Water District Board Elects to Reexamine San Juan Utility Rates Following Outcry

BY COLLIN BREAUX

The Santa Margarita Water District Board of Directors unanimously chose to not impose proposed new utility rates for San Juan Capistrano customers that would have resulted in annual costs increasing by 288% for the J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center.

During a meeting on Wednesday, July 12, the Board of Directors instead elected to continue discussions following protests over a rate study submitted by staff that recommended high increases for customers that used the least amount of water, which included the Shea Center.

The issue will be discussed again during an Aug. 2 meeting. A new rate study for San Juan, removing the fire meter component that drove up costs for affected customers, creating a citizen advisory group that would work with SMWD, and keeping the methodology for San Juan rates separate from other parts of SMWD’s customer area are all now on the table.

Approving portions of the existing study is also an option.

SMWD General Manager Dan Ferons said a new study could take up to 12 months.

“This rate study has been ongoing for over nine months already,” Ferons said. “I would say you’re looking at this time next year if you want to start a brandnew rate study with new principles and how we go about doing that.”

Laura Freese, a board member, San Juan resident, and former City Councilmember, said the commercial fire meter component needs to be looked at, and the impact from that on customers was not mentioned in the executive summary.

“I just have to say, getting ready for this meeting, I am getting more and more angry,” Freese said. “I’m really angry, because (with) the rate study—it follows the template, and it’s fine—but it’s not done with the people in mind. It’s done with legality in mind and water in mind and not the people.”

Under the rates proposed by staff in the submitted study, the monthly charge would be $175.74 for a 3-inch meter; $274.29 for a 4-inch meter; $546.93 for a

Shea Center staff and volunteers spoke against the rate study and increases during the meeting. Administration for the Shea Center initially found out about additional costs during a May meeting with Freese and Ferons.

“It’s not a what. It’s the how. We agree that our water infrastructure needs to be improved. It’s the how,” Shea Center CEO Dana Butler-Moburg said. “It’s going to take a massive effort to help diffuse the dire impact that these rate increases will have not just on us, but on our friends and our neighbors and our colleagues.”

Other sites that would have been impacted by rate increases include the private schools Fairmont Schools and

Community Meetings

MONDAY, JULY 17

Parks, Equestrian, and Community Services Commission

5:30 p.m. The San Juan Capistrano Parks, Equestrian, and Community Services Commission will hold a regularly scheduled meeting open to the public. Nydegger Building, 31421 La Matanza Street. sanjuancapistrano.org.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19

CUSD Board of Trustees

7 p.m. The governing board for the Capistrano Unified School District will meet to decide on local education matters. CUSD Headquarters, 33122 Valle Road, San Juan Capistrano. capousd.org.

FRIDAY, JULY 21

Coffee Chat

8:30 a.m. A town hall forum on community issues. The first Friday session of the month will be held virtually via Zoom video conference; all other Friday forums will take place in person at Hennessey’s Tavern in San Juan Capistrano, 31761 Camino Capistrano. Follow Coffee Chat SJC on Facebook for information.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26

Learning English Class

10-11:30 a.m. The La Playa Center is hosting free English classes for adults on Wednesdays. Students will be provided materials and workbooks. La Sala Auditorium, 31495 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. crossculturalcouncil.com.

FRIDAY, JULY 28

6-inch meter; and $875.41 for an 8-inch meter as of Aug. 1. Meters 10 inches or longer would be charged $1,313.93 a month. The meters do not currently have any monthly costs.

One reason given for increased costs is years of deferred maintenance while water utilities were managed by the City of San Juan Capistrano. SMWD annexed the city’s water utilities in November 2021.

“I felt the frustration of watching the other City Councilmembers vote down helping our infrastructure in San Juan Capistrano,” Freese said. “That’s why we’re in the pickle we’re in now, where so much needs to be done.”

SMWD crews have been working to update water infrastructure throughout San Juan since the annexation.

The Shea Center, a nonprofit that helps clients with disabilities and mental health issues through horse riding, would have seen its annual water bill go up to $45,000 a year—compared to a previous annual cost of $15,000.

JSerra Catholic High School, both which are near the Shea Center.

“Should public officials advance a scheme that places a disproportionate burden on a very small number of customers, some of which are extremely vulnerable, related to a single factor of service—the fire meter services—and for which the district’s general manager questioned whether a particular customer could roust an expert who understands it enough to challenge it?” Fairmont COO Mary Jane Miller said.

San Juan water rates have not increased since 2018.

“San Juan has stayed flat, and all the costs to operate it have gone up,” Ferons said. “There is some work that has to be done that has to balance that out.”

Other factors presented by Ferons include costs for imported water— which makes up 70% of SMWD’s water supply—going up, along with inflation and cumulative cost increases over the past five years.

The next print issue of The Capistrano Dispatch publishes.

“The city, because of the way they were structured and what they were doing, they were depreciating the system at about $4 million a year and investing about $1 million a year,” Ferons said. “There were a lot of unfunded facilities that weren’t done. We’re in the mode of going through and looking at that.” Board President Frank Ury said whatever is done in terms of San Juan could impact other parts of SMWD’s service area.

Orange County Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley also spoke at the meeting and said SMWD should find alternatives to raising rates, because people are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board of Directors said staff would reach out to Foley’s office for assistance as they work through the matter.

A Young, Aspiring Scientist Takes Flight: Paxton Adams’ Exploration into World of Butterflies

BY CLARA HELM

On a hot day in July, many people enjoy their time on walking trails taking in the beautiful scenery. But some have a keen eye for the flora and fauna around them.

Paxton Adams wanders the Oso Creek Trail, butterfly net in hand, ready to swipe at the next sighting of a Monarch butterfly.

“Down the trail, there are a lot of purple bushes, and there is one bush in the sun where I always catch one or two (Monarch butterflies),” says Paxton, a 12-year-old San Juan Capistrano student.

“Usually when we go out on a good day, he spends a lot of time chasing them,” says Siobhan Adams, Paxton’s mom. “I think the record is seven (caught) in a day.”

Paxton can spot a butterfly from almost 10 feet away, at a point when it looks like a mere dot among the various flowers.

Not even a teen yet, Paxton has become a scholar of Monarch butterflies and identifies the disease known as Ophryocystis elektroscirrha—or OE, for short—in the insects.

SPARKING PAXTON’S RESEARCH

Paxton’s unique passion and knowledge of Monarch butterflies are supported by his parents, who take him often to Mission Viejo trails and parks to experience them. His little sister runs alongside him with her own net and helps him catch the fluttering butterflies.

He began his research with Monarch butterflies when an unusually large California migration of Painted Lady butterflies occurred in 2019. Because of their similar appearance, many Californians mistook the Painted Ladies for Monarchs, and Paxton became fascinated with researching the latter species.

When he was in third grade, Paxton brought his first butterfly into the classroom, giving his peers interesting facts about the insect. Every Friday after that, the young scientist-in-the-making brought in different species of butterflies on what was now deemed “Butterfly Friday.”

This year, he has even been invited by his elementary school teacher to talk to students about his research.

“I went back to my third-grade classroom, and I had a presentation to the whole entire class where I talked to them about butterflies and gave them a Q&A at the end,” says Paxton.

Now in middle school, Paxton has finished an article he’s been writing on Monarch butterflies since 2020 and is expanding his interests in butterfly science. Never feeling that it’s finished to his satisfaction, Paxton continues to tweak the article and has given it to his middle school English teacher to edit.

His article covers topics such as the Monarch’s metamorphosis, migration, predators and other threats, population graphs and advice on how to help the species. It was also important for Paxton to include pictures of the Monarchs that he had taken himself, which make up most of the images.

Paxton has also been able to meet experts in the field because of the online circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During COVID, a lot of the different butterfly festivals and other things went online, so Paxton actually did a few Zoom meetings, and he’d be the only kid, and it was all adults,” Siobhan explains. “So, he’s met some of the top people (in the field).”

Paxton has also met experts while catching the butterflies, notes Siobhan, such as an entomology professor. He’s had the challenge of balancing the writing of his article and his research with the activities of a sixth-grader.

“In the morning, I normally like to work on the article or before school … and on the weekend, I have more time,” says Paxton.

His family enjoys nature and being outdoors, so going to local parks and trails is a natural activity for them, and Paxton can easily explore to catch butterflies.

PAXTON’S RESEARCH WITH OE

In an unassuming ruled notebook, Paxton records his findings. After he catches the butterfly, he carefully holds them to note its sex, approximate wingspan, and the time, date and location it was caught. As a last step, he captures a sample from the butterfly’s scales to look for the OE disease.

To get the sample, Paxton presses a small piece of tape to the butterfly’s abdomen and then places the tape in his journal, where he will use a microscope to see if the sample is clear or infected. And just as quickly as the butterfly was caught, it is then released back into nature.

OE is a disease that can be reproduced inside the Monarch butterfly’s body, or survive without a host as spores in surrounding plants, such as milkweed. To explain how OE can affect butterflies, Paxton details the compounding results of the disease.

“So, if a butterfly has some (of the OE bacteria), the next generation of that butterfly will have more, because it just keeps reproducing,” says Paxton. “And then by about the fourth generation, (the disease) kills all the butterflies originally infected by the one.”

The disease also spreads through the infected butterfly’s flight, as it distributes spores where it lands. Scientists and researchers have currently not figured out a way to fully get rid of the disease, Paxton clarifies, except for breeding “clear” (noninfected) butterflies.

There are periods, such as July, when Paxton’s samples are identified as majority-infected.

“It’s either they’re all infected or they’re all clear,” says Paxton. “It’s not normally half and half—either an infected day or clear day.”

While most would euthanize the infected butterflies, Paxton and his family do not have the heart to do so and keep them in an enclosure to live out the rest of their life while not infecting others.

“The population has been down for the Monarch butterfly a lot,” says Paxton. “So, in 2020, there are only like 2,000 Monarch butterflies left in the Western population, and that’s literally supposed to be over a million.”

Educating The Public

Once Paxton’s article made its way around to his middle school administrators, such as the ones who take care of the school grounds, Paxton was chosen to help set up a butterfly garden for the upcoming year.

But a challenge has been educating the public on how to correctly help Monarch butterflies, something he covers in his article.

“When people are trying to help Monarchs, there is not much available native milkweed, so a lot of people buy something called tropical milkweed, which is manmade and grows all year round and never dies back in winter,” says Paxton.

This is an issue, Paxton explains, because if the plant does not die during the winter, the OE bacteria stays on the plant, which infects the butterflies more. The growth of the milkweed also affects the butterfly’s migration abilities, as they can feed on the plant in the winter.

Paxton’s study of how human actions can further the OE disease will hopefully help the butterfly environments around him thrive.

A Multifaceted Kid

Paxton also participates in other activities outside his Monarch butterfly research. Dividing his time between mountain bike riding with his family, wrestling after school, checking the stock market, or collecting stray golf balls to resell, Paxton keeps himself busy.

While science—specifically, entomology—seems like the obvious path for Paxton, he notes several other interests he could see himself pursuing in the future, such as math, finance, and engineering.

For now, Paxton is considering continuing research with another species of butterflies or native insects.

The family’s typical park and trail walks have also connected them to the community nearby. Siobhan notes that many people have come up to the family because of the butterfly catching, allowing Paxton to share his passion.

“It’s neat, because he’ll be doing his thing, and people will ask what he is catching, and he ends up talking to a lot of people,” says Siobhan. “After a while, if we go enough, people will start knowing him as, like, the ‘butterfly kid.’ ”