In the wake of concerns expressed at meetings last month, the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District has revised its procedures for discharging water into local waterways.

Interim General Manager Jeff Mann reported at the March 15 LDPCSD board meeting that he has developed a procedure for water treatment plant operators to follow when discharging water to creeks or streams.

The district is installing de-chlorinators for all water that is flushed from hydrants or discharged into holding ponds. De-chlorinating stations also are being built for all the tank overflows, Mann reported.

Plant operators have been advised that, “under no circumstance is chlorinated water allowed to be discharged to a creek or stream.”

Also at the March 15 meeting, Mann advised board members that the district could save money by moving up a treatment plant blowoff project that had been scheduled for 2011. By combining the work with other treatment plant upgrades currently in progress, Mann said the district could save around $10,000.

The plant blowoff project will allow the district to divert water in the event of a chlorine emergency, rather than allowing it to be put into the community’s water system. Right now, he said, “there’s no way to dispose of water that you don’t want to go into the system.” The district’s engineers have been pushing for them to add such a system to the plant for a long time. “It should have been designed with the plant when it was built, but it wasn’t,” Mann said.

Directors voted 4-1 to approve Mann’s proposed schedule change for the blowoff project. William Kinsella voted no.

Mann also reported that the retirement of the district’s old raw water basin seems to have corrected the problems with the district’s septic field, so they may not have to spend $30,000 to replace that.

“Even with the heavy rains, the area where our leach field is has dried up,” Mann reported. “I reported this to the engineers and to the Mariposa Health Department, and we all agreed that the project should be placed on hold and re-evaluated during the summer months.”

Mann also told the board it looks as if the state Department of Public Health will approve the district’s proposed alternative procedures for processing drinking water, rather than requiring them to erect a building over the water clarification basin. That would allow the district to sell the portable building, which was purchased but hasn’t yet been installed, and recoup the costs. A number of people have expressed interest in buying the building, Mann said.

He also said the district got the go-ahead to use revised population figures for the community, putting the Don Pedro subdivision at under 3,300 residents. That will cause the LDPCSD to be reclassified as a small water district, which will save money on state testing and reporting requirements. It also will make them eligible for government grants for water operator training.

Also at the March 15 meeting, LDPCSD directors discussed at length William Kinsella’s motion to advertise for a permanent general manager. However, the motion died for lack of a second.

Kinsella insisted that the board had made a commitment to advertise the position after the interim general manager, Jeff Mann, had been on board 90 days.

Kinsella declared the board would lose its credibility if directors didn’t follow through.

However, Board Secretary Charise Reeves said she had checked the minutes of the meeting in question, and found that the board only agreed to discuss the possibility of advertising the position after 90 days. They never made a commitment to act on it, she said.

The other directors complimented Mann’s work, applauded him for helping the financially-strapped district save a considerable amount of money, and expressed doubt as to whether they could find anyone else who would relocate to the Don Pedro area and work at the salary level the district is paying Mann.

Also at the March 15 meeting, the board made plans for further talks with the Lake Don Pedro Golf and Country Club regarding their water contract, as well as talks with a local resident who is seeking water service to property subdivided into several new lots in the vicinity of Hidalgo Street and Azulete Way.

The board also again discussed a request by a local resident, Lew Richardson, to investigate whether a former CSD board member has “an illegal water line connection to the golf course” for irrigation purposes.

Despite denials by the property owner and the golf course owner, Richardson has formally requested “all CSD documents and other pertinent information regarding this matter,” including attorney opinions and correspondence, letters, and emails and water consumption figures for the individual’s home from the year 2000 to the present.