WRITTEN
PUBLIC
COMMENT
CITY COUNCIL
MEETING
JUNE 21, 2022
CVWD CAN NO LONGER GUARANTY A 20 YEAR WATER SUPPLY FOR CORAL MOUNTAIN SURF PARK Alena Callimanis
81469 Rustic Canyon Dr.
La Quinta, CA 92253
919 606-6164
[email protected]
June 21, 20222
La Quinta City Council Members,
The Daily Headlines Confirm The Colorado River Mega-Drought Has Reached An Extreme And Potentially Catastrophic Point.
On June 14th A top federal water official issued a veiled warning to Imperial Irrigation District, the Coachella Valley Water District, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and other districts in the Golden State, Arizona and Nevada that rely on Lake Mead, urging them to complete another major voluntary reduction agreement by mid-August.
"Between 2 and 4 million acre-feet is needed just to protect critical levels in 2023. It is within our authorities to act unilaterally to protect the system
“We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River, and the rate of decline is accelerating,”
“Every user in every sector needs to be planning for how they're going to take care of their share of the pain."
“There’s no way around this. Cities alone cannot address this crisis,” “Avoiding “potentially catastrophic conditions,”, will require reductions that many water managers previously considered unattainable.
When CVWD spoke to the City Council or the Planning Commission, CVWD's planning and projections of water supplies were 2 years old and did not reflect this Mega-Drought’s realities even in January 2022.
The Indio Subbasin Management Report dated January 2022, which the developer has said reflected the drought, did not reflect this dire situation.
This is the current CVWD engineering report dated April, 2022.
CVWD'S 2022-2023 ENGINEER'S REPORT: http://cvwd.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/978 This report states that the State Water Project negotiated allocation of the Colorado River Water for CVWD was 138,350 AFY which is about 45 billion gallons of water.
The report says that in 2021, CVWD only received 5% of that allocation, which was 6,900 acre feet, 2.25 Billion gallons. Five percent is also the allocation CVWD is receiving in 2022. The developer told CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JUNE 21, 2022 - HAND-OUT BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL RE: CORAL MOUNTAIN CVWD CAN NO LONGER GUARANTY A 20 YEAR WATER SUPPLY FOR CORAL MOUNTAIN SURF PARK you that the January 2022 Indio Subbasin CVWD Document reflected the drought by using a ‘conservative’ estimate of 45% or 62,300 acre feet, 20 Billion gallons of State Water Project allocation going forward for the next 10 years. In other words, even though CVWD knew the allocation was only 5% in 2021 and 5% in 2022, and with the ongoing drought, CVWD published a document that reflected the currently invalid and significantly higher 45% amounts of Colorado River water allocation.
Do the math. CVWD is only getting 6,900 acre feet of their reported 62,300 acre feet of water. The document everyone is saying is “Rock Solid” is actually starting with a deficit of 55,400 acre-feet or about 18 billion gallons less of water this year, which means we will actually need to draw significantly more drinking water from our aquifer for non-drinking purposes.
And in the Subbasin document, CVWD continues to say they have Senior Rights to the Colorado River water and in the worst case scenario they might have to give up 26,000 acre-feet of water to leave in the Colorado River basin. CVWD did nothing to reflect this in their projections and in fact shows an increase every year in Colorado River Water allocation.
I am sure you all have seen the headlines regarding the current emergency conditions with the Colorado River Basin. ”Colorado River states need to drastically cut down their water usage ASAP, or the federal government will step in”. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation stated on Tuesday June 14 that if the seven States don’t immediately find a way to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet more, then the Federal Bureau will step in and senior water rights will be ignored by mid-August To understand the MAGNITUDE of a 2-4 million acre-feet cutback in Lake Mead these are California’s and Arizona’s Current Lake Mead Allotments. California is entitled to 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year, while Arizona’s allotment is 2.8 million. We are facing potential 50%+ reductions Of Lake Mead Colorado River Water.
Stage 2 conservation methods announced by CVWD put most of the cuts on the backs of residential users.
Coachella Valley Water District delivers 280,000 acre-feet annually of Colorado River water to some of the most productive farms anywhere in the world. Golf Courses in the valley use up to 121,000 acrefeet of water per year. That totals about 75% of our water usage. Note: 300,000 Residents Use Approximately 92,000AF and are expected to do most of the current CUTBACKS.
You can no longer assume CVWD's Agricultural Board Members Interests Align With The Best Interests of La Quinta Or The Coachella Valley.
AG Board members’ East Valley Property Holdings and Businesses all Depend on "FREE / Cheap / Abundant Colorado River Water".
Approving the Coral Mountain Surf Resort with its Surf Basin, lake features, 600 potential STVRs (8 plus people per STVR versus the 2.4 residents per home) in the midst of this drought crisis is a dereliction of your duty to the people of La Quinta. By the way, using STVRs, versus the assumption of family homes for the MAWA calculations, significantly exceeds the La Quinta maximum allowable water allocations.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JUNE 21, 2022 - HAND-OUT BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL RE: CORAL MOUNTAIN CVWD CAN NO LONGER GUARANTY A 20 YEAR WATER SUPPLY FOR CORAL MOUNTAIN SURF PARK All of this information above also invalidates the water information contained in the EIR and makes water also a condition in the EIR that can’t be mitigated.
It would be great if you could give us back our long 4th of July holiday by asking the developer to withdraw his development application since it is clear you cannot approve it. There is no way CEQA can accept an explanation of “need more tax revenue” as the mitigating factor to approve this EIR in this Megadrought.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JUNE 21, 2022 - HAND-OUT BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL RE: CORAL MOUNTAIN 1 From: Kay Wolff <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2022 7:47 PM
To: Monika Radeva
Subject: WRITTEN COMMENT FOR JUNE 21, 2022 COUNCIL MEETING ** EXTERNAL: This message originated outside of the City of La Quinta. Please use proper judgement and caution when opening attachments, clicking links or responding to requests for information. ** Kay Wolff
77-227 Calle Ensenada, La Quinta
760-564-4070
Public Hearing #3 Renaming of Streets in Talus development Please do not rename Ahmanson Way.
The Ahmanson Ranch is historically significant to our city. This street now leads to the original 1902 ranch house and the area of the Robert Trent Jones golf course and replicas of Mayan stonework. The cattle ranch consisted of over 500 acres.
The Historical Society placed two historic plaques to emphasize the importance of this property.
I agree with the comment of Planning Commissioner Mary Caldwell, who cautioned that we should not “erase the history” of our City.
Sent from Mail for Windows
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JUNE 21, 2022 - WRITTEN COMMENTS BY RESIDENT KAY WOLFF PUBLIC HEARING ITEM NO. 3 - SILVERROCK STREET NAME CHANGES