[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 12/6/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

December 6, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

FloodSAFE MEETING ANNOUNCED:

DWR to Hold Workshop on FloodSAFE California Contracts - News Release, Department of Water Resources

 

LAKE BERRYESSA BIDS:

Bidding heats up on control of resorts - Napa Valley Register

 

RELOCATION COSTS:

Rainbow water district ratepayers could get dinged with relocation costs, officials say - North County Times

 

 

FloodSAFE MEETING ANNOUNCED:

DWR to Hold Workshop on FloodSAFE California Contracts

News Release, Department of Water Resources – 12/6/07

Contacts: Ricardo Pineda, Chief, Floodplain Management Branch (916) 574-1475; M. Elizabeth Scott, DWR Information Officer (916) 653-0979

 

Sacramento - The Department of Water Resources (DWR) will hold a pre-advertisement workshop for prospective FloodSAFE California consultants on Wednesday, December 12.  The workshop will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Secretary of State Building Auditorium at 1500 11^th Street, Sacramento.

 

DWR staff will present information on upcoming consulting contracts with an emphasis on large-scale planning efforts and the necessary support services expected to be required to conduct the planning.  The presentation will include information on likely types of work, need for specific services, and timing. Following the presentation, staff will be available to answer general questions.

 

The workshop is open to any interested firm or individual. Attendance is not required for submittal of bids/proposals for the anticipated contract work, and will not satisfy any requirement to attend future mandatory pre-bid conferences.

 

The State of California has begun the long process to improve flood management systems statewide.  In 2006, the Administration launched FloodSAFE California, a multi-faceted initiative to improve public safety through integrated flood management. 

 

Accomplishing the vision of FloodSAFE will require broad participation from residents, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and local, state, and federal agencies.  DWR will provide leadership and will collaborate with a large group of partners and other participants statewide to improve flood management and emergency response throughout California. 

 

A great deal of work must be done quickly in order to fulfill the goals of FloodSAFE California. This will require DWR to rely heavily on consultant support.  For additional information about the workshop, please contact Ricardo Pineda at (916) 574-1475 or rpineda@water.ca.gov.

The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. #

www.water.ca.gov

 

 

LAKE BERRYESSA BIDS:

Bidding heats up on control of resorts

Napa Valley Register – 12/6/07

By Kerana Todorov, staff writer

 

Six companies have submitted bids to run Lake Berryessa’s lakeshore resorts, the Bureau of Reclamation confirmed Wednesday.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the reservoir and the shoreline, said three of the bidders have applied to become the concessionaires for five or more resorts. The decision could be announced early next year, said Pete Lucero, the bureau’s chief of reclamation resources at Lake Berryessa.

 

The bids were announced even as mobile homes from the existing resorts — which will see their contracts expire over the next two years — continued to be hauled to the dump, destroyed or transported elsewhere.

The concessionaires would operate under new rules the Bureau of Reclamation issued last summer for the lake.

Among the six are current concessionaires, including the owners of Rancho Monticello, the biggest resort at the lake, visited by more than a million people every year.

The owners of Rancho Monticello and four partners have applied to run five of the seven resorts under the name Lago Resorts LLC, owner Bob White said this week. One of the partners, California Parks Co., a company that runs the concession stands at Angel Island State Park, will manage the resorts, said White, whose family became involved at Monticello Resorts in the early 1960s.

Lago Resorts would operate Rancho Monticello, Putah Creek, Berryessa Marina, Spanish Flat and Markley Cove, according to the bid submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation.

The plan, explained White, includes spending $90 million to remodel, upgrade and build new facilities at the resorts while keeping the resorts open.

The plans, designed in part by Dangermond Group of Sacramento, show new campsites, RV sites, cafes, markets and boat slips. Under the proposal, White and his partners also propose to build up to 500 eco-cabins, cabins designed with a living roof planted with groundcover for better insulation.

Altogether, Lago Resorts would operate 1,100 docks, two restaurants, 250 campsites, 350 RV sites, 740 cabins.

The other applicants are: Recreation Del Sol Enterprises LLC; Pensas Group LLC; FX10 LLC; Steele Park Resort Inc. and Pleasure Cove Marina LLC.

Pleasure Cove Marina LLC., which only bid to operate Pleasure Cove Marina, is a subsidiary of Forever Resorts Inc., an Arizona-based company that operates houseboats at Pleasure Cove Marina as well as campgrounds, inns and other facilities at federal recreational parks in the Western United States.

In another development, Lake Berryessa’s mobile home owners and their allies have lost a bid in federal court to remain at the lake.

Berryessa For All, a group of mobile home owners, trailers and their allies, filed suit last January, alleging the Bureau of Reclamation’s plans for the lakeshore violated federal environmental law.

In her order issued Nov. 27, United States District Judge Susan Illston, turned down Berryessa For All’s temporary injunction. At the same time, Illston decided that Berryessa For All’s case against the Bureau of Reclamation can move forward at this stage.

In e-mails this week, lawyers on both sides said the case will be heard in the spring.

In another legal fight, the owners of four resorts who lost their claim in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims last month, are not giving up. The owners argued that the government’s bidding process for selecting new concessionaires is unfair because it favored larger companies that can bid on more than one property.

One issue is the assessment value of the improvements done at the resorts over the years.

White and attorney Gregory Jaeger said they are appealing the ruling with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. #

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/12/06/news/local/doc4757899c01c86733981801.txt

 

 

RELOCATION COSTS:

Rainbow water district ratepayers could get dinged with relocation costs, officials say

North County Times – 12/6/07

By Darryn Bennett, staff writer

 

FALLBROOK -- Relocating water and sewer lines to accommodate a project that would widen a 6-mile stretch of Highway 76 between Oceanside and Fallbrook could cost the Rainbow Municipal Water District as much as $20 million, according to a letter district officials sent to the state Transportation Department last month.

Moving district pump stations and pipelines within the proposed project area could cost between $10 million and $20 million, an expense that would probably be passed on to the district's 7,400 ratepayers in Rainbow, Bonsall and a portion of Fallbrook, a Nov. 21 letter sent to Caltrans planners by district General Manager Dave Seymour states.

 

Determining who is responsible for the moving costs is tricky because Highway 76 was probably first built in the 1930s, but realigned and incorporated into the county road system later, Caltrans spokesman Allan Kosup said Wednesday. Caltrans isn't obligated to pay relocation costs for infrastructure put in place after a highway is built, Kosup said.

 

Seymour said most of the water district's facilities were installed in the 1960s and 1970s -- or after the highway was in place -- meaning the district probably is liable for the relocation costs.

The $250 million project would widen and straighten the highway from Melrose Drive in east Oceanside to South Mission Road in Fallbrook. Caltrans officials have said they hope to break ground by early 2009 and that water facilities may have to be relocated by as early as December 2008. The project is slated to be completed by 2012.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the North County Times, states that the rural district can't afford the relocation costs unless ratepayers vote to approve a bond measure or a special assessment tax. Failing that, the only option the district has is to raise water and sewer rates to cover the expense, the letter states.

"Requiring the ratepayers of the Rainbow Municipal District to fund relocation of existing facilities is unreasonable and unacceptable, and places an unfair burden of cost on our customers," the letter goes on to say.

The letter asserts that a $10 million relocation expense, described as a "conservative estimate," would cost each water customer at least $1,350 in increased water bills over an extended period of time, and that sewer customers would be subject to even higher rate hikes.

Seymour said Wednesday that the district's cost estimates are preliminary and would fluctuate depending on how many facilities have to be moved once Caltrans finalizes an alignment for the expanded highway sometime next year.

Nonetheless, the district says in its letter that any relocation expenses should be funded as part of the highway improvement project, arguing that district ratepayers are already paying for the project through a half-cent sales tax for transportation approved by San Diego County voters in 1987.

In a process Seymour said will probably take several months, the district is preparing a map pinpointing the locations of facilities so Caltrans engineers can determine where conflicts exist and which agency will be responsible for relocation costs.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12/06/news/inland/3_04_4612_5_07.txt

DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California.