February "Save Serene Lakes" update:

Note: Tell friends to go to www.saveserenelakes.org and sign up for these monthly email updates.

Special: See the new YouTube cartoon: "Winter Carnival on Donner Summit"

News: (for a complete news timeline see "news timeline")

• The SLCWD board presented two draft ordinances which will be voted on at their March 14th meeting. The first ordinance establishes that existing subdivided lots have priority over any future subdivided lots for water and sewage services. The second ordinance deals with the management of Serene Lakes, with a specific condition that, except for emergencies, the lake level will not be allowed to drop more than three feet below the dam level. Royal Gorge protested both ordinances, bringing both a lawyer and hydro-geologist to speak on their behalf. The proposed ordinances can be found here: Ordinance No. 2008-82 and Ordinance No. 2008-83. A summary can be found here: Brief Overview of SLCWD's Proposed Ordinances
• The Sierra Nevada Group of the Sierra Club hosted a very successful seminar called "Challenges on Donner Summit" with speakers from Sierra Watch, SYRCL and SLPOA.
• Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz attended the DSAA board meeting. Mr Kranz effectively shut the door on DSAA's effort to generate a community plan for Donner Summit saying it wasn't going to happen. 
• SLCWD water district employees drilled holes in the lake ice to check its thickness and discovered that the ice is over 4 feet thick and appears to block the channel between the lakes and the channel leading up to the dam. This means that there is very little water between the bottom of the ice and the top of the water intake. See Our Frozen Water Supply for more details.
• Royal Gorge presented their wastewater treatment plans to the DSPUD board on January 15th. While four options were presented, including building their own treatment plant and disposing of treated effluent in massive leach fields, only one is viable, expanding the DSPUD plant and increasing the summer effluent spraying on the Soda Springs ski hill, and winter dumping down the South Yuba River. The expansion cost is estimated to be around $40 million dollars. A summary of their plans can be found in this article: Royal Gorge Sewage or "Squaring the Circle"
• The Placer County and Nevada County "Local Agency Formation Commissions" (LAFCOs) have been discussing how to handle the cross-county sewage and water issues raised by the Royal Gorge proposal. Currently the Royal Gorge project is within SLCWD's boundaries in Placer County, but the sewage will be treated at DSPUD's plant in Nevada County. In the Sierra Sun article "Royal Gorge Impacts Cross County Lines", Mr. Livak of Royal Gorge suggests that the development be annexed into DSPUD, rather than SLCWD. This could cause an undesirable merger of the two districts, including the loss of non-resident water board voting rights. A summary of the LAFCO discussions written by Nevada County LAFCO's executive officer, SR Jones, can be found here:  NC_LAFCO_Jan08

Upcoming Events:

• March 14, 5PM, SLCWD Board meeting at the district offices. The board is expected to vote on the two new ordinances mentioned above. 

Recent Publications: (for links to these and other publications see "articles")

• The following articles were published on the web, in the Sierra Sun, YubaNet or The Union: 

Ice Follies on Donner Summit (Sierra Sun, Yubanet.com, Feb 8 2008)

Wilderness on Edge (Counterpunch.com, CaliforniaProgressReport, Feb 6,7 2008)

Royal Gorge's Winter of Discontent on Donner Summit (Yubanet, Jan 29 2008)

See Success on the Summit (letter, Sierra Sun, Jan 16 2008)

• The February issue of the Donner Summit Clarion is available now.

Current Placer County Status:

• Placer County planning department reports that they have not heard nor received anything from Royal Gorge LLC in the past month.

Quotes of the month:

"Development's just another word for nothing left to lose" -apologies to Kris Kristofferson

"The higher we go in the mountains, the milkier becomes the Milky Way." -John Muir

"For one that comes into the wilderness with a pencil to sketch or sing, a thousand come with an ax or rifle." -Henry David Thoreau

"The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness." -John Muir

Web Sites of Interest:

www.SaveOurSummit.org

www.sierrawatch.org

www.syrcl.org

www.saveserenelakes.org

www.saveVanNordenMeadow.org

www.savethesummit.com

www.savedonnersummit.org

www.saveroyalgorge.org

www.pissdsociety.com

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