July 6, 2023
To: Honorable Mayor Kite and City Council Members, City of Rancho Mirage Re: Questions you need t echnically answered for health and safety Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you an d thank you for your dedication to the City of Rancho Mirage. As I have sa id in the past, I am not as king you to stop the lagoon. I am asking you to reconsider the facts and make the lagoo n smalle r. Th e la goon shou ld not be 18 football fi elds in size. It shou ld not be the size of 72 Olympic sized pools.
I have appea red before you in the past and provided you a letter dated January 19, 2023 about the water is sues. Nothing was done to address the questions I ra ised by getting so lid facts t o either prove or disprove my statements. It is evident that the fact that this project exceeds the Maximum Allowabl e Water Allowance as ca lcu lated in the WSA/WSV is not important to you . The fac t that this will be reso lved by the developer paying a fee to buy more Colorado River water i s not importa nt to you. And that the Colorado River i s already over-a llocate d which is why the Federal Government is t rying to renegotiate Colorado River allocations. Th at is not important to you. Lake Mea d is still today 171 feet below full. You should be co ncern ed for the Citizens of Rancho Mirage as well as the Coachella Valley that we must ensure there is eno ugh Co lorado River water for all of us to co ntinu e to live here. And the Co lo rado Riv er water sho uld not be wasted for a lagoon that is too big. And you ca n't use recycl ed water where people swim.
So perhaps if water i s not importa nt to you, perhaps the health and safety of the people using the lagoon is more important.
I have included a document in what I have provided you today that is resea rch I have done with the Pa lm Sprin gs Aquatic Center: How Pools Fare in the Winter an d Summer. I wi ll just hi ghlight some of the important items where yo u nee d to get answers so that you can ensure the viability of the Lagoon. I know that is important to you, that the Lagoo n, which is central to this deve lopment, can be utili ze d by the people who visit or buy houses on the site.
First: how will you ensure the saf ety of people when there is a body of water that is 18 football fields, up to 12 fe et dee p?
Will the developer put a fence around the lagoon to make sure peop le don't go swimming during the night when they ca n't sw im during the da y when t he tempe ratures are 115 degrees? And the water temperature is in the 90s? How do you make sure people, adul ts and children, who are swim ming, only enter the water where there are lifeguards to watch for safety?
When it is windy or sand y and life guards ca n't see the bottom of the Palm Sprin gs Aqu atic Center pool, they close the pool for safet y. How are you goi ng t o close the l agoo n for safety?
Disney Catino Crystal Lagoon Section 31
Water Concerns
81469 Rustic Canyon Drive
La Quinta, CA 92253
919 606-6164
July 6, 2023
Alena Callimanis
Bachelor of Science Physics Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Masters Degree Physics Stony Brook University
Concerned Coachella Valley Full Time Resident
1 How Pools Fare in the
Winter and Summer
Alena Callimanis
We spoke to the Manager of the Olympic -
sized pool at the Palm Springs Aquatic Center
1) How many gallons of water does it take to fill the pool? 600,000 gallons
2) What is the physical size of the pool? 164 feet by 82 feet which is 1/3 of an acre. 3) Why do you heat the pool in the winter and to what
temperature? We have lap swimmers. We keep our pool around 78to 82 degrees.
4) Why to you cool the pool in the summer and to what temperature? If we did not cool the pool it would be around 100 degrees and that's too hot for swim mes. We cool to around 82 -84 degrees.
~
5) What are the reasons you cool the pool? ( Viruses, bacteria and algae?) We have lap swimmers at this pool. They cannot safely swim in high water temperatures.
6) How difficult is it to keep algae from the pool during the summer? Not hard. We brush the entire pool every weekend .
7) Are you following a Public Health Code when you clean out the sand and debris from the pool after excessive wind events? Yes 8) How long does it take to clean the pool before you can open it to the public? After a typical wind event it can take 3 man hours to clean the pool from sand and debris. Do you have to open late during the days you must clear out sand and debris? It depends on the damage left the wind.
..
9) Do you close the pool during excessive wind? Yes, if a lifeguard cannot see the bottom of the pool. Or if there is items or debris flying around making for unsafe conditions.
10} How long does it take for the entire pool water to recirculate? 4 hours to filter this ROOI.
Disney Cotino lagoon is 72 Olympic Sized Pools.
Disney Cotino lagoon
:.a ... ... ::z -:... ::::
• 1 S I 8 football fields.
January 19, 2023
To: Honorable Mayor Kite and City Council Members, City of Rancho Mfrage Re: Questions you need technically answered by Crysta l Lagoons and CVWD Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you and thank you for your dedication to the City of Rancho Mirage. I am not aski ng you to stop the lagoon. I am ask in g you to recons ider the facts and make the lagoon sma ller. Th e lagoon shou ld not be 18 footba ll fields in size. It should not be the size of 72 Olympic si zed poo ls.
The Crysta l Lagoon i s the unifying ame nity for the entire project. I have very ser ious concerns that the developer has not addressed regard in g t he Lagoon wh ich cou ld impact the viability of the entire project. You must ensure that the deve loper does not address these concerns wi th their typica l marketing-speak, but with technica l proof t hat these concerns can be reso l ved.
The Crystal Lagoon webs ite is boasting about t he largest Cryst al Lagoon project t hat will be open ing soon in Europe. It is found in Spa in and it wi ll be 4 acres. That is four acres, not 24 acres li ke you will have in Rancho Mirage.
The Crysta l Lagoon 34 acre, 62 million gallon lagoon in Egypt uses sal t water from an underground aqu ifer that ca nnot be used for any other purpose beca use of its sa linity.
That means they have NO co ncerns for chlori nation, since you don't ch lorinate sea water. Th ey have no concerns for the water getting too hot because t hey can just pump more groundwater into the lagoon at an y time to coo l the lagoon. They don't need to worry abo ut eva poration because they have a ready suppl y of coo l und erground salty aq uifer water they can pump in at any time.
Your 24 acre lagoon is 18 footba ll fields with end zones. Have you ever heard anyone speak about how much water it w ill take to fill it? It is not listed anywhere. I calculate it t o be abo ut 40 million ga ll ons of water, or about 332 M ill ion sixteen-ounce bottles of water, based on the 62 million ga ll ons that the Crysta l Lagoon in Egypt uses to fi ll t heir 34 acre sa lt water lagoon.
If Crystal Lagoons is planning on putting t hei r proprietary evapo ration film tech nology on the poo l t o mitigate evaporation, as was written in the 2019 Water Assessment, that is not all owed per Zoe Rodriguez Del Rey, CVW D Water Resources Manager. So that wou ld invali date the water calcu lations in the WSA for t he proj ect. In add ition, after r eviewing the WSA, Ms. De l Rey agreed that MSA had mistaken ly undercalcul ated evaporation at the Lagoon. I was not all owed to ask for a recalcu lation. That wou ld be up to you. In a quick redo of the calcu lation I did using the CVWD formu la, MSA ca lcu lated 34 million gall ons of evaporation for t he origina l 34 ac re lagoon . I calcu late 57 million ga ll ons for the smaller 24 acre lagoon. There is 40% more evapo ration every year than it takes t o originally fill it. And mu ch higher t han in the ori gi nal WSA.
Another major issue: Crysta l Lagoons touts patented technology that is in various places wit hin t he lagoon t hat mo nitors and maintains che mi ca l levels . From their webs ite: "The app licat ion of add itives is determined electro nica lly by injectors and sensors strategica lly located in t he lagoon. This operation is managed online by the
WATER SU PPLY ASSESS M ENT
a nd
W ATER SUPPLY V ERI FI CATIO N
fo r t he Pro p osed
Sectio n 3 1 Sp ecifi c Pla n
~for.
CoadleU. VaRey Water Oistria
P.O. Box 1058
Coachella , California 92236
Pr-edby:
MSA Consulting. Inc.
34200 Bob Hope Oriw
Rancho Minge, California 92270
July2019
2 S«timt J t Sp«i_fic Pl..ut WS.i
Table 2.0-3 Outdoor Water Demand
LandU.
-Hati91
Hcte -Rllom,;
-'Offloe BulldlneJ
Hctei ~'commercl :11 w...e
R.es~:.JI • 61!3Ch C hb
Bexl>+ E Oge
M~elllke
L R.O W
Ol)e!'I Sox~.,..
~Recld•n11■1 •
-91\Y..c!ell Re$!0entllll
Mtxe ood COmm ett:l lll
Onnd Tata!
Toul ouidoc. 0.-00r OufdoGr Lan41Dapecl T.I Oufdocw 111!1111al .--aci-La-S-d
(ACI -
1 S.Jil 6°"
1 ;:-!In --·eoo,;'
3 5iJ
s~.:.
33.3;
131.4'
::s.:m
:::3.J!I
1 ::.9!1
15 .57
SQ,;
30'!o
1l!l'6: ~
45'!!,
4;;,(,
65Qo
6~
Area ..AtUuciMf Co-pion
Id> &AFY)
.. 1i .1;,;..JJ
.. 1~!1J-
31.L;';_J!J
9 1.S.U.:S::
1,L34.,377.L;:
1.717 557.32
~.!156.JJ
~.956.JJ
352,.L 19.2J
Li1.334 33
29-7 3
·29.73
5.5 j ::,i_3!J ·74.,45
L3.53 &:;'!!,
s1fs1 &;...-
.. J .39 ,;;qr,
1::.3 3 6oo,;
1::.33
19 .s:J
sta.•
~ ~
1 ,LJ4,J31..:::5
1 1 16-:-111~
1 .150.3!17.72
3n · '56.99
:?15,536.1 1
l:!;.~ • .43 1, ___
1lD.:!J
1~-~7
6:2..!ID
22..31
15 .3 3
Zl.l!I
1 1.U.Ma..ar,
Cr.r~I L :2g000!. .:,::.=-.i~~ P."O!Pr~ta-:•• ~c Live tt, .. c-duc:r: C\apo~tia1 O".t~much i:is3C~ EvciPOf~tion re::lucticn p r :,duct,; u:za D"\ u,kt, Y=d ~-.., d~m~r,,tl!c 3 Original Water Calculation in Water
Assessment was incorrect
• The City needs to ask MSA Consulting to recalculate the WSA/WSV • The calculation in the Water Assessment was for a 34 acre lagoon • However, the calculation in the WSA is even too low for a 24 acre lagoon
• So it is inaccurate to state that since the lagoon is 1 0 ares smaller, the water calculation is too high
4 The Recalculation USING CVWD NUMBERS
The Maximum Applied Water Allowance (MAWA) for the lagoon in the Approved WSNWSV is based on the area's reference evapotranspiration (Eto), evapotranspiration (ET) adjustment factor, the size of the landscaped area (LA), and a conversion factor of 0.62 (to gallons per square foot) as shown below:
MAWA = Eto * ET adjustment factor * LA * 0.62
The numbers based on the approved CVWD evaporation calculation would be:
1) 83 i nches per year for a reference Eto;
2) ET adjustment factor of 1.1 for a stationary body of water 3) 1,045,440 square feet of area (24 acres)
4) A conversion of 0.62 to convert to gallons.
Based on these factors the MAWA for the 24 acre Lagoon is 181 acre feet year calculated as shown below:
83 * 1.1 * 1,045,440 * 0.62 = 59 Million gallons per year or 181 acre feet per year.
The bottom line : MSA calculated 105.57 AFY of evaporation or 34 million gallons per year for a 34 acre lagoon. The calculation was in error. Using the approved CVWD calculation methodology, the calculation for a 24 acre lagoon is 181 acre feet or 59 million gallons per year. s
This is the only sentence in the whole WSA/WSV
that states that the water usage for this project is
• excessive
"Project developers will pay any
required CVWD groundwater
replenishment fees for the purpose of
buying additional supplies of water for
importation into the basin".
6 CITY O f-~~~....:::.::..::.::...::; Pr epared For :
;: City of Rancho Mirage
69-825 Highway 111
Rancho M irage, California 92270
6 :. -..
..
.-....
Environmental Impact Report
Section 31):Specific Plan
.
7 In the EIR for Section 31, it says that this project will substantially decrease ground water supplies. So they are solving the problem by having the developer pay fees to replenish the aqu ifer. With the Colorado River Basin in such a severe drought, there is no Colorado River water to buy
Project lmpltcts
Be located within an airport land use
plan or, where such a pion has not been Significant.
adopted, within two miles of a public
airport or public use airport, would the
project result in a safety hazard or
excessive noise for people residing or
working in the project area?
Result in an impaired impleme ntation of Potentially
or physically interference with an Significant.
adopted emergency response plan or
emergency evacuation plan?
Result in the exposure of people or
struct ures, ei ther directly or indirectly, to
a significant risk of loss, injury or death
involvin g wild/and fires?
Violate any water quality standards or
waste discharge requirements or
ttially decrease groundwater
is or interfere substantially with
/water recharge such that the
may impede sustainable
~dwater m a nagement of the basin?
Less than
Significant.
Less than
Significant.
Mitip tio n Measures
No mitigation measures are necessary.
Incorporation of Mitigation Measure MM 5.8-1 (above ) and Mitigation Me asure MM 5.15-1 (below).
No mitigation measure s are n e cessary.
Hydro locv and Water Quality
MM 5 .9-1 :( The Project Applicant sha ll pay ground wate r reple n ish 10 to offse t the Gra n d Oa sis lagoon
lmpac:twith
Mitiptio n
Less than
Significant.
Less than
Significant.
Less than
Significant.
Less than
Sign if icant.
Less t h an
Significa nt.
8 .
With the WSA/WSV and EIR based on inaccurate data and the changes that have happened to water supplies since 2019, with us in a mega -drought and with the Colorado River Basin in a critical water shortage, the WSA/WSV & the EIR cannot be considered valid anymore with respect to water
You owe it to the residents of Rancho Mirage to
research this and to resolve this and all the other
questions I raised in the letter to you dated July 6,
2023
9