1 Kristie Ramos, CMC
From:Alena Callimanis
Sent:Thursday, September 1, 2022 2:12 AM
To:Kristie Ramos, CMC
Subject:Ms. Ramos, Regarding Speaking at the City Council Meeting September 1 Public Hearing Item Number 10 a
Attachments:Rancho Mirage City Council Presentation Callimanis September 1 2022.pdf; September 1 2022 Callimanis Rancho Mirage letter.pdf
Follow Up Flag:Follow up
Flag Status:Flagged
CAUTION: This email originated from outside The City of Rancho Mirage. DO NOT CLICK links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Good day Ms. Ramos. I would like to speak at the Zoom meeting on the item 10 a, notice of exception Based on Environmental Assessment
Case No. EA22‐0002. I am babysitting my grandson in Burbank, the parents are away, so I could not make this meeting in person.
The PDF labeled Rancho Mirage City Council Presentation Callimanis September 1, 2022 is what I will be talking to during the meeting. Is it possible for the Council to have a copy of this to follow along please?
The second document, September 1 2022 Callimanis Rancho Mirage Letter, I would also like to submit to the public record and I hope the Council will be able to read it prior to the meeting.
Thank you so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Alena Callimanis
81469 Rustic Canyon Dr
La Quinta, CA 92253
919 606‐6164
September 1, 2022
To: Honorable Mayor Townsend and City Council Members, City of Rancho Mirage Re: Questions you need technically answered by Crystal Lagoons and CVWD before you approve Filing of a Notice of Exemption Based on Environmental Assessment Case No. EA22-0002 for the Section 31 Project
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you and thank you for your dedication to the City of Rancho Mirage. You should not make any further decisions on this project until you understand the true technical answers to the questions I raise below.
The Crystal Lagoon is the unifying amenity for the entire project. I have very serious concerns that the developer has not addressed regarding the Lagoon which could impact the viability of the entire project. You must ensure that the developer does not address these concerns with their typical marketing-speak, but with technical proof that these concerns can be resolved.
The Crystal Lagoon website is boasting about the largest Crystal Lagoon project that will be opening soon in Europe. It is found in Spain and it will be 4 acres. That is four acres, not 24 acres like you will have in Rancho Mirage.
The Crystal Lagoon 34 acre, 62 million gallon lagoon in Egypt uses salt water from an underground aquifer that cannot be used for any other purpose because of its salinity.
That means they have NO concerns for chlorination, since you don’t chlorinate sea water. They have no concerns for the water getting too hot because they can just pump more groundwater into the lagoon at any time to cool the lagoon. They don’t need to worry about evaporation because they have a ready supply of cool underground salty aquifer water they can pump in at any time.
Your 24 acre lagoon is 18 football fields with end zones. Have you ever heard anyone speak about how much water it will take to fill it? It is not listed anywhere. I calculate it to be about 40 million gallons of water, or about 332 Million sixteen-ounce bottles of water, based on the 62 million gallons that the Crystal Lagoon in Egypt uses to fill their 34 acre salt water lagoon.
If Crystal Lagoons is planning on putting their proprietary evaporation film technology on the pool to mitigate evaporation, as was written in the 2019 Water Assessment, that is not allowed per Zoe Rodriguez Del Rey, CVWD Water Resources Manager. So that would invalidate the water calculations in the WSA for the project. In addition, after reviewing the WSA, Ms. Del Rey agreed that MSA had mistakenly undercalculated evaporation at the Lagoon. I was not allowed to ask for a recalculation. That would be up to you. In a quick redo of the calculation I did using the CVWD formula, MSA calculated 34 million gallons of evaporation for the original 34 acre lagoon. I calculate 57 million gallons for the smaller 24 acre lagoon. There is 40% more evaporation every year than it takes to originally fill it. And much higher than in the original WSA.
Another major issue: Crystal Lagoons touts patented technology that is in various places within the lagoon that monitors and maintains chemical levels. From their website: “The application of additives is determined electronically by injectors and
sensors strategically located in the lagoon. This operation is managed online by the Crystal Lagoons Control Center, so that the presence of qualified personnel for the application of the additives and the monitoring of the water quality of the lagoon is not necessary”.
Can you please ask the developer what happens when the lagoon has up to 1 to 2 inches of sand in it after a typical windstorm? Crystal Lagoons says they have devices that clean the bottom of the pool. That probably works for the largest lagoon in Europe, 4 acres. How will they clean the bottom of your 24 acre lagoon? I know my iPhone shuts off in excessive heat. What is the effect of our extreme heat on these sensors? Again, real answers not a marketing answer like “sure we can do it”.
What is the back up technology to ensure the pool water is safe in our heat, especially if technology is inactivated by the sand and perhaps even the high heat. Pool water have been staying in the mid-90s due to not only high daytime temperatures, but hot nighttime temperatures which do not allow pools to cool below 90 degrees at night..
Crystal Lagoons says they don’t need to circulate water as often as a regular pool. That might be the case if all their technology is working. I suspect you have heard of brain- eating bacteria found in hot, fresh water. You must find out how they will make sure in our sand and heat conditions that the lagoon will stay safe. They cannot cool it by pumping more CVWD well water to keep it cool.
If you go back to the Section 31 EIR, the EIR states that the amount of water needed for the project is excessive and cannot be mitigated. The mitigation method in the EIR is that the developer will need to purchase more Colorado River water to make up the difference of their overpumping. This assessment was from July 2019, three years ago when the situation with the Colorado River Basin wasn’t as serious as it is today. There is no extra water for the developer to purchase. You must reevaluate the water usage for this project based on the new drought conditions. MSA and CVWD can’t just say this is now a 24 acre pool and not a 34 acre pool as was calculated in 2019. Since the evaporation was mis-calculated back then, at 34 million gallons for a 34 acre pool, the new evaporation for the 24 acre pool is 58 million gallons. This does not include the additional wind evaporation from the additional wind events we are experiencing. Or our hotter days!! That will cause even more evaporation, since the CVWD formula does not account for that.
By the way, there are new restrictions on building new wells because of the drought.
Are you aware of those? And in CVWD phase three water restrictions, which could happen as early as this year, and as happened during Governor Brown’s term, there was a prohibition on filling new pools. This would apply to Crystal Lagoon.
Please don’t approve anything else on this project until you understand thoroughly and technical the answers to the questions I have raised in this letter.
You need real answers.
Respectfully,
Alena Callimanis
81469 Rustic Canyon Dr.
La Quinta
919 606-6164
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