A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 24, 2007
3. Watersheds
CAMANCHE RESERVOIR:
No room for homes near reservoir?; Water district mulls plans that may boot people - Stockton Record
Forest, water and lake agencies give their side of the Angora fire - Tahoe Daily Tribune
CAMANCHE RESERVOIR:
No room for homes near reservoir?; Water district mulls plans that may boot people
By Dana Nichols, staff writer
CAMANCHE - Marjie McGowen, 80, a widow and retired accountant, points to the blue expanse of water visible out the window of her double-wide perched on the north
"Take a look out there. That tells it all. Who would want to leave here?"
But leave is exactly what McGowen and the mostly fixed-income residents of 200 mobile homes on the lake's shores would have to do under several proposals being considered by East Bay Municipal Utility District, which owns the land around the lake.
She and other residents are waging a campaign of letters, phone calls and meetings to persuade EBMUD officials to allow them to stay.
The district is updating a 37-year-old watershed management plan for the 19,000 acres of land and the 10,000 acres of water it owns along the section of the lower
It was never the plan to have permanent residences there. Under the federal permit for the creation of Camanche Reservoir in 1963, EBMUD was supposed to provide recreation. The entity EBMUD created to run recreation started the mobile home parks in the late 1960s to bring in year-round revenue.
The district now wants to create a blueprint for how to protect water quality "in a financially sustainable manner."
Translated, that means that if the mobile home parks turn out to pose a water pollution threat, or a threat to the pocketbooks of the district's 1.3 million customers in
"This has the potential first and foremost of being a financial liability," said Charles C. Hardy, a spokesman for EBMUD. "For one, we are going to have to put millions of dollars into the infrastructure for the wastewater system and the pipes underground."
At the moment, however, watershed plan update manager Eileen Fanelli said she hasn't yet completed the calculations that would show whether the mobile home parks - where residents pay around $500 a month to rent the land under their homes - are money losers.
EBMUD officials say no final decision on the watershed plan will be made until November. But the EBMUD board is scheduled Aug. 14 to decide which of several options it prefers. That's where the mobile home parks come in.
McGowen and others who have seen a draft of the three options say that option one would phase out the mobile home parks and reduce recreation around the lake. Option two would keep things more or less as they are. And option three would be a combination - with the mobile home parks possibly eliminated to make room for more lucrative businesses such as short-term stay RV parks.
Meanwhile, Patricia Durrett, 64, and her husband want to sell their mobile home but can't because the future of the neighborhood is in limbo. "We are being held hostage," said Durrett.
Hardy said word of the ire of Camanche mobile home residents is making a difference.
"Many of us have come to the obvious conclusion that whatever happens, the alternative that has to do with the mobile homes has to take into account the residents and their property rights," Hardy said. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070724/A_NEWS/707240312
Forest, water and lake agencies give their side of the
Tahoe Daily Tribune – 7/24/07
By Adam Jensen, staff writer
A month after the worst and most expensive fire in Tahoe history, the agency that governs the basin will address the threat of wildfire when it meets in Stateline on Wednesday.
An update on issues surrounding the
"This will include a summary of TRPA fuel reduction efforts, the agency's involvement in the rehabilitation efforts on private and public lands to-date, and TRPA's participation in assisting the community rebuilding effort," according to the Governing Board agenda.
Also included in the update are presentations by the U.S. Forest Service, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board,
A proposal by the Forest Service to rehabilitate a 19th century railroad grade to remove forest fuels from
The canyon has a long-standing reputation as being rife with fire danger.
"Many of the dead trees have now been felled and the resultant fuel load in Slaughterhouse Canyon is capable of fueling a catastrophic fire which could sweep the entire east side of the basin or even engulf a significant portion of the entire watershed surrounding this fragile subalpine lake," wrote Charles Goldman, director of the Tahoe Research Group, in a letter to President George W. Bush, in April 2001. "This is essentially a disaster waiting to happen and it is extremely important to the future of the lake that this dead wood be removed or chipped and left to decay in the forest floor."
Rehabilitating the railroad grade would require moving about 5,700 cubic yards of earth to turn a 5-foot wide dirt path, popular with joggers and mountain bikers, into a 12-foot wide path capable of supporting heavy equipment.
"The only way we can get anybody in here is to march," said Dave Marlow, vegetation, fire and fuels staff officer for the Forest Service, while surveying
If the project is approved, the Forest Service could remove fuels spread over 489 acres using mechanical and handheld methods under an existing memorandum of understanding with the TRPA. The process would take four years and would begin next month, Marlow said.
The League to Save Lake Tahoe has previously voiced its support of a conveyance mechanism to remove the fuel from the canyon, while avoiding impacts to 0.21 acres of stream environment zones that will be impacted by the rehabilitated grade.
League officials voiced their opinion in support of the project on Monday, saying the total amount of allowable SEZ disturbance in the basin would not be affected by the project.
"I think any project that has an impact to SEZ's we want to look very closely at," said Rich Kentz, program advocate for the League to Save Lake Tahoe. "I think the mitigation measures of the project are adequate. The league is supportive of this project."
Previously slated for board discussion during the June Governing Board meeting canceled after the start for the Angora fire on June 24, the project proposal was moved to the consent calendar after a request for an emergency permit came from Terri Marceron, supervisor for Forest Service land in the
The consent calendar is typically approved without significant modification, although members of the public or the board can request the item be removed from the calendar for board discussion. #
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20070724/NEWS/107240034
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