The Paper Dam

At the Friday, October 12 Sierra Lakes County Water District meeting, Mike Livak, director of development for Royal Gorge LLC, told the water board that Royal Gorge  LLC would submit the results of RG LLC's ongoing lake and water analysis to Placer County, and post it on their Royal Gorge website, without prior submittal to the water district . 

The water board members expressed incredulity, as did those in the audience conversant with governmental processes and/or common sense.  Two goals dear to RG LLC's heart are examined in the study they have commissioned: dredging the Serene Lakes, and raising the dam on Serena Lake.  Permission to take either of these actions lies in the hands of the SLCWD board, and no elected body would contemplate taking such drastic steps without full and vigorous input from their constituents, and serious examination upon the part of the board.  Indeed, one board member expressed disbelief that the scope of the study had even been expanded to include dam raising scenarios,  as raising the dam could cause inundation of private property, and damage to lakeside homes' foundations.

Mr. Livak made the rather fatuous assertion that Royal Gorge was planning this irregular release of the study to "reach out to the public".  This is in fact a brazen attempt to leapfrog over the elected public agency who controls water allocation, and to chill input from the public that elected the responsible agency.  RG LLC, by withholding the study from SLCWD until simultaneous transmission to Placer County, and RG LLC's email list/website readers, is attempting to create the false impression that the SLCWD board has given the study its imprimatur.

As for the dam-raising scheme, RG LLC wishes to discover what effect on water supply will be accomplished by a 6" , 12", and 18" additions to the height of the dam.  (A cursory glance at the bathymetry map indicates volume would be increased by approximately 43 acre-feet (AF), 90 AF, and 140 AF, respectively.)  In addition to the concerns voiced by the board member,  increased water levels will kill lakeside trees, de-water Serena Creek, a class one trout stream, and accentuate the ugly bathtub effect if dredging is also carried out. 

If Mr. Livak, and his employers Todd and Mark Foster, and Kirk Syme dusted off their high-school civics texts, they'd discover that our governmental system has a certain likeness to a tennis ladder.  Local issues start with local decision makers, and the local forum is where voters can debate the pros and cons of proposed actions.

That is how real public input has an impact on decisions. 

Further, studies commissioned from consultants, however skilled in their field, are dictated by the scope of the study, that is, the study addresses the questions asked, and nothing more.  This is one of the reasons that no matter how many studies are done, an elected board is required to use its own informed judgment in decision making; delegation of decisions to consultants is tantamount to dereliction of duty. When an outside study has been commissioned, and is controlled by someone seeking to change the status quo (i.e. dredge and raise dams), it is even more incumbent upon a board to give a very hard look at said study, and to open the issue to full public input.

Ultimately, Royal Gorge LLC will have to demonstrate to Placer County that it has more than "paper water" (or RG LLC's favorite, PR water)  to slake the thirst of its large proposed development.  Constructing a "paper dam" to block out real public input just won't do the job- paper dams don't hold water. 

KTG