Donner Summit Politics Are All About Water Published: July 17, 2009 by Beth Ingalls Donner Summit is an internationally known landmark and a defining geographical feature in our local landscape, but the people residing there and the issues they are grappling with are often a bit more elusive. Outsiders often reduce Donner Summit politics to the contentious Royal Gorge development debate and the ubiquitous “Save Donner Summit” bumper sticker. Large-scale development projects grabs the headlines, but the issue that underlies everything is water. There’s a finite and vulnerable supply for drinking available and limited wastewater treatment capacity. These basic concerns are complicated by the overlapping web of primary and second homeowners, an array of environmental groups, seasonal ski resorts, multi-jurisdictional water districts and the two separate county governments which all must coexist. Add the fact that Donner Summit feeds into three major California watersheds and a famous slogan immediately comes to mind – we all live downstream. Summit residents are currently dealing with significant rate increases for sewer services. Donner Summit Public Utility District (DSPUD), a bicounty special district formed in Nevada and Placer counties in 1948, provides water to Soda Springs and Norden customers and wastewater treatment services for all of Donner Summit. In addition to Norden and Soda Springs, the wastewater service area includes Sugar Bowl, Soda Springs and Boreal Ski areas, the Donner Summit Rest Area, the Serene Lakes Subdivision and the Sierra Lakes Community Water District. The DSPUD wastewater plant is a tertiary facility, meaning it collects and treats sewage and releases it back into the environment when the process is complete. The district uses spray irrigation on nearby ski resort hillsides in the late summer and early fall and stream discharge to
the South Yuba River from October through July as methods to dispose of treated effluent. The DSPUD approved a 15 percent sewer rate increase as part of their 2009/2010 annual operating budget on June 23. According to General Manager Tom Skjelstad, the increase was necessary to meet the requirements of the District’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) permit, which was renewed on April 24. Along with the renewal came a Cease and Desist Order. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board stated that the DSPUD “ is not able to consistently comply with the new or more stringent effluent limitations for ammonia, copper, cyanide, dichlorobromomethane, aldrin, alpha BHC, manganese, silver, and zinc.” They have five years from the issue date to comply with the Cease and Desist order. Skjelstad said that because of the new NDPES permit “water sampling costs alone will increase $70,000 this year. Add to that the purchase of treatment chemicals, higher fuel and energy costs, renewing our lease with Soda Springs Ski Area for land disposal and additional studies and reports. We need the increase to balance the budget.” The DSPUD has been cited several times since 2002 by the Water Quality Control Board for discharging effluent high in nitrates and ammonia and was slapped with a $49,000 fine late in 2008 for those violations as well as for contributing to algae bloom outbreaks in the South Yuba River last summer. Local environmental groups, including the South Yuba River Citizen’s League, have been vocal for years about improper discharges into the river and fought hard to ensure that the DSPUD’s renewed permit this year did not contain dilution credits, which would have allowed the discharge of excess nitrates and dichlorobromomethane, a toxic
chemical associated with sewage treatment, into the river. The increase brings the total sewer charge for DSPUD’s 250 residential customers up to $1,269 annually with water rates remaining the same. A typical residential water customer pays about $648 per year. The Sierra Lakes County Water District (SLCWD) pumps the effluent from their own 800 customers in Serene Lakes to the DSPUD facility for treatment, and SLWCD owns 44 percent of the sewer plant. A rate increase of 14 percent has been proposed there and will be the subject of a public hearing on August 14. Currently, SLCWD customers pay $1,570 for combined sewer/water services annually. The new total, if approved, would be $1,827. A press release sent to SLWCD customers announcing the public hearing, said the rate increase would cover wastewater plant expansion at DSPUD in the amount of $36,700. It would also fund sewer line repairs and replacement on their own system costing $526,400 and water line repairs and replacement totaling $1,074,600. At the Donner Summit Area Association (DSAA) annual picnic on July 5, several hundred revelers gathered throughout the day to enjoy the beautiful weather, partake of delicious barbecue, tip back cups of beer and raise money by raffling off snow removal contracts and cords of wood. The DSAA’s slogan is “One Voice from Cisco Grove to Rainbow Bridge.” They sponsor clean-up events and informative talks and recently helped craft a professional and insightful “Economic and
Conservation Vision Statement” for Donner Summit. Board member Tamara Lieberman said the group will focus on an economic development plan in the coming months which has broad ranging support among DSAA members. Attendees expressed a range of opinions on the rate increases but shared a certain sense of inevitability about them as well. All agreed that any increase in tough times like these is difficult, especially for folks struggling to hold onto their homes and for those who have recently lost their jobs. Fifty-five-year resident Norm Sayler, who was voted “Community Person of the Year” at the picnic, currently serves as President of the Donner Summit Historical Society. He laments that “population growth is putting a larger and larger burden on people upstream from the population centers.” The bottom line for Sayler is, “if population isn’t controlled, there won’t be enough water.” Sayler also has a beef with the fact that Interstate 80 travelers rarely support summit businesses, yet contribute heavily to the wastestream of the sewer plant. This transient use of facilities takes away from the possible new development and expansion of current businesses operating on the summit, he says. Placer County Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery, a 20-year resident who was elected to her post last November, also weighed in and has a no-nonsense approach to the rate increases. “We have to meet state mandates. We don’t have an option legally or environmentally. I support the increases,” Montgomery said.