The permit includes the demolition and replacement of two existing water tanks and chlorination and control building with its related infrastructure, and the improvement of three existing wells.
Dennak Murphy, the president of the Community Services District, asked the Commission to approve the project, which also has the support of the Mendocino Fire Protection District. “Replacing and updating water infrastructure for the schools will ensure that MUSD has the water it needs to meet its mission,” Murphy declared.
But skeptics, including two former directors of the Community Services District board, contend that many key aspects of the project are vague or worrisome, in spite of the over seven years it has been in development. Maggie O’ Rourke, a former director and attorney for the Community Services District, expressed concern about environmental impacts and the possibility of prioritizing commercial interests over residential uses. Christina Aranguren, another former Community Services director and now chair of a group called Mendo Matters, asked for a full environmental review. In a letter to the Planning Commission, she characterized the mitigated negative declaration as suffering from “a number of procedural failures.” And neighbors worry that their shallow, often hand-dug wells could go dry with ten new wells sunk into the aquifer.
Matt Kennedy of GHD, the consulting firm representing the project to the Planning Commission, said the new wells won’t be much deeper than forty feet, which he believes is shallower than some of the existing wells. He expects the storage tanks, which will replace a pair of much smaller tanks, will add half a million gallons to the school district’s current storage capacity. The plan is for the tanks to be filled during the rainy season. “We don’t expect any real change at all in the amount of water that the school district extracts from their property with this project,” he said, adding that the plan is to fill the tanks during the winter and keep them “topped off” for firefighting purposes.
Memories of the drought in 2021, when coastal towns relied on water trucked over the hill from Ukiah, are still powerful. And in a town full of wooden buildings, the argument in favor of water storage for fire protection was well received.
A work plan submitted by the State Water Resources Control Board declares that the project is necessary to prepare for a feasibility study of a regional community water system. That water system would be a consolidation of the school district, the Community Services District, and potentially a number of small public water systems with a few dozen connections each. Candidates for the regional water system include some private businesses like inns; the Mendocino Art Center, which is a non-profit; and the State Parks-Mendocino Headlands. A draft water study report, due in June of this year, is supposed to investigate options for water sources that include surface water from Big River and the Jack Peters Gulch basin, and desalination of seawater and groundwater from the Big River basin.
According to the Water Board, the feasibility study “is needed to identify a long-term solution for the community.”
Kennedy told the Planning Commission that the state further signaled its support for the project by providing grants. The school district is awaiting a final agreement with the Water Board’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for $6 million to build the project.
But hyper-local quirks in the landscape were a matter of deep concern for Max Yeh and other neighbors, who fear that they won’t have recourse if their wells go dry. Yeh told the Commission that Jack Peters Creek already impedes the flow of water from the east. “That is why the wells have gone dry in that area,” he said. “And they have historically gone dry.” With the advent of new pumps, he added, “All my neighbors on Cummings Lane, they fear for their water.”
Commissioner Marie Jones asked if a condition of approval of the coastal development minor use permit could be giving free water to neighbors whose wells have been affected by the project. But Murphy said water haulers need to be paid for their services, and asked how anyone could be sure their wells had been out-pumped in a drought during climate change. County Counsel added that it’s unlikely the commission can direct an applicant to give away a commodity for free.
The three commissioners present voted unanimously to approve the use permit.
