July 24th 2009 Update

 

Web Page Status – We updated the web page on July 24th with irrigation system status.  We still need a volunteer web page designer.  Until then, the information available is quite limited. Watch your mailbox for new information and please call your board members with questions and concerns.

 

1)    IRRIGATION SYSTEM STATUS   Our larger Racine Street irrigation well (#420) came back on-line Sunday night (7/19).  It had been off-line since June 10th and the smaller Salem Street well (#421) was able to supply our whole neighborhood for the first time.  The voluntary ODD/EVEN watering is now ended.  Please water away within your 5 hour assigned block on Sun-Fri.  If you need more time just call a board member.

 

2)    2nd QUARTER WATER BILLS - should arrive in your mailbox by 7/25.  They will show your April, May, and June irrigation usage.  On the back of the bill is an email* that was sent out Monday 7/20 about water usage.  We are now up to 12.5” of rain for 2009.  Last year at this time we only had about 3”.  We have used only 6 AF irrigation of water from our 39+ AF allocation.  That is why we are encouraging everyone to water more.  The total gallon irrigation restriction for 2009 (390,000 gal/home) will not be enforced.

 

3)      *If we do not have an email address for your home, please provide one when your return your 2nd Quarter water payment.

 

April started our 7th year of mandatory irrigation restrictions and watering schedules.  For fairness, beginning April 1st the three streets again rotatef their assigned watering hours (Troy: 6PM to 11PM,   Salem: 11PM to 4AM,   Racine: 4AM to 9AM).

 

Water Rates as of May 2009, the same water rates as 2007-2008:  homes exceeding their annual 390,000 gallon flat rate irrigation allocation were again charged $4.50+ per thousand gallons of overage.  Homeowners did a great job in 2007 and 2008; so far no home exceeded the annual allocation for the 2008 season ending April 1, 2009. Members vote on water rates and a company budget each year at the annual members meeting.

 

Drinking Water System – Everything in the Salem St pump house seems to be running fine. (We do have one booster pump relay that needs to be fixed.)  President Don has arranged to have our entire 23-year-old supply and distribution electrical control system updated at no cost.  Meetings with the design engineer and installation supervisor have been completed; requirements have been reviewed and accepted.  Work should begin in the next 6 months.  There should be No interruption in service during the upgrade.

 

Irrigation System Pumping– For 2009 our primary replacement water provider, CCWCD, gave all of its GMS customers a 35% allocation.  This amounted to 340,000 gallons per home.  This will be the second year that CCWCD has meters on our wells and receives monthly pumping reports, a condition of their court decreed augmentation plan. 

 

New Augmentation Plan – Augmentation water is what limits our irrigation pumping, not the capacity of our wells.  Our own water court augmentation filing was submitted in Jan (case #O8CW23) and our SWSP (JR Engineering) was filed in May. In late August 2008 we received State approval for our first Substitute Water Supply Plan (SWSP)!  These annual plans allow us to operate until we have our permanent court decree. This allowed us to increase our total allotment to each home by another 50,000 gallons, now a total of 390,000 gallons per home for the 2009 season.  A new SWSP application for 2009 was approved with recharge facility construction work completed in April. 

 

We have more work to do before summer but have accomplished much and are well on our way toward a court approved plan that will take several more years to achieve.  Since the members voted to begin work on our own plan, we have spent ~$36,000 on engineering and legal costs to get our SWSP approved and provide data for the water court application.  Our legal fees have been relatively low, ~$5,000.  These numbers will reverse themselves during the next few years as we complete the plan with the water court.  In addition, Annual Operating Costs are expected to run around $4,000-6,000 for "accounting and administration"  reports to the State (engineering costs).

 

Volunteers Needed – Call any board member to get started.