UPCOMING EVENTS June 26: Friday 5 PM SLCWD Water district offices The June SLCWD board meeting. Note the meeting date was changed from the 12th to the 26th to achieve quorom.
June 12: Friday 8:30AM-5PM, USFS Conference Room, 631 Coyote St., Nevada City. The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) and Nevada County Resource Conservation District (NCRCD) are sponsoring a workshop on "Forest Stewardship in the Rural-Residential Interface." See this YubaNet article for details.
June 13th: Saturday 10:30 AM, Soda Springs Store Join the volunteers that help to keep Donner Summit beautiful. An appreciation party will follow. The cleanup, sponsored by DSAA, needs everybody's help to clean the summit from Cisco to Donner Lake- Join the party!
June 16: Tuesday 6PM Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, Incline Village Dr. Bob Derlet of UC Davis discusses: "A Case for Creating New National Parks in the Sierra Nevada." Details can be found in this YubaNet article. MONTHLY EMAIL UPDATES To sign up for monthly update emails of events relating to the proposed development, send an email to updates@saveserenelakes.org with your name and email address.
Your email address will be kept private and will only be used for updates about Serene Lakes and the Royal Gorge Development. To insure privacy, emails will be sent to individual addresses, not to an address list or list of CC's.
An archive of past email updates can be found on the "articles" page of this website. HOW TO HELP:
First:
Keep informed by signing up for the monthly email updates as described above.
Second: Keep involved. Attend the water district board meetings (see upcoming events). Look at www.savethesummit.com for commentary by KTG and www.savedonnersummit.org for information, maps, a forum and more. Return to www.saveserenelakes.org often for the latest news, news releases, editorials and status.
Third: Many other groups are working to protect Donner Summit. Go to the SOS (Save Our Summit) website at www.saveoursummit.org for a list of these organizations and links to their websites. SYRCL has been particularly effective in helping to protect the water quality on Donner Summit. POSTERS, FLYERS AND MORE Please use these to let people know about the threat faced by Donner Summit. More Flyers..... WHO WE ARE: This website is maintained by SaveSereneLakes.org. We may be contacted by sending an email to publicity@saveserenelakes.org. Please send us any suggestions, articles or other information concerning Serene Lakes or Donner Summit. WHERE WE ARE: Serene Lakes is located on Donner Summit, just off of I-80 near the town of Soda Springs, CA. map RE-USE POLICY You may copy, reprint, publish, reproduce, or otherwise display materials (excluding materials that contributors or others have copyrights on—check with sources) on this website on the condition that you attribute those materials to www.saveserenelakes.org and provide a link to our website.
LATEST NEWS: (Complete News Timeline....) June 10: Royal Gorge has closed their lands, citing liability concerns, but State laws have been on the books since 1963 that would allow them to open their lands for recreational access during the summer without the fear of liability. A summary of the pertinent laws can be found here: www.portersimon.com/writ/writ-01-2008.pdf
June 8: Crystal Jacobsen of Placer County Planning says they have not heard anything from Royal Gorge for ten months. In August it will be a year. May 29: Here's an important reminder about bears, not the Wall Street kind that are driving developers nuts, but the kind that live around Serene Lakes: It is time to bear proof your cabin and even your car! May 21: 53 Sierra organizations pledge to adapt to climate change. Read the announcement on YubaNet.
May 15: The Truckee Donner Land Trust (TDLT) is working to purchase 1,320 acres along Cold Stream near Independence Lake north of Truckee. Read about the property and how you can help complete its purchase in this Sierra Sun article: "A hike worth saving: The other Cold Stream." What a dream to have a conservation outcome like this for Donner Summit!
May 8: The SLCWD board, in their monthly meeting, discussed potential rate hikes. One is aimed at paying for the current sewer and water main upgrades, and a future rate hike may be required to help pay for fixes to the DSPUD treatment plant. It is unclear whether the upgrades will provide enough capacity for unbuilt lots or future development without spending much more than is strictly necessary. The next meeting of the Joint Facilities Committee that is looking into the upgrade options will be held this summer. One homeowner's perspective on how the upgrade costs should be handled is on the Save Donner Summit Forum.
May 7: The Truckee Donner Land Trust (TDLT), in cooperation with other trail groups, needs your help to maintain the area's recreational trails. The Moonshine Inc. article, "Trail Building Your Sweat Equity," describes what you can do to help. Let's hope that Donner Summit, Royal Gorge and Serene Lakes can become part of this trail system! May 6: Planning staff reports that Royal Gorge LLC has not contacted the Placer County Planning department for over 9 months.
May 6: Jason Rainey, executive director of the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), thanks those who helped to preserve the water quality of the South Yuba River in this YubaNet article.
May 5: Dr. Bob Derlet of UC Davis is proposing the need for more National Parks in the Sierra as a means of helping to protect California's water quality. He is presenting a talk on the subject on June 16th at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village. Details can be found in this YubaNet article. More News.... LATEST ARTICLES: (All Articles....) IS THERE A VERSION OF JINGLE MAIL FOR DEVELOPERS? (SaveDonnerSummit.org, May 23 2009) Royal Gorge LLC. has let it be known that it is losing money (at our educated guess of over $2 million a year) and looking for a way out of their 2005 purchase. Such a good deal at the time that they seem not to have done any due diligence with the County or the local utility districts in the fear of awakening competitors! Setbacks keep on accumulating against their grandiose ill-conceived plan to transform Donner Summit into sprawling suburbia. Read more....
ROYAL GORGE CROSS COUNTRY SKI: GOOD WILL HINTING (SaveTheSummit.com, May 25 2009) Donner Summit's Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort trod a rocky road in terms of good will and community relations in 2008. Royal Gorge greeted the new year with an article in the Sierra Sun bearing the sunny title: "Develop or Die? Owners Say Project May Make Royal Gorge Profitable," and ended the year with Moonshine Ink's no more cheerful article: "Royal Gorge: Can They Make Ends Meet?" Read more....
SOUTH YUBA RIVER HEADWATERS: DONNER SUMMIT SPRING (YubaNet.com, May 12 2009)
and the stars reel over your heads spooled out like thread thrown out by a subtle spider casting her web over the universe and the water, listen for it seeps, and weeps, and drabbles down the rocks a bright shine in the daylight a damp reverse inflorescence in the night Read more....
SCORCHED EARTH AND GRASS ROOTS ON DONNER SUMMIT (YubaNet.com, April 1 2009) Scorched Earth Early last December, a Sand Hill Road-Menlo Park Venture Capitalist fired off an email concerning the Royal Gorge LLC proposed development which absolutely galvanized the Donner Summit community. This email was forwarded extensively, and, apparently, ultimately even posted in the lobby of the Soda Springs Post office.
Here's a portion of the email's opening paragraph, Read more....
-More than twice as many as in Sugar Bowl, Northstar and Squaw combined! -More than doubles the residences in Serene Lakes from 800 to 1800
Ski Lifts, lodge, and 650 units immediately east of the lakes
-More than 40,000 trees removed -Hillsides stripped for ski runs -The main Serene Lakes watershed is paved over -The lakes are filled by silt from erosion -Nights are polluted by noise and lights from trail grooming operations
Two artificial lakes, a lodge and more housing north-west of the lakes
-Where the current Royal Gorge Headquarters is on Pahatsi Road -Granite glacial land is blasted for new lakes -Cross country trails are replaced by roads and buildings
2,375 additional residents
-Estimate provided by the Placer County Sheriffs Department -Traffic will more than double, especially on Soda Springs Road -No new roads to provide emergency exits, a real fire hazard
Increases the water demand on Serene Lakes from 115 acre-feet per year (AFY) to 615 or more AFY
-The water level of the lakes will drop 4 to 5 feet every year -The channel between the lakes will become impassable -The shoreline will recede by 20 feet, and in some places 50 to 100 feet -The docks, including Ice Lake Lodge's will be high and dry -Over 30% of the lakes area will dry up
Requires doubling the capacity of the sewage treatment plant
-More treated sewage water dumped into the South Yuba River -Requires new sewage pumping stations in Serene Lakes -Pumping failures will dump sewage directly into Serene Lakes
