Your briefing at the Dec. 14, 2009, meeting of the Board of Directors of the Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) provided some crucial information on the next steps in the Project Cooperation Agreement between the Army Corps of Engineers and the CCSD on the proposed desalination plant. For that I thank you.
You pointed out the Obama administration’s “Proposed Principles and Standards” for water and related resources implementation studies. You repeatedly claimed that the Army Corps of Engineers would “demonstrate an appropriate balance in what we do” to fulfill the expectations of the principles and standards to balance economic and environmental benefits of particular projects. You said this balance is a change from the previous stance of the Corps.
You also made clear that the Army Corps of Engineers has “a sense of urgency” to spend $2.5 million here in Cambria, because this would make it more likely that the Congress would allocate more ARRA funds to the Corps in FY2011 for the Cambria Community Services District’s (CCSD) proposed desalination plant.
In light of your comments, I was surprised when the CCSD’s district engineer reported, shortly after you left the meeting, that the Army Corps of Engineers had already decided to seek a categorical exemption for the geotechnical and hydrological study on San Simeon State Park Beach here in Cambria. Thus, no environmental assessment would be done to evaluate this study’s impact. You may indeed believe that money from the ARRA is more important that environmental analysis of beach studies. If so, you should have said that, instead of sounding so devoted to environmental principles too. Your comments at the CCSD meeting on Dec. 14, 2009, provided an excellent example of duplicity.
Today the CCSD Board of Directors held a special meeting to consider a resolution to approve “the geotechnical and hydrogeologic study at the Santa Rosa Creek Beach” and to file a “notice of exemption” with San Luis Obispo County “in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.” However, after public testimony, the Directors voted to instruct the staff to bring an initial study proposal under CEQA to the next meeting of the Board of Directors.
The Coastal Consistency Determination by the Army Corps of Engineers was attached to the Resolution material in today’s agenda. We were told that the Army Corps of Engineers wanted the special meeting in order not to delay consideration of their Determination by the California Coastal Commission. I am attaching my initial analysis of the Determination, which I presented to the Board. I ran out of time preparing for this unexpected meeting and so note that, were I to make my analysis more comprehensive, I would be happy to send that to you too.
Sincerely,
cc: CCSD Board of Directors
The Honorable Lois Capps
other interested persons