While serving on the LDPCSD a few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a number of training classes sponsored by various water organizations. I was sitting in a classroom once with maybe fifty or so other people waiting for the training session to begin when we noticed at the front of the room a projection of the word “TANSTAAFL” on the wall.
A training instructor introduced the class and at one point looked over his shoulder at the illuminated word and said: “TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch”. There was a pretty good laugh and the class started with subsequent discussion involving available funding sources for expensive water related projects and equipment.
I think most of us realize what TANSTAAFL really means. Free often really isn’t free. There is always some kind of a price to be paid. Perhaps the easiest analogy is the “FREE CONDO VACATION WEEKEND”. You may not pay cash for the accommodations but you do pay dearly in precious time wasted attending required high pressure sales lectures and promotions. Anyway, thought of TANSTAAFL while considering the GM/Board’s plan of designating our new ground well water production to further expansion of district services – beyond the water license limitations under which LDPCSD operates.
Let’s take a look at the GM/Board’s supporting data for rescinding Resolution 2013-4 next Tuesday. Incidentally, the approval vote back in 2013 was unattended by current LDPCSD President Danny Johnson and voted against by outside MID POU ICON cattle rancher Director Emery Ross.
SIDE NOTE: Sure doesn’t seem right in regards to “conflict of interest” theories how Director Emery Ross can even vote on anything outside MID POU related since he holds two of the 35-36 outside MID POU water meters; his ranch was specifically denied service prior to purchase; a water meter was “liberated” from another rancher’s inventory and although discovered nine years later and returned to rightful owner (credit to his account), Ross still retained water service to the ranch; and the ranch possesses a previously undocumented water line which traverses his pasture land and ultimately serves two other outside MID POU ranches.
BACK TO THE FEB 16th BOARD VOTE TO RESCIND RESOLUTION 2013-4
Tuesday’s vote will only have two originally “elected by the voters” directors. (Ross and Johnson) The majority of the board right now is made up of three appointees (at different times) whose selection was heavily influenced by Directors Ross and Johnson , and their appointed GM Pete Kampa of course.
DIFFERENCE WITHOUT DISTINCTION?
True an appointed director also takes a sworn Oath of Office, but that has more to do with their personal integrity and willingness to use their best efforts/abilities to correctly perform their public service duties, I’m specifically referring to the process of their selection.
The “closed recruitment process” used to appoint Pete Kampa GM (Kampa Community Solutions) is pretty clear but so is the process in selecting and appointing a replacement Director. The current MAJORITY of the board did not have to respond to community questions or “make their case” with the voters. They did not publicly take a stand on any major issues facing this district. Evidently these applicants indicated to the selecting directors they had experience, education and skills that could be of assistance in helping the District serve its customers now and in the future.
But why would a majority of the Board intentionally choose an applicant who had a different perspective regarding the proper functioning of this District? Naturally they would select and appoint an applicant with complimentary views. Did these views happen to include discussion as to their thoughts on district expansion beyond water license restrictions using ground wells? Were these directors appointed as “ringers” for the next vote to rescind Resolution 2013-4 after it failed in June of 2015?
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE GM/BOARD SUPPORTING DATA TO RESCIND RESOLUTION 2013-4
WHEREAS, the District provides water service to parcels within its boundaries, most of which are located within the geographic boundary described as the Place of Use (referred to herein as Place of Use) designated for consumptive use of water from Lake McClure under Merced Irrigation District’s (MID) various permits and entitlements; and
TRUE. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,128 properties in the subdivision, just under half water consumers of the district, the rest are absentee property owners who pay an availability fee for future water use as they are entitled to Merced River Water under License 11395. According to the district there are “approximately 36” current Outside MID POU properties consuming water. Unknown how many there are that are not consuming water, but many for sure.
WHEREAS, a number of the existing active and inactive connections to the District water system are located outside the Lake McClure Place of Use, and are therefore provided water from sources other than Lake McClure as required; and
MISLEADING: Active water connections are one thing (like the cattle ranching director, the elementary school, the fire station, the sewer plant, etc.) but “inactive connections” is a RED HERRING TERM meant to deceive the public because many connections were made in anticipation of someday receiving water but have not paid a red cent to the district and have never used water. Inactive properties are not being served water and the only alternate source is ground well water.
WHEREAS, the District in 1992 constructed a groundwater well for the purpose of providing an alternate water supply to the properties located outside the Place of Use, and this well has been providing water continuously since that time; and
TRUE and FALSE: True the Ranchito Drive ground well has been used since 1992 to provide water to outside MID POU properties but that wasn’t planned, the well was constructed as a quick remedy for all the “illegal connections”. The well on many occasions has failed to produce water continuously to meet the compliance requirement of replacing the exact amount of water diverted and delivered to properties not entitled to Merced River water. The monthly outside MID POU report, required by and submitted to MID for over twenty years, that was contained in public board packets often evidenced the well was not compliant with MID rules. That report ceased being part of the board packet shortly after Pete Kampa was appointed GM.
WHEREAS, the District conducted production testing on the 1992 well and it was determined in 2013 that the well was serving the maximum number of outside Place of Use customers possible; and WHEREAS, the District previously adopted Resolution 2013-4 which prohibited the District from providing water service to additional new connections on properties located outside the Place of Use, when it was determined that the one existing groundwater well operated by the District lacked water production capacity to serve additional connections; and
TRUE: The district had been subjected to a coordinated barrage of requests for further outside MID POU water deliveries and often cited the Ranchito Drive well as a sufficient alternate water source for more connections. I was on the board at the time and disagreed explaining the Ranchito Drive well was required as a quick remedy for illegal connections not as a standard method of operation and there was no reason to assume the well could handle additional connections anyway and suggested a well test. The complicated test revealed that Ranchito was producing less than it should for the already existing outside MID POU properties. Those wanting what the subdivision had – water – have always demanded more ground wells be constructed despite the cost and “remedy to existing violations” status.
WHEREAS, the District continues to charge the properties within its boundaries and outside the Place of Use the normal and customary Standby Fee on a per parcel, per year basis which creates the assumption that the District will provide water service to those parcels when it becomes available; and
TRUE BUT INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING: First notice the use of “standby” rather than “availability”. Yes of course the district charges properties in the subdivision the customary standby fee for future water service because they are entitled to Merced River water SUBDIVISION OWNERS CAN ASSUME WATER WILL BE PROVIDED (if this GM/Board does not continue to mismanage and sell it to those not entitled).
The district also charges the standby to a small number of properties outside the MID POU because they wanted water and agreed to pay for that CHANCE in the future. There’s the BIG DIFFERENCE – subdivision properties MUST PAY availability/standby fees but outside the subdivision property owners were frantically trying to get that which they WERE NOT ENTITLED UNDER THE WATER LICENSE but agreed to pay availability just in case someday they could. Rather like paying the water lottery. A few dollars a year was nothing compared to the value of POSSIBLY receiving water in the future.
FALSE: There was NO ASSUMPTION THAT THE DISTRICT WOULD PROVIDE but there was desperate hope. There was hope because they had already been denied. People purchasing land outside the subdivision knew water was going to be a BIG ISSUE. Ground water wells in this fractured rock geology are expensive and private property owners (outside the subdivision) did not want to pay the costs involved for construction, development, maintenance, repair and replacement. If the project were larger, say a subdivision other state requirements kick in to distribute water: proper testing and reporting to the State Health Department, regulations, restrictions, permits, chemicals…..blah,blah,blah $$$$!!
Paying availability fees creates no ASSUMPTION if the property were outside the POU. It’s sort of like a Water Lottery plain and simple. Here’s an experiment – take all your losing outdated lottery tickets, drive to Sacramento and demand to be paid a lottery jackpot and produce your shoe box full of old lottery tickets as evidence there was an assumption you were going to win. (Not a perfect example, but a gamble never the less, because properties outside the POU had no expectation of service other than SEVERE WANT.)
The GMs/BOARD’s logic is fallacious. The District CREATED NO ASSUMPTION, it was those wanting another’s water who took the GAMBLE to obtain future water. I suggested years ago the proper course of action would be to repay those property owners the money with reasonable interest and close the festering matter on every outside POU property possible. These outside MID POU property owners want water that has been legally reserved for properties in the subdivision but “outsiders” didn’t want the Property Owners’ Association telling them what to do. They didn’t want CC&Rs and Boards, and committees, yearly assessments, violation committees, blah, blah, blah. They purchased other land near the subdivision and planned ways of taking water that clearly was not theirs.
WHEREAS, the District has undertaken an emergency groundwater well project to provide an alternate water supply in the event of continued drought and the loss of surface water in Lake McClure; and
TRUE: But you left something out that’s pretty important didn’t you Mr. KAMPA? This emergency ground well water project has ALWAYS been represented as a safeguard for existing water consuming customers of the district, including current EXISTING outside MID POU properties, but NEVER to further expand outside MID POU property service.
WHEREAS, the groundwater wells have been tested to produce adequate water supply to serve the water needs of the current number of future system connections located within the District boundaries, and outside the Place of Use.
WHOA THERE! What are you trying to spin here? “Wells have been tested to produce adequate water supply?” That does not even make sense grammatically.
You can’t test to produce adequate water! You test to see “results”. Results will either confirm or deny that a well will produce adequate water. Our District Engineers reported the ground wells DID NOT produce enough water for our peak demand times yet you now dispute this in a recital for a resolution approving even more outside POU connections? Someone is misrepresenting the truth here.
In addition to this glaring contradiction, you know it is entirely too early to predict the sustainable production of these new ground wells in this fractured rock geology much less being able to predict what future demands will be for all the properties not entitled to water under the water license.
MARCH 2nd 2016 UPDATE: Evidently PETE KAMPA doesn’t recall his past experience here at the LDPCSD regarding the production of the Ranchito Drive well, or he is again being deliberately untruthful. Even the Ranchito Well was calculated to produce more but READ what KAMPA WROTE IN October of 1997: PRODUCTION DROPPED DRAMATICALLY
WHO KNOWS IF THERE WILL BE ADEQUATE WATER but at least there is a finite number of connections in the subdivision were water service is without question legal. There are a KNOWN exact number of subdivision lots without water service but they have, and are, paying availability fees since owning the property. Heck, the District doesn’t even know how many outside MID POU accounts they actually have now, much less what they MIGHT HAVE in the future! Not so lol.
All property outside the entitled subdivision is technically not entitled to that water – and how many of those exist? How many want water in this drought prone area?
NOW, THEREFORE, IN CONSIDERATION OF THE FOREGOING, BE IT
RESOLVED by the Board of Directors of the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District, that the District hereby rescinds Resolution 2013-4 attached hereto and contained herein.
WHEREFORE, this Resolution is passed and adopted by the Board of Directors of the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District on February 16, 2016, by the following vote:
$$$ $$$ $$$
Yes, you had better carefully consider the foregoing because it is a major step in what appears to be one of the most LUDICROUS POLICIES a public water district could come up with during an unprecedented emergency drought – supplying ground well water to those not entitled, in a traditionally drought prone area to boot.
Wow. Such vision.
NOT A SIMPLE RESIDENCE OR TWO EITHER
Some of these “new connections” are not going to be a simple pipe connection and water meter to a family residence but complex multi-family subdivisions and businesses. Perhaps even more water guzzling agricultural endeavors like cattle or horse ranching? Some of these properties Mr. Kampa is so concerned about are nothing more than pure land speculation ventures by companies and corporations.
The old “foot in the door” is now attempting to “kick the door wide open”. Claiming there is an adequate water supply for future demand is a bold and self serving prediction by individuals who refuse to simply obey and enforce their own business regulations.
Especially now, during this emergency drought, the District should focus on what it is legally REQUIRED TO DO – provide water to those entitled to it under Water License 11395.
THE GM and BOARD OF DIRECTORS are attempting to pass a BLANK CHECK Resolution for all outside MID POU properties wanting water and the existing customers (suffering with water restrictions already) are expected to cover this massive check amount. Think about that, the GM/Board doesn’t even disclose how many of these properties will be provided water produced from the new wells. A pretty important number considering all this “adequate water” for future nonsense.
TANSTAAFL my friends.
My best to you and yours, Lew
Can you imagine the enormous amount of money this subsidized water program will create (if approved Tuesday) for other owners of outside POU properties due to the increased property values? Heck it created a whole cattle ranching business for one sitting director. Yippie yi aye!
