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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09.14.2016 WB Minutes Special MtgMINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE WATER BOARD - CITY OF BAKERSFIELD Wednesday, September 14, 2016 - 2:00 p.m. Council Chambers, City Hall 1501 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield, CA 93301 CALL TO ORDER Chairman Hanson called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: Chairman Hanson, Member Maxwell, Member Smith Absent: None 3. MINUTES A. Minutes of the Regular Meeting of August 10, 2016 for approval. Motion by Maxwell to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of August 10, 2016. APPROVED, ALL AYES 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS a, Dennis Fox spoke and read for the record: "And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years it was always that way." That was John Steinbeck and he had a point said Mr. Fox. Why I think this is lost is because of the amount of subsidies I've been screaming about and the people in Bakersfield subsidizing the water brought in and the water exported. What I'm getting at is that we forget these things and that is what's been going on. Mr. Fox also spoke about Finding No. 9 out of Merced's ordinance to ban the export of their water, as happens here. Number 9, California Constitution Article Dam Section 2 and Water Code Section 100: prohibits the waste, unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use and unreasonable methods of diversion of water, The county finds that undercurrent drought and aquifer conditions the export of ground water for use outside the respective ground water basins within this county in which it originates are presumptuously unsustainable uses of ground water and not unreasonable or beneficial within the meaning of the California constitution and the California Water Code. That applies both to ground water and to the surface water. L 0 // B A K E R S F 11�� " I E L D MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE WATER BOARD - CITY OF BAKERSFIELD Wednesday, September 14, 2016 - 2:00 p.m. Council Chambers, City Hall 1501 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield, CA 93301 CALL TO ORDER Chairman Hanson called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: Chairman Hanson, Member Maxwell, Member Smith Absent: None 3. MINUTES A. Minutes of the Regular Meeting of August 10, 2016 for approval. Motion by Maxwell to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of August 10, 2016. APPROVED, ALL AYES 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS a, Dennis Fox spoke and read for the record: "And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years it was always that way." That was John Steinbeck and he had a point said Mr. Fox. Why I think this is lost is because of the amount of subsidies I've been screaming about and the people in Bakersfield subsidizing the water brought in and the water exported. What I'm getting at is that we forget these things and that is what's been going on. Mr. Fox also spoke about Finding No. 9 out of Merced's ordinance to ban the export of their water, as happens here. Number 9, California Constitution Article Dam Section 2 and Water Code Section 100: prohibits the waste, unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use and unreasonable methods of diversion of water, The county finds that undercurrent drought and aquifer conditions the export of ground water for use outside the respective ground water basins within this county in which it originates are presumptuously unsustainable uses of ground water and not unreasonable or beneficial within the meaning of the California constitution and the California Water Code. That applies both to ground water and to the surface water. Bakersfield, California, September 14, 2016 - Page 2 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS b. Bob Lerude, Director of Kern County Parks and Recreation Department spoke about their department's support of the upgrade to the signage and maps for the Kern River Parkway bike trail; and that they will support that project financially as well. They will work with the City when that project takes off, 5. REPORTS A. Kern River & Isabella Reservoir Operations Report John Ryan, Superintendent, reviewed the operations graphs and stated the water year ends on September 30th. The final number for the April /July runoff came in at 49% which is 221,831 acre feet for the group. Today, Isabella inflow is at 66 second feet; outflow 212 second feet, and storage is down to 100,293 acre feet. The new water year starts on October l st. According to the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center, October through next April will have above average temperatures, below average precipitation. However this is preliminary information and subject to change. Staff will be attending a Cooperators Snow Conference in November and will obtain the most current information. For Board Information, no action taken. B. Update on Water Usage in the City's Domestic Water Service Area for August 2016. Jason Meadors, Water Resources Director, gave a water usage update for August 2016. Mr. Meadors stated Cal Water and the City of Bakersfield both adopted a 9% conservation standard based on the local supply conditions that we currently are in and expect for the winter. The City of Bakersfield Domestic water customers decreased their usage by 21.3% from the August 2013 levels. The population has increased over the last three years by about 10,600 people. Conservation on our residential basis is about 24.9% reduction. We added about 3000 connections in the last three years in the domestic water service area, so we are seeing some growth. The cumulative savings from June thru August is at 20.7% from 2013 levels and our target is 9% so we are on target to meet our goal. Our residents still need to continue conserving water. As you know in the winter months people use less water, so it would be hard to maintain the levels where we are currently at. We are encouraging people to reduce their water consumption; turn off their sprinklers as the weather gets cooler and continue to conserve water. We are not out of the drought yet, For Board Information, no action taken. Member Smith complimented the citizen's that water use is down 25% from where we were before and that's pretty substantial and good work. Member Maxwell stated we are not done with the serious amount of conserving we need to do and that it benefits everybody for the future. Chairman Hanson asked staff if there is a way to determine if one area is doing better than another area. Jason Meadors, Water Resources Director stated the City is fully metered so we know the volume of water consumed by parks, residential, industrial and commercial; therefore staff can do an analysis in our service area. Bakersfield, California, September 14, 2016 - Page 3 6. HEARINGS A. Public Hearing to receive comments regarding the adequacy of the Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) for the Kern River Flow and Municipal Water Program. City Attorney Gennaro stated that the administrative report outlines some of the procedure history behind the Recirculated Draft EIR, but at its core the purpose of this environmental document is to support the City's application before the State Water Resources Control Board for the unappropriated Kern River water. It has always been and continues to be the City's contention that water flowing in the Kern River will provide multiple benefits to the City and our residents as well as ultimately satisfying out long term municipal demands. Ms, Gennaro introduced Ken Schwarz, Principal Partner from Horizon Water and Environmental. Ken Schwarz, Horizon Water and Environmental, provided an overview presentation of the Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Kern River Flow and Municipal Water Program. Public hearing opened at 2;34 p.m. The following individuals spoke atthe public portion of the hearing. Transcripts are available that represent exact comments. The following general comments are intended to give an overview of what was said. a. Richard Diamond, General Manager, North Kern Water Storage District, had the following general comments. He stated he is providing some initial comments on the draft Recirculated EIR and the district will also be providing written comments by the October 7th due date. He stated these are initial thoughts that they would like to get into the record. Mr. Diamond stated, I think a little bit of background and context for my comments is important to understand that North Kern for decades used approximately 2/3 of what's called the Source 2 Water in the EIR, those decades extend, passed earlier than the time the City acquired water rights in the 1970s. So, we've been using most of this water, the majority of it for more than 50 years. That's the water that's been forfeited by court of appeals judgement from Kern Delta Water District. I looked at the data this morning, since the forfeiture judgement 2007; North Kern has actually used 75% of the water that came out of the forfeiture; so we have a significant stake in this water it's been used historically for beneficial uses within North Kern, In addition, to our predominate use of the Source 2 Water, North Kern has also used 20,000 acre feet of Source 1 Water as it is described in the EIR for many decades as well. These water supplies, when you add them up, constitute about 40% of the district's historical supplies, That's significant, very significant amount of water, so the loss of that water out of my district would likely cause severe environmental groundwater impacts and we think those impacts need to be analyzed and CEQA needs to be followed. I really can't overstate the District's interest and concern related to the City's project. I'll let you know that we will do everything in our power to insure that the City Bakersfield, California, September 14, 2016 - Page 4 6. HEARINGS continued A. a. complies with CEQA and fully analyzes the potential impacts of the project on North Kern and surrounding areas that overlie the ground water basin generally located north of the Kern River. With respect to the specific comments on the Recirculated Draft EIR, the document talks quite a bit about subsequent project level CEQA review but there is no specific definitive commitment to such review. The Draft EIR uses phrases like "as necessary, if necessary and may" to describe potential future project level review. This is inappropriate. The City needs to unequivocally commit to fully analyzing the secondary impacts of the project in the future including the potential impacts on North Kern. The current lack of commitment for a full review under CEQA brings into question how the EIR can be used to support the City's water rights application with the state water board. There are also problems with the EIR with respect to its compliance with the judgement out of the Tulare County Superior Court, One example of that, the judgement references Section 15124 of the CEQA guidelines and states that it is critical that the latter tiers of the proposed program be identified in some detail. Although Section 1.2.1 of the EIR includes a statement that the EIR was prepared to, among other things, describe future actions that would be review in detail as part of the tiering process prior to approval of the program. The EIR fails to provide any measure of detail regarding what those future actions might be. As such, it does not appear that the EIR complies with the judgement out of the Tulare Court. That concludes my comments on behalf of the district, again the District will provide written comments prior to the October 7th and I appreciate the opportunity to address the board. b. Rich O'Neil, spoke on behalf of the Kern River Parkway Foundation, in support and encourages acceptance of the Draft EIR. C. Dennis Fox, spoke regarding the overall water supply and the faucet fallacy; adaptive management EIR; and Sea Forest Streams. d. Kevin Fahey, representing Kern Audubon, spoke in support of the Draft Environmental Impact Report. e. Tom Fallgatter, representing the Panorama Vista Preserve, spoke in support the comments made by Mr. O'Neil and Mr. Fahey, and appreciate the hard work done by staff and the board on this program and looks forward to enjoy the benefits. Chairman Hanson stated comments may be submitted on the Recirculated EIR until 5:00 p,m. October 7, 2016. Hearing Closed at 2:47 p,m. Motion by Maxwell to refer all comments to staff for response, direct Staff to prepare the Final EIR, and forward to the City Council for their review and consideration. APPROVED ALL AYES Bakersfield, California, September 14, 2016 - Page 5 7. WATER BOARD STATEMENTS None 8. CLOSED SESSION A. Conference with Legal Counsel - Existing Litigation Closed Session pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9(d)(1). (One matter) North Kern Water Storage District v. City of Bakersfield Ventura County Superior Court Case No, 56 -2011- 00408712- CU- CO -VTA Recess to Closed Session at 2;53 p.m, Closed Session was adjourned at 3;42 p.m. 9. CLOSED SESSION ACTION Virginia Gennaro, City Attorney, stated there is no reportable action, staff was given direction on Closed Session Item 8,A.1. 10. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Hanson adjourned the meeting at 3;43 p.m. Harold Han-so , Chair n City of Bakersfield Water Board Bobbie Zaragoza, 91VICT Secretary, City of Bakersfield Water Board