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INTRODUCTION:
My name is Ted Heyck. I am an attorney
and a resident/home owner in Arrowhead Woods at Lake Arrowhead. I am employed as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Los
Angeles. My duties there are to defend the City of Los Angeles in civil litigation.
As of 2005, the Greater Lake
Arrowhead community and environs uses about 2800-acre feet of water a year. That is a considerable drop from 3600-acre feet
at its peak in 2002 and is due to unprecedented recent conservation efforts.
However, that will not be enoght. Even
with the temporary full lake due to recent unusual rains, a water deficit still exists in Lake Arrowhead.
The fact
is that the Lake at Lake Arrowhead was built to provide water to service up to 3800 homes. The lake now services 7600 homes.
A temporary rainfall, which has filled the lake, now masks this problem.
This website has been dedicated to
informing the public about this over drafting and urging responsible actions by everyone to meet the demand. We must derive
a responsible and lasting program of supplemental water sources combined with the maximum reasonable conservation. Given
the fact that wells, at best, provide a minimal back up source and that state water is not currently available at a reasonable
cost, the responsible use of recycled water and conservation must be encouraged.
Some Influential Development interests
rather than responsibly searching for water solutions to match their need for growth continue to foster falsehoods about growth
as well as deter responsible actions to offset it.
This website is being offered to encourage part timers, full timers,
developers and residential owners, to work together to demand responsible conservation, the establishment of recycled water
for irrigation to the major landscape water users as well as a commitment to meaningful "planned growth" from our officials.
Only then will we protect the DREAM that was and is Lake Arrowhead.
Protect Lake Arrowhead Now (P.L.A.N.) a public
benefit corporation, was formed to promote that objective. You can check it out at
Website for P.L.A.N.
Recent History:
During the summer of 2002 others and I became increasingly aware that Lake Arrowhead was subsiding
at an alarming rate. Docks were detached and many were aground.
A quiet previously ignored and little known public
entity, the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District, the local Water and Service Service, was running wild, withdrawing
water from the lake and selling the water to whomever asked and in whatever quantity demanded. Its manager and five directors
usually met quietly in an ill attended board meeting twice a month. Their mind set was that they were in the water sales
business and the lake was limitless. Or so they thought.
By custom the only persons who attended their board meetigs
were a myriad of persons who, for one reason or another, sought special dispensations from this local cash cow. It's water
budget ten years previously had been one million dollars annually and by 2002 had grown in excess of 2 million.
In
the last three years that budget has now grown to 12 million for the water alone--and still growing).
Few people oversaw
this sleepy public entity. In early 2002, part timers who dominated local ownership could not have cared less and full timers
were not about to spend their time listening to reports on sewer repairs.
For years a boardroom seating twenty plus
the board of five, a general manager and some staff had sufficed.
Notices of meetings were simply scotched taped to
a window in a forest. No records of meeting were kept in detail. The barest of minutes were maintained.
However, with
the lake subsiding at an alarming rate, this five-member board stumbled upon the truth. As part of a five year review commissioned
a study on its water supply.
And it was appalled to learn that the local folklore about the temporary drought was simply
that. Folklore.
Water Inc informed it that it was over drafting the lake by 100% and it had NOTHING to do with a drought.
Before firing Water, Inc (as part of a knee jerk reaction of shooting the messenger), the Board met and considered
how to handle this over use. Development interests were not about to cease development or even admit that the Board had over
estimated the lake for the last forty years.
It was decided that the best way to handle the problem while searching
for a solution was merely to announce a temporary need to deter use; it would announce a rate increase.
The problem
was that LACSD had publicly maintained that there was only a temporary drought problem. Bucking the national news reports
that this was the beginning of a twenty-year drought (part of the longer global warming), local interests had denied both
global warming and the extension of a twenty-year drought.
The word from the local Chamber of Commerce was that no
bad news could issue forth lest it deter business.
However, the residential community was appalled. The commercial
community was also concerned, but not as much, since it enjoyed, unknown to most, lower rates than the private domestic sector.
The question loomed, if this was only a temporary problem, why raise rates? After all, it was going to rain in 2003
and fill the lake. Everyone had told the public that.
I attended that meeting and it was clear to many that more was
afoot. The numbers did not add up.
However, soon to be learned by others and me the LACSD Board wished to keep the
over draft a secret to the press while it solved the problem. The fact was that there was no way to quietly solve the problem.
And Special Interests which dominated the Board were not about to initiate planned growth; and the County Club, which
was the major user of lake water to water its grounds for 537 members at an undisclosed discount of 90% was not about to give
up its special deal nor curtail its use or, has been later seen, accept recycled water.
But all of this was unknown
to most.
One thing was sure: the sleepy Water Company that had been short sightedly run by Special Interests was
going to be examined by its constituents. It was going to be thrust into the limelight.
I personally set out to find
out the truth and inform the public.
Soon thereafter when the Board refused to recognize the need to conserve, a complaint
was filed with the State. A year later the attorneys for the State Water Resources Control Board issued a preliminary opinion
denying LACSD the right to withdraw any water whatsoever. They invited briefs and a final opinion is pending. In the meantime
a fire was lit under LACSD to move quickly to conserve and find alternate water.
Enormous progress has been made since
2002 to clean up the overuse.
Previously unpublished and unattended Board meetings whose notices consisted of a piece
of paper on a window in forest, now are publicized on a new website and recorded by video which is streamed to the public.
The District with the free distribution of 1000 low flow toilets initiated a conservation effort. The former general manager
was replaced with a new manager who swore to tackle the problems and eliminate the overdraft.
However, this has not
been without great and acrimonious controversy and grave dangers.
Development Interests and LACSD are now irresponsibly
pushing for putting recycled water into the lake even though a recent state report has revealed that process is still unproven,
and dangerous to human health.
The process fails to eliminate pharmaceuticals and pathogens whose long-term effects
are unknown.
You may access that report (Water Recycling 2030) by going to a link at the bottom of this page. You
also may obtain a copy from
The Department of Water
P.O. Box 94236-0001
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916.653.1097
THE
NEED FOR PLANNED DEVELOPMENT
To our benefit, many part timers and full timers are now aware of the problems and actively
seeking long term solutions.
However, contemporaneously there is enormous pressure being place on locals by the county
down hill developers to build in the area. County "planners" have decided to enlarge this area by a 100% population growth
in the next twenty years. Patently inadequate and false plans are being promoted that acknowledge some infrastructure problems
with a hope that they will be worked out. Roads that collapse under today's traffic and inadequate evacuation routes are simply
ignored.
Rather than responsibly working to obtain a greater allotment of state water for the area, which would
relieve the pressure to use Lake Arrowhead, either directly or indirectly, these development interests merely seek to build
today and leave the inhabitants to worry tomorrow.
Many refuse to give up the old illusions of an infinite lake resource.
And
others, in tow with the county profiteering, and seeking to irresponsibly insure local profits nearsightedly have fought hard
not to change their old ways "use today, worry tomorrow" ways and still insist upon shooting this messenger.
This
site is being maintained to educate people on the tensions involved in the development of this area and to encourage persons
to acknowledge that
"Only a fool would throw a party and not provide for food."
Unfortunately, many here at
the lake continue to do just that.
This is a volunteer effort and unfortunately this site and the correlative publicity
efforts cost money. If you support this effort, take the time to read and think about this information.
If you want
to help us financially, you can do so, and we will be forever grateful.
We are up against millions of dollars of adverse
development dollars; and all we seek to do is publish the truth and encourage fair, informed and independent management of
the local Water Company; and "planned development" instead of unbridled development.
Every bit helps. Should you
choose to help us financially, you can make a donation at the P.L.A.N. site noted above through a credit card by clicking
on the icon below. The State and Federal government requires P.L.A.N. to report each donors "occupation" ("retired", if appropriate,
will do) Otherwise we can still use the donatin but not for political efforts. Without an "occupation" reported, the funds
still can be used, but they will be limited to conservation efforts)
+++++
Just below this paragraph you will find
a series of links. One of them will take you to the DWR Task Force Report on Recycled Water. Although it contains many different
source comments, it simply concludes that Recycled Water for irrigation is excellent, however, at the current level of science,
recycled water for drinking is unsafe. Currently science is not able to remove pharmaceuticals and pathogens.
To find
this information go to Section 4 of the report, page 50 et seq. Also read the summary which concludes irrigation yes, drinking
no, at this time.
A copy of the State Water Resources Control Board preliminary opinion holding that LACSD has no authority
to withdraw any water from the lake is also attached.
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The Lake Arrowhead Country Club has had a special deal with LACSD
since 1978, due to special interest involvement on the Board of LACSD.
537 wealthy patrons, including one current Board
member, have enjoyed a 90% discount below the rates paid by other domestic users.
The ludicrous fact is that for
a payment of $70 per month from each member, the club could pay regular rates.
Although economic in its water use compared
to most golf courses, it splashes in abundant water at a discount that was originally intended to subsidize its existence
to attract upscale residences at the Lake. A perk that has outlived its time the club should be required to pay regular rates.
State law mandates that that golf clubs convert to use recycled water once that water is provided at the club's property
line. Conversion costs are customarily born by the clubs.
Ironically, LACSD, still dominated by special interests,
has agreed to provide not just ordinary recycled water to the club, but super refined recycled water so as not to distress
them.
However, LACSD still not only refuses to charge it normal rates (under the guise of honoring an illegal contract),
but also is spending $13,000,000 to provide this super refined recycled water to the club along with $850,000 of rate payers'
money install an additional recycled water sprinkler system for the club in hopes that it might agree to take recycled water
being offered to it.
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