Spring Valley residents will have to wait until Oct. 7 for the Lake County Board of Supervisors to decide whether to pass an urgency ordinance that would continue to bar new water hookups in the community. The public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 23, but was continued because supervisors Anthony Farrington and Rob Brown were absent.
Board Chairman Ed Robey said urgency measures need a four-fifths vote to pass, and that wasn”t possible with two out of five supervisors absent. The board will take up the discussion at 2:30 p.m. in the Spring Valley Community Center, located at 3000 Wolf Creek Drive in Spring Valley.
“The urgency hasn”t gone away, because nothing has happened to the water plant,” Community Service Area No. 2, Spring Valley, Advisory Board Secretary Monte Winters said.
Lake County Special Districts manages the water system in Spring Valley. Special Districts Manager Mark Dellinger said the moratorium on new water hookups is still needed until a comprehensive plan is prepared, a measure that is required by the California Department of Public Health (DPH).
Dellinger said DPH also requires that the plan include a time schedule to correct the system”s capacity shortage and “a realistic means to fund the improvements.”
Dellinger told the board in a Sept. 16 meeting that the water system needed approximately $3.7 million of improvements to increase its capacity. Winters estimated the cost between $1.4 and $2.4 million, a difference of opinion he said will be addressed at the Sept. 7 hearing in Spring Valley.
Winters said an independent analysis lowered Dellinger”s estimate by $1.6 million after the community was divided into districts. He said because homes are clustered in some areas within the subdivision and far apart in other areas, the need to widen water pipes to deliver water to fire hydrants near outlying homes won”t be needed until more homes are built in the area.
Dellinger”s estimate was based on a study by the Redding-based firm CH2M Hill, a consulting firm hired to assess the water system”s needs. Winters said the subdivision currently has 495 water hookups, of which 423 are active. He said the subdivision has approximately 960 lots, but estimated between 200 and 300 more homes can be built there.
The one-year moratorium was put in place in September 2006, and extended for another year in 2007. It expires this month, according to Dellinger. He and his staff drafted a new urgency ordinance that will establish the moratorium if it is adopted. The ordinance says the Spring Valley water system reached its maximum treatment capacity in July 2006, causing water shortages in the community.
The last moratorium in Spring Valley was lifted after 10 years in 2002.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com or call her at 263-5636, ext. 37.
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