DREDGING, DAMMING, DIVERTING, AND DESTROYING- DASTARDLY DEEDS AT DONNER SUMMIT

Last Friday, at the Sierra Lakes County Water District meeting, Mike Livak of Royal Gorge LLC informed the board that RG LLC would soon be presenting a new water document for the board's consideration. This new plan for water will most likely revolve around dredging, damming, and diverting.

Royal Gorge LLC will almost certainly push to raise a dam on Van Norden Meadow, and will plan on gouging out many feet of the meadow floor in order to build a really big reservoir.  For Lakes Serena and Dulzura, a dredging, maybe a higher dam, and the water flow that now feeds Serena Creek, diverted up to the impoundment at "Lake Camp" are probably all items on RG LLC's agenda. "Lake Camp," where Royal Gorge LLC originally planned, "two small lake areas fed by ephemeral streams," can expect big earthworks- a reservoir, with an earthen dam/berm along the western side of the impoundment area- a 20 ft deep reservoir, with what Royal Gorge LLC, in their May 17 water memo, called a usable depth of about 15 feet.  Royal Gorge LLC's wish list sounds real environmentally sensitive, doesn't it?

That's an easy one to answer- none of this will be kind to the Donner Summit environment.  It will visit a swath of destruction across the area. Van Norden Meadow, and its vibrant wetlands, which support a wide diversity of wildlife will be ruined. The South Yuba River will be deprived of its natural headwaters, and will be impacted by more treated sewage effluent flow.  The Serene Lakes and their greenbelt will be damaged by dredging, and tinkering with the dam will threaten lakeside properties with flooding. Serena Creek, a perennial class one trout stream, which feeds the North Fork of the American River, a wild and scenic river, will be sucked dry.

"Lake Camp's" compound of water works will necessitate cutting down large amounts of the forest, and will destroy the watershed, and natural creeks, including Mackay creek, which feed Palisades Lake, which in turn flows to the North Fork of the American River. These extensive and unsightly waterworks will be placed in the heart of Royal Gorge Cross Country ski resort- water hazards for skiers and the environment alike.

In the 1800's and early 1900's, rivers were diverted and dammed to enable miners to extract minerals from the Sierra- now they'll be diverted and dammed to enable developers to extract money.  Our particular developers, Todd Foster, and Kirk Syme, affable fellows in flannel shirts, assured us all they were going to build a "conservation community",  and save Van Norden Meadow as open space. What a charade- it was a foul day when these fair weather conservationists sought to visit their vision on Donner Summit.

KTG