OLD JUNE 2007 NEWS REPORT RE: THE RANCHO SANTA TERESA MONSTER!
ROSS RANCHO SANTA TERESA – NOTICE RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION TO WEST AND NORTH – WHERE WATER SERVICE WAS INTENDED. LESS THAN HALF OF THE LAKE DON PEDRO SUBDIVISION PROPERTIES CONSUME WATER – THE REMAINDER OF PROPERTIES PAY AVAILABILITY FEES ON THEIR PROPERTY TAXES FOR ENTITLED WATER SERVICE IN THE FUTURE.
Very few people know the exact path of the “ROSS RANCH PRIVATE WATER LINE” which travels from GRANITE SPRINGS ROAD, through the ROSS RANCHO SANTA TERESA. What is known, is that this surreptitiously installed “private water line” serves at least two other outside MID POU ranches on HWY 132 with LDPCSD water meters.
Please do not understand that the light blue line drawn on the above map (almost center & north and south) necessarily documents the water line path through Director Ross’s ranch – because WITHOUT A LEGITIMATE SURVEY THAT WATER LINE COULD BE ANYWHERE WITH ANY NUMBER OF DIVERSION VALVES INSTALLED THROUGHOUT THE DECADES.
Director Ross has publicly reported that he and his most southeastern ranch owner neighbor, served by this previously undocumented water line, have made repairs using concrete because of cattle damage. The repair was made without LDPCSD assistance or supervision which naturally raises issues of potential LDPCSD liability for any subsequent contamination.
NOTE: During the January 17, 2006 meeting Emery Ross stated he had also been involved with the repair of another outside MID POU property water line leak.
“Emery Ross – Mr. Ross addressed Director Giles statement on the water usage for the Dumas property. He explained that he and his friend Ronnie from Black Oak had fixed Mr. Dumas’ leak on his property.”
<insert map>
PERHAPS the other water line that serves the ROSS RESIDENCE PROPERTY also traverses the ADJACENT DUMAS PROPERTY?
So why is Mr. Ross such an “OFFICIOUS INTER-MEDDLER” when it comes to repairing leaks on LDPCSD water lines serving properties OUTSIDE THE MID POU? Is there something about those connections he doesn’t want LDPCSD officials to know? What about district liability issues for potable water line repairs by someone not authorized, trained, much less certified, to conduct such line repairs? Who does Emery Ross really think he is?
PROBABLY A GOOD REASON TO BE CAUTIOUS
Director Ross, probably for good reasons, is extremely defensive about anything to do with his property and water service, especially regarding the “private water line” that only recently had a meter installed on Granite Springs Road prior to the water being diverted to the southern ranches on HWY 132. The meter on GRANITE SPRINGS often read a much higher amount of water that had passed through when compared with the sum of the other two meter readings of the ranches to the south. Those two meters are “SUPPOSEDLY” the only other water valve locations.
This discrepancy in meter readings was previously noted in the now discontinued monthly Outside MID POU compliance report sent to the Merced Irrigation District with a (*) next to the name of each ranch owner. <BELOW>
Consumption values for EXISTING properties with a water meter that are outside the MERCED IRRIGATION DISTRICT PLACE OF USE (MID POU) areas under their Water License 11395. Notice that the READING FROM THE CHECK METER ON GRANITE SPRINGS IS NOT DOCUMENTED (the “private water line” running through Director Ross’s cattle ranch.)
HOW CAN PETE KAMPA KEEP A STRAIGHT FACE WHEN HE SPEAKS (and charges us for the service) OF RESPONSIBLE SPECIAL DISTRICT MANAGEMENT when his director buddy has such an infamous past regarding LDPCSD water service?
WHY CHECK METER REGISTERS MORE THAN SUM OF TWO METERS?
A former GM consultant explained that a regular water meter is not built for the extra high volume of water that may pass through from two meters at the end of the line (the two ranches on HWY 132) being turned on simultaneously. I was advised that a “compound meter” should be installed to read more accurately. To my knowledge, my request for compound meter installation on Granite Springs Road was denied.
Another interesting side note is that a replacement water meter serving the ROSS’s RANCHO SANTA TERESA (not the one for the residence which also supplies water to cattle) was actually installed backwards for a while which prevented ANY READING of water use for an unknown amount of time. (Why do such strange occurrences seem to always happen to good ‘ol Emery and Betsy Ross?)
Just thought of something else – remember how GM KAMPA was recently going to negotiate some easements for LDPCSD pipelines and the “battle plan” was evidently accidentally included in the board packet? Well, since Kampa is experienced in this easement stuff why doesn’t he get an easement on the Ross Ranch to follow that LDPCSD inherited “private water line”? Heck it’s not even fair to Emery and Betsy to have such questions lingering for decades if there is nothing wrong out there.
This would give the District the opportunity to document exactly where this line is plus the specifications so it can be incorporated in our engineer’s master plan of the district’s infrastructure. You just can’t go “willy nilly” adding pipeline extensions without engineer calcs and approval. That’s just not responsible Special District Management.
RELATED TOPIC OF POTENTIAL FUTURE WATER SERVICE:
<LINK <<SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (SOI)>> LINK>
