DEVELOPERS ON THE ROCKS ON DONNER SUMMIT

No, I don't mean granite rocks, although we have plenty of those up here. Ice cubes is what comes to mind. It's almost as if old Ma Nature is giving the new Royal Gorge LLC, the one that wants to pave over a cross country ski resort, too much of a good thing.  All that frosty cold and snow makes for great cross country skiing- you'd almost think Donner Summit was built for it. The thing is,  pesky ice comes with the snow- icy windshields, icy puddles, icy lakes.....

The complication of Serene Lakes being practically a solid object through Winter months no doubt has Royal Gorge LLC scratching their head yet again (a la Pinky and the Brain) about how they're going to get that water, as winter bonfires on the lake aren't really a viable option.  

Dredging? That's not a popular option with Serene Lakes residents (proposing it would generate a lot of heat of a different sort), and it would only yield a pitiful amount of water. Funny thing about dredging, too- RG's initial proposals to dredge the shallows  of our lakes to a depth of 5 feet? The extra dredged area would all freeze, just as solid as the channel between the lakes. Calling Hans Brinker....

Now, here's another dilemma for our erstwhile Summit developers.  Remember the two lakes proposed up at Lake Camp, and the fact they weren't going to be built until phase 2? First off, unless East Lake(impoundment) is dug mighty deep, it's going to freeze too, hard as a rock, so it won't be able to provide water in winter to RG's buildings. Second, it's a tad complicated to provide water to houses/condos built in phase one if the water RG was looking to use during Winter before East Lake was built is being stored as ice in the SubZero ice-maker of Serene Lakes.  

Now, a developer desperate for water might feel like diving off the deep end, and proposing a dam down on Serena Creek.  First off, I'd like to say "good luck to you guys", as just a hint of a dam on a tributary to the headwaters of the wild and scenic North Fork of the American River will bring environmental groups climbing out of the woods -groups developers only usually encounter in particularly bad nightmares. Groups with shiny webpages, large memberships, and lawyers. Pluralities of lawyers, or whatever collective term is used to describe large aggregations (aggravations?) of lawyers.

But, say RG gets that dam--in winter there's going to be a small problem.  First off, they'd have to bury those pipes pretty deep to pipe water up to... where?  Not Serene Lakes, as you can't pump water into an iced-over lake without some fancy plumbing.  You can't pipe it to a holding pond in Lake Camp that may not even be built until 6 years after the project starts, and remember, unless those impoundments at Lake Camp are really deep, they're going to be skating rinks, and not winter water sources. Now, maybe SLCWD and RG can figure this all out,  but anyone wonder about all the roads ripped up to accommodate these pipes?  And who's going to pay?  Once water starts getting sluiced around in pipes, it's pretty hard to say whose water it is.  If Royal Gorge pushes a Community Facilities District that is contiguous with SLCWD, we'll need to watch very carefully to make sure we're not picking up the tab for a new dam we don't want, and a very large piping system. 

So, what do we call this latest dilemma for RG- The Big Freeze?  The Big Chill? The Big Reality Check?  Do we just pat them on the shoulder, metaphorically speaking,  and say, "sorry man, frost happens?"

Or do we offer them a nice cold martini, and ask them, "Shaken or stirred?" With a special toast-- " May the challenge of the Sierra Nevada lead you down a new road, the road to the fine legacy of true conservation- SLAINTE!  and here's to all the wildlife up at Donner Summit we'd like to keep alive!" (and I'm happy to demonstrate how to say "Slainte", as it's all the gaelic I know)