MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN ON DONNER SUMMIT?

If I had a nickel for every time T.S Eliot's "The Wasteland" was pilfered for it's opening line, "April is the cruelest month", to describe paying taxes, well, I'd have a nice bit of change to put towards paying mine. Forget about April's bad rep, though, as this year in California started off pretty cruel.  Our state budget is in such a shambles that Governor Schwarzenegger is dictating brutal across the board budgetary cuts.  From school districts, down through all levels of government, even to the smaller local agencies that deliver basic services such as water and sewage removal- all may be impacted by statewide belt tightening.

That's why Royal Gorge LLC's actions of this past week leave me so frustrated. Their multiple- lawyered assault on what appear to be drafts of simple "housekeeping" ordinances under consideration by Sierra Lakes County Water District (SLCWD) seems calculated to do nothing more than waste SLCWD's time and money-- our money, which we pay in fees and taxes. 

SLCWD is considering two ordinances, one of which sets up a rational scheme for delivery of services to customers, in light of the realities of water/sewage availability in the district, and in consideration of past payment of stand-by fees by subdivided but as yet undeveloped parcels.  The second ordinance sets a target water level for Serene Lakes that, barring emergencies, the district will not go below- a basement, so to speak of 3 feet below the dam level. As the district has, at least since the 70's, not drawn the lakes down below 3 feet, and in fact as a condition of its state water right must bypass water in the summer to Serena Creek, this ordinance seems like a simple codification of the status quo--common sense, so to speak, and a step toward preserving our lakes as lakes, instead of treating them like reservoirs to be recklessly drained. 

Royal Gorge LLC, however, believes that SLCWD needs to go through the entire CEQA process to establish that the district, by maintaining the lakes exactly as they have always done won't now cause environmental harm by codifying the "same-old same-old."   Compounding this inanity, Royal Gorge LLC inconsistently claims that SLCWD isn't even allowed to consider aesthetics, and recreation, and other CEQA elements in decisions concerning the lakes, because the statute under which SLCWD was formed precludes them from building recreational facilities. If you're not following this, please don't blame my muddled prose (much).  It's hard to make sense out of nonsense, and nonsense is exactly what Royal Gorge LLC is dishing out, with legal assistance, by the truckload.

If Kirk Syme, and what now looks like the entire Foster family tree, Mark, Todd, and Jack plan a huge development at Donner Summit, they know they're going to have to go through the CEQA process- as there are serious ramifications in building a subdivision in wilderness and near- wilderness areas. But tell me, Mr. Syme and multiple Mr. Fosters , how is it anything but a waste of taxpayers money to try to force SLCWD to prove the obvious, that doing what they've always done won't have any environmental impact?   In order to build your "Wasteland" at Donner Summit, are you also going to ensure you waste as much of our resources, time and money as possible?