The following letter
was communicated to the West Bay Sanitary District on May 31st. This letter was
drafted by the Los Trancos County Water District in response to the initial
study regarding annexation of some properties in the Los Trancos Woods area to
the West Bay Sanitary District. This is an important issue for our water
District and it is felt that it is important to keep the District's
customer-owners informed on what is transpiring.
Stan Gage
for the Los
Trancos County Water district Board of Directors
LOS TRANCOS COUNTY
WATER DISTRICT
455 Old Spanish
Trail Portola Valley CA 94028
Phone: 650-851-1924 Fax:
650-851-7018
June 6,
2001
Mr. Tim Clayton, District Manager
West Bay Sanitary District
500
Laurel Street
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Re: Response from Los Trancos
County Water District to the West Bay Sanitary District Los Trancos Woods
Service Area Annexation Project Initial Study (the Study)
Dear Mr.
Clayton:
The Los Trancos County Water District Board of Directors has
reviewed the aforementioned Study and has a number of concerns that the Board
feels still remain unaddressed after the Board's earlier response to the
"Preliminary Draft" of this Study and that are not resolved by the proposed
mitigations. As was pointed out in previous written and verbal
communications from this District, the Board remains firmly behind the
proposition that sewer installation is necessary for correcting problems with
failing septic systems within the Study area and in areas beyond the scope of
the Study area which have for unexplained reasons not been included as a part of
the Study. However, the scope of the Study's proposal transcends the issue of
correcting current health hazards and includes the goal of enabling a
significant level of new residential development in the community. Taken as a
whole, the proposed project creates a problem of insufficient infrastructure
resources including insufficient water to supply the increased demand that is
expected as a result of the large number of new houses that will be enabled by
the proposed annexation. Rather than proposing a comprehensive solution
including the necessary and practical approaches to realizing all of the
required infrastructural improvements that must be implemented when an unplanned
28% growth situation is created in a community, the proposals embodied in the
Study simply create new problems for other agencies thereby compounding
infrastructural insufficiency leading ultimately to new conflicts, not to real
solutions.
Issues
The key issue for the Los Trancos
County Water District is the availability of sufficient water supply to meet the
demand increases that will be forced upon the District if the annexation is
implemented as currently proposed. Based on the results of the current version
of the Study and on information supplied by the San Mateo County Planning
Department, the increase in demand could be as high as 32%.
The final Study cites the written communication of December,
2000 from the Los Trancos County Water District estimating a 7% to 17% increase
in demand as a result of the sewer installation, ignoring the follow-up
communication addressed to you in January of this year. The 7%to 17% projections
were based on the 35 potential new housing units that would be enabled by the
sewer project that was suggested in the Preliminary version of the Study. The
issue of just how many new houses may result from the extension of the sewers is
still not fully addressed. On subsequent analysis, the latest version of the
Study now cites a number of as many as 64 new units in the Study area. Using the
numbers supplied by the County of San Mateo Planning department, as many as 89
new units may be created in the entire area of Los Trancos Woods if the areas
excluded from the Study but having a high probability of future annexation are
included. These numbers were pointed out to you and Mr. Kitajima in our
communication of January 26 (attached) and have, for some reason, been totally
ignored in the preparation of the final version of the Study. The District's
written communication of December 2000 is, therefore, superceded by this
letter.
Based on an increase of 64 new units and an ultimate non-sewer
projected build-out of 315 units in the Los Trancos County Water District there
would be a 20% increase in the demand for water due solely to newly constructed
housing units. If the 89 unit number is utilized instead, this becomes 28%
increase in demand. There is, as well, a significant unknown demand increase
factor related to additional usage in residences that will no longer constrain
usage due to failing septic systems, residences where additions may be made that
will increase occupancy and residences that may be torn down and rebuilt with
provision for increased occupancy. Using the Study number of 117 current
residences in the Study area and making the assumption that 50% of these
residences are now significantly constrained in usage due to one of the above
factors and using current indoor monthly usage, the District estimates an
annualized usage increase in the Study area of approximately 2100 units of water
per year. (3 additional units per residence per month x 117 residences x 0.5 x
12). This represents an additional demand increase of about 4 % across the
District as a whole. In total the increase in demand due to both new residences
and removal of demand constraints might range from a low of 20% to a high of 32%
or more. The District believes that the true long term impact of the annexation
is best represented by the 89 new housing unit number. It is quite naive to
have constrained the scope of the Study to only a subset of the Los Trancos
Woods area, not acknowledging the reality that the proposed annexation that
brings sewers still further up the hill will result in relatively short order in
additional annexations of other properties that currently are experiencing
failed septic systems (some of which are directly adjacent to the study area
boundary).
The authors of the report for some reason felt compelled to
address the fact that the District has provided water service to the Blue Oaks
subdivision. ("In the immediate project area, the developers of the Blue Oaks
subdivision did not request additional water allocation for that development:
therefore a will-serve letter was granted.") The intent of the inclusion of this
passage is unclear. However, what is clear is that here again, through
failure to seek and utilize appropriate information from the agency involved,
the authors of the report have made a significant error. The predecessors of
the Blue Oaks project go back to before 1989. In the early 1990's, when the
current supply assurance levels were being negotiated among the members of the
Bay Area Water Users Association, the Los Trancos County Water District
recognized the potential impact of what appeared to be the likely development of
the property that eventually became Blue Oaks. The District, at that
time, requested an increase to the proposed 0.09 mgd (million gallons per day)
supply assurance level. Based on this request, the District's supply assurance
level was raised by ~22% to 0.11 mgd. The statement in the Study that the
developers did not request an increase is factually correct. Developers do not
make such requests. The Los Trancos County Water District is the appropriate
agency to make the request, and, in fact, did.
The District's supply
assurance may be open to revision in 2009 when the current contracts between the
individual members of the Bay Area Water Users Association and SFWD expire.
However, at this time there is no basis upon which to forecast whether the
District's assurance level would increase, decrease, or remain the same.
Impact and Proposed Mitigation
Regardless of whether the
increase in demand for water is 20% or 32%, the District does not have
guaranteed water supply available to address either level of increase. (In fact,
none of the 31 water districts that comprise the Bay Area Water Users
Association could accommodate such an increase at the present time.) The
ramifications of this shortfall are far from the self-serving finding of the
Study suggesting that the issue of available water is a Less than Significant
Impact. It is, without question, a Significant Impact.
In addition, the mitigation measures suggested by the report are quite
misleading.
=A8 First, the suggested mitigation measures are not in any way
supported by the communication from John Mullane of the San Francisco Water
Department. (See letter from John Mullane to Tim Clayton dated 3/21/2001, copy
attached.) The mitigation suggests that the Los Trancos County Water
District should apply to SFWD for additional allocation. In fact, Mr. Mullane's
letter correctly states that "In order for Los Trancos County Water District to
obtain an increase in its individual water supply assurance, it will require
that some other entity take less water, thus reducing another wholesale
customer's supply assurance." This is not an issue that is arbitrated by SFWD.
It is an issue between Los Trancos County Water District and the 30 other
agencies that comprise the Bay Area Water Users Association. The letter could
probably go on to point out that the probability of another agency making such a
concession of willingly giving up a portion of its water allocation is close to
zero. In addition, the mechanisms for such transfers of allocations do not
currently exist among the BAUWA agencies and it is unclear whether such
allocation transfers would be permitted under the terms of the Settlement
Agreement between the BAWUA member agencies and the SFWD. Please review
carefully the terms of the Settlement Agreement and Master Sales Contract
between The City And County of San Francisco and Certain Suburban Purchasers in
San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and Alameda County.
=A8 Second, the development of new water supplies is an
extremely protracted, costly, and environmentally sensitive issue in and of
itself. Since the current contracts with SFWD prohibit interagency transfer of
water resources and allocations, the Los Trancos County Water District is
currently constrained to supplies obtainable roughly within the current District
Boundary. Further, surface water and well water utilization are limited by a
host of environmental issues, treatment requirements and extremely high
costs for development and operation of small-scale supplemental water
supplies. Even if such development were proven to be achievable at any cost
there is a high probability that the current excellent water quality enjoyed by
the local population would be significantly degraded through the additional
mineral content. A very rough estimate of the cost to develop and operate such
supplemental sources is an additional long term indebtedness of about $3000 for
every customer in the District and increase in the monthly base rate for water
service of about $13, that is about 50%. It is not clear that the current
customer base as a whole is willing to or should be expected to make such a
commitment in support the economic gain of just a part of the District wishing
to build on parcels that are not currently legally buildable sites. Such an
extension of District indebtedness would certainly need to receive approval from
a vote of the residents.
=A8 Third, the suggestion that the problem of available water
supply can be addressed by using the concept of will-serve letters does not
really resolve the issue. It simply, and inappropriately places the Los Trancos
County Water District into the position as the constraining agency on the
construction of 64 (or 89) new housing units. It is further noted, that the
financial practicality of the proposed annexation and construction is apparently
dependent on annexations of a significant number currently vacant parcels. It
seems difficult to reconcile the implied suggestions of the Study that by
annexation to the West Bay Sanitary District these properties would become
buildable sites while at the same time the Study suggests that a mitigation
option open to another agency (i.e. the Los Trancos County Water District) would
be to deny access to infrastructure services these same properties would require
in order to become buildable sites. Such inconsistencies need to be rectified so
that potential participants in the annexation can make an informed
choice.
Suggested Approach
The Los Trancos County Water
District believes that through current District programs aimed at efficient use
of water within the District, the water demand of those customers currently
having water service and those properties in the District that could currently
be built on in the absence of the proposed sewer annexation can be met. Also,
the District can accommodate the additional 2100 units per year forecasted
increase in demand resulting from the shift to sewers from septic systems among
customers in the Study area who connect to the sewer to correct current health
hazards. Beyond these levels of service, however, the District simply cannot
accommodate additional service connections until such time as the District can
secure an increase in its sources of supply adequate to meet the demand.
The
Los Trancos County Water District therefore, requests that the proposed
annexations be limited to those properties that currently have on-site waste
disposal systems plus those currently undeveloped parcels that are large enough
to meet the current requirements of San Mateo County for on-site waste disposal
systems. Annexation of smaller properties that do not meet requirements for
on site waste disposal systems should be deferred until a balanced solution to
the infrastructure needs of the possible 89 new residences can be reasonably
foreseen. Such a balanced solution needs to address the entire range of
infrastructure requirements including sewer, water, roads, gas, electrical,
communications, and other services. Unfortunately, the current Study fails to
address the necessity for such a comprehensive solution. More important, the
real facts regarding the housing development related impacts of the annexation,
when properly identified and addressed, do not in any way meet the requirements
for a negative declaration. Therefore, if the West Bay Sanitary District does
not limit the scope of the annexation as requested above, an Environmental
Impact Report (EIR) must be prepared.
- Sincerely,
- Stanley R. Gage
- for the Los Trancos County Water District Board of
Directors