Bear Valley News and Views

Dear Bear Valley Friends and Neighbors:  

My name is Phillip Coffman and a number of my friends and acquaintances in Bear Valley have asked me to run for a seat on the Board of Directors of the Bear Valley Water District (BVWD). BVWD is a publicly owned and operated utility that is answerable to the voters. It provides  and oversees our sanitary sewer system.  This is only the second election in BVWD’s 40 year history. You should receive a ballot by mail in early October. The first election was the formation election in 1971. The current directors were all appointed to their positions.

BVWD should not be confused with Lake Alpine Water Company, a private company owned by Chuck Toenisketter and Bruce Orvis that provides our drinking water from Bear Lake. 

I am a retired senior executive (VP) of a major aerospace company with over 31 years experience in engineering and management of complex space and aeronautics programs of the highest national importance. I have worked in the trenches as well as at the highest levels of our government to make things happen with respect to programs under my leadership.  I have learned from these experiences that, with sound objectives, appropriate technical expertise, and strong management, even the seemingly impossible can be accomplished.  I am also a Professional Engineer (Retired) and have owned property in Bear Valley since 1966. 

We now have the opportunity to bring fresh insights onto the Board of Directors to resolve many of the problems with our sanitary sewer system, especially those that are exacerbated by proposed new commercial development including approximately 500 condominiums. These problems are not trivial. They demand a comprehensive understanding of real requirements and the development of a wide range of design alternatives to identify cost-effective solutions. These solutions must include optimum financing of the selected approach. All viable sources of funding must be carefully traded-off. It is simply unacceptable to just shovel costs into the rate structure to burden property owners and further reduce their property values. What ever the approach, it must be fair and equitable to the property owners who have a stake in Bear Valley.   

If elected I will seek solutions that are fair to the rate payers and treat all involved even handedly and equitably. 

If you agree that we need to revitalize the BVWD board, I ask for your support and your vote in this election.  

This election will be decided by property owners in the district, based upon a weighted ballot. The weighted value of your vote is the assessed valuation of the unimproved value of your property. It is imperative that you send in your ballot and vote. Approximately 25% of the weighted vote is in the hands of two individuals who can be counted upon to vote their best interest, regardless as to how it affects you.  If only half of the property owners choose to vote, these special interests could control nearly 50% of the possible total vote! 

 Protect yourself and exercise your right to vote! 

VOTE FOR PHILL COFFMAN

Every property owner in Bear Valley will be sent a ballot to fill three seats for the election of November 3, 2009.  BVWD is the public organization that sets our sewer rates.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A REGISTERED VOTER IN ALPINE COUNTY TO VOTE, JUST THE HOLDER OF TITLE TO PROPERTY WITHIN THE SEWER DISTRICT.  The ballot will be mailed to the address where your tax bills are sent between October 5^th and October 24, 2009. Your ballot must be received by the by the election board in Markleville by 8 PM on November 3, 2009 to be counted.  This is the first election in 40 years .There are four candidates for three open positions on the board:  Dave Ritchie (incumbent), Bruce Orvis (incumbent), Jim Bissell (incumbent) and Phill Coffman.  The three candidates with the highest number of weighted votes cast will be elected and take office on December 4, 2009. 

This is a weighted ballot election; it is NOT one vote per person, as in a traditional election.  Instead, the vote you cast – for one, two or three of the candidates – will be multiplied by the unimproved land value of your property to determine the weighted value of your vote.  According to voter information disseminated by the Alpine County Clerk and confirmed by Dave Ritchie, president of the BVWD Board of Directors, the two largest developers in Bear Valley, Chuck Toeniskoetter and Chris Cook, can cast approximately 25% of the total weighted votes for the candidates of their choice. The total weighted value of all possible votes in this election is approximately 67,500,000 per candidate.  Consequently, your vote will have greater impact if you vote for just one of the three candidates.  

Watch this website for additional information and candidate endorsements. 

Gloria Dralla
09/19/2009

by Barbara Goodrich 

Responding to community concerns, Bear Valley Water District (sewer) voted 4-0 on Sunday, September 6, to extend the protest period regarding the 50% rate increase to January 18, 2010.  This vote essentially postponed a rate increase and contract to build a tertiary treatment plant by at least four months.  Accordingly, for the time being, protest letters against the rate increase are not required. 

 Please mark this site as a “favorite” and return to it often for updated information.

Faxed Copies of Protest Letters can be sent to BVWD; however, they will not be counted unless followed-up (in a timely manner) with the original signed protest letter.

Don’t put this off! Monday, September 14 is the deadline to register your protest!

FAX  209-753- 2709

BVWD

P.O. Box 5027

Bear Valley, CA 95223

By Gloria Dralla

1. The ordinance to increase the quarterly sewer rate is on the agenda to be adopted immediately following the Public Hearing at a scheduled Board of Director’s Meeting if less than 260 protests are filed by the close of the September 14^th public hearing.  If adopted, the ordinance will be very difficult to rescind even if a new Board is elected on November 3, 2009 in the presently scheduled election.  Thus, the new Board will be saddled with the mistakes “justifying” the rate increases created under the old Board. 
2. The State did not mandate we install a tertiary treatment facility in the October 2005 NPDES.   Two members of our Board, David Ritchie and Brian Neth agreed to install a tertiary treatment plant prior to the application hearing for a secondary permit discharge in October 2005.  Our Board had no warning, notice or information regarding the tertiary treatment plant.  This order was not the result of a public hearing, and HAS NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED OR RATIFIED BY OUR BOARD.
3.  The NPDES permit still allows discharge from the Reservoir into the Creek.  The CVRWQCB (the State) however requires we build a tertiary treatment plant for the water leaving the holding pond before it goes into the Reservoir according to the 9/08 CRWQCB Central Valley Region Amendment.  If we do not discharge into Bloods Creek, no State fine, mandatory or discretionary! 
4. Fines can only be assessed if we discharge into Bloods Creek, after October 2010 without a modification to our existing permit.  The permit has already been amended once at our request for an extension of time.  And we have not discharged into the Creek since 1999.  A pro-active board, competent general manager and district engineer should apply to modify the NPDES to reflect the fact that if we need to discharge during snowmelt in April and May when BV is least occupied and used, we are basically discharging snowmelt and not highly concentrated effluent and provide them data to support our position—something that has never been done. 
5. According to the EIR regarding the development of the commercial center, at page 4-7:  “BVWD wastewater disposal facilities have the physical capacity to accommodate an additional 1,127 EDUs, and could therefore accommodate the 1,100 new EDUs expected to be added to the BVMP area over the next 20 years (including the project).  However, authorized use of this additional capacity is contingent on BVWD upgrading to tertiary treatment by October 1, 2008, although BVWD has recently submitted a request to the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) to extend this deadline until November 2009 (Ritchie 2008). BVWD is currently pursuing an assessment district to finance the tertiary treatment project and, according to BVWD, it is highly unlikely that these facilities would be constructed by October 1, 2008 (BVWD 2008a). In that situation, no additional capacity would be available to serve the proposed or reasonably foreseeable projects. This is a significant cumulative impact.”  Clearly there is a connection between the proposed development and the need for a tertiary treatment facility!
6.  The Board has never adopted any engineering design plan for a tertiary treatment plant—only a concept based on Clean Filtration Technologies (CFT) proposal from John Mallard.  The Board failed to look seriously at another design offered by the Calaveras Water District (CCWD) and canceled at least one meeting with another private company offering its proposal.  The Board has relied on the “advice” of Ecologic who initiated the first tertiary treatment proposal for over $10 million dollars in their multiple capacities as 1) our consultants to advise us with the Regional Water Board, 2) serving in lieu of a General Manager and 3) acting as District Engineer all at the same time.  The cost of Ecologic to the BVWD has greatly exceeded replacement cost for the services of the General Manager who left in 2003 paid $61K/year plus benefits. 
7. A USDA government loan will require the project be let out for public bid.  Clean Filtration Technologies is opposed to a public bid.  The BVWD does not have an engineered design plan to put out to public bid.  Even F & M Bank would not approve a loan based on a “concept” and would require BVWD to incur the cost of obtaining an engineered design plan, statement of deliverables and warranty. 
8. The Board’s current and immediate financial need is to pay the outstanding $718K line of credit due October 1, 2009 costing us approx. $37K/year.  The additional $2.6 million justifying the 50% rate increase is for a tertiary treatment plant that is not engineered.  Approving such a rate hike now would seriously jeopardize our ability to modify the NPDES permit to discharge from the Reservoir and not the holding tank.  As proposed by CFT, we would incur a 24/7 daily operational cost in excess of $70K/year. 
9. Cursorily comparing commercial users and residential users on current rates, the cost is $0.015/gal for commercial users whose rates are metered to $0.03/gal for residential users with un-metered rates.  Why hasn’t the Board made its own analysis in setting its rate request? 

IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE SHELLING OUT MONEY TO SUPPORT COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND UNSOUND BUSINESS PRACTICES, DON’T DO ANYTHING—YOUR SEWER RATES WILL CONTINUE TO SKYROCKET.

OR YOU CAN SEND IN A PROTEST LETTER IF YOU ARE A RATE PAYER AND ASK YOUR FELLOW BV RATE PAYERS TO DO THE SAME.  EVERY LETTER OF PROTEST COUNTS EQUALLY!

The deadline is Sep. 14, 2009

 By Barbara Goodrich

As a full or part-time resident of Bear Valley, you should have received a Notice of Public Hearing / Sewer Service Charge Increase from Bear Valley Water District (BVWD) informing you of a 50% increase in sewer rates to finance the construction of a tertiary treatment plant and refinance a loan used to construct the “outfall pipe.”  This rate increase will go into effect October 1, 2010, unless 50% + 1 of the ratepayers object in writing.  This 50% rate increase is different from the recent letter from the Lake Alpine Water Company seeking to raise Bear Valley water rates 32%.

Brief History

On occasion, the reservoir with BV’s treated wastewater overflows into Bloods Creek.  The last time this happened was 1999.  It occurs when we have unusually heavy winter snowfall; it’s the snowmelt that makes the reservoir too full, not treated wastewater.  But once extreme snowmelt enters the reservoir, the snowmelt becomes part of the sewage disposal process. 

In order to occasionally discharge secondary treated wastewater to Bloods Creek on an as-needed basis (which hasn’t been needed in ten years), BVWD applied for a permit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) in 2005.  Very unexpectedly, without putting it on the agenda or giving legal notice to our District, the RWQCB required that we tertiarily treat our wastewater in order to get the permit.  Our two board representatives were caught off guard and, without requesting a continuance to take it for review, discussion and vote by the full Board, they agreed on the spot to construct a tertiary treatment plant.  (Given that discussion of a tertiary treatment plant wasn’t “noticed” on the meeting agenda as required by the Brown Act, it’s debatable whether it’s even legal.)

It’s important to keep in mind that, for all the talk of overflow and discharge to Bloods Creek, the “gold standard” for wastewater disposal is spraying to land.  Discharge to Bloods Creek is something that happens in extreme conditions, very infrequently, when the creek is running rapidly, and the treated discharge is also heavily diluted by snowmelt.  It’s so unusual that it hasn’t happened in ten years.  Bear Valley’s normal and customary method is to spray from the reservoir to leased land.  A lot of smart engineers believe that the tertiary treatment requirement is unfair and unnecessary. 

The biggest problem with the current plan, though, is that the RWQCB wrote the permit in such a way that they require that ALL Bear Valley’s wastewater be tertiarily treated.  Not just the occasional, highly diluted wastewater that might be discharged to Bloods Creek, but EVERY DROP of sewage that comes into the system.   THERE IS NO STATE REQUIREMENT THAT SEWER DISTRICTS TERTIARILY TREAT WASTEWATER FOR SPRAYING, but Bear Valley is singled out to a higher – and very expensive – standard.  And that’s costing current ratepayers (there are just 520 of us) millions of dollars over 20 – 40 years.

We are asking that you join us in protesting the 50% sewer rate increase.  We have spent dozens of hours with the finances, touring the facilities, asking questions, attending the monthly Board meetings, reviewing documents and minutes, and making phone calls.  Our conclusion is that the BVWD Board has a number of less expensive options that have not been adequately explored.  Specifically:

1. The Board should appeal the decision of the RWQCB on the grounds of its failure to comply with the Brown Act.
2. The Board should try to renegotiate the terms of the tertiary treatment plant so that tertiary treatment be limited to wastewater discharged to Bloods Creek.  That would result in a facility which would need to be operational only once every several years, rather than daily. 
3. The Board should investigate merging Bear Valley Water District with Calaveras County Water District to achieve economies of scale, smooth out seasonal personnel requirements, and take advantage of CCWD expertise.
4. The Board should consider forming an assessment district so that costs are shared with future development interests rather than borne exclusively for the next several years by current ratepayers. The new BV Village development pays nothing toward building the tertiary treatment plant.  Under assessment financing proposed in 2007, the new development’s share would have been 30% of the total required – a whopping $4,372,500.  It’s share in the current plan – zero.   In fact, under BVWD’s current plan, connection fees are projected to decrease.  Current ratepayers are subsidizing future development.
5. Commercial interests pay only for sewer services that they use, while residential ratepayers pay a fixed amount with NO REGARD to their actual usage. 

What if we protest the rate increase?

A “NO RATE INCREASE” letter is a message to the BVWD Board that we want more proactive direction and management.  We want dialogue with the State.  If we must build a tertiary treatment plant, we want it to be rational, based on real need, and limited to wastewater discharged to Bloods Creek.  We don’t want to be held to a higher standard than the rest of California.  We want to share the cost fairly with future development.

Will we be fined if we don’t have a tertiary treatment plant by October 1, 2010?  The Board has advised us that the RWQCB can impose fines if we discharge to Bloods Creek.  We haven’t discharged since 1999, and there’s no chance that we’d discharge in the fall of 2010.  (Even under the permit, discharge isn’t allowed except 1/1 – 6/30.)  No one can predict when we’ll next need to discharge to Bloods Creek – will it be another ten years? — and whether the State will take the hardest possible stance or, more logically, work with our community.  Based on our discussion with the RWQCB, they are amenable to hearing a carefully thought-out alternative proposal.

What happens if we do nothing?

If you don’t submit a one-sentence letter protesting the rate increase by September 14, 2009 at the close of the public hearing, then your rates will increase immediately by 50%.  The BVWD Board will interpret our silence as a mandate to continue business as usual.  And what is business as usual?  The outfall pipe, which the District constructed hastily in 2005, cost over $775,000, has never been used, hasn’t been paid for, and its sensor, monitoring the rate of discharge, doesn’t work.  The District will borrow money, and we will be obligated to repay it for 20 – 40 years.  The $2.6 million plant will end up with a price tag of $4,200,000 – $7,400,000 even before adding in annual operating costs.  The tertiary treatment will be built, operate full-time, and incur expenses indefinitely.  The Board will not attempt to negotiate with the State, and your sewer rates will be among the highest on record, negatively impacting the affordability of Bear Valley and the resale value of your home.

How do I protest the rate increase?

The Board accepts only written protests.  If 50% of the ratepayers + 1 protest the rate increase, it will not go through and our Board will be obligated to explore other alternatives.  Appearing at the 9/14/09 public hearing does not count as a protest.  Only written protests received by the close of the 9/14/09 public hearing will be tallied.  A one-sentence letter, “I protest the proposed rate increase” is enough.  Send your protest letter today to BVWD, P.O. Box 5027, Bear Valley, CA 95223.   A sample letter follows.  Mail early.  Play it safe and fax your letter also.

PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH YOUR BEAR VALLEY FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS

                                                          Date:_______________________________

 Bear Valley Water District

  (fax 209-753-2709)

441 Creekside Drive

P.O. Box 5027

Bear Valley, CA  95223

This letter is to protest the proposed 50% rate increase.

                                                           Signed:_____________________________

                                                        Name:______________________________

Bear Valley Lot No. Or Address:

                                                        ___________________________________

Mailing Address:_____________________

                                                          ___________________________________

                                                         ___________________________________

Your signed protest MUST BE RECEIVED BY 9 A.M. ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 to be counted.  Please mail early.  Play it safe and ALSO fax to 209-753-2709.