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County scurries to fix Tecopa Sewer Ponds before state funds go to waste |
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
10-25-2008 They have the technology. They have the capability. They even have the money. But before Inyo County can begin repairs on the Tecopa Sewer Pond, it must lease the property from the Bureau of Land Management.
The Tecopa Sewer Pond has been leaking for a number of years, causing an environmental health hazard, but the Inyo County Board of Supervisors, up until this point, has not been able perform the maintenance needed to repair the pond because it did not have the resources to relocate the pond waste while the repairs are in progress.
Now the county has entered into a lease with a neighbor who has the capacity in their sewer pond to temporarily hold the Tecopa waste.
But what the county does not have is a lease for the property that includes the Tecopa Hot Springs, campground and sewer pond.
According to the BLM, the county cannot move forward with repairs until it leases the property for the 40 acres that make up the Tecopa Park facilities.
In addition to the lease, the BLM has asked that the county provide a facility site improvement plan (which was completed and reviewed by the BLM a few years ago), a plan of action for improvements to the site and completion of a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review of the property.
“Parks and Recreation has already applied for Prop 40 funds for these repairs, but before we’re eligible, we need this lease,” said Deputy County Administrator Chuck Hamilton.
The problem the county has encountered, Hamilton said, is that the Prop 40 money expires in March 2011, and if the county has not finished its repairs in Tecopa by that time, it will be required to foot the bill.
“If we can’t meet the 2011 deadline, we’ll have to downgrade the project,” Hamilton said.
To avoid missing the Prop 40 deadline, which would provide reimbursements for almost all the Tecopa work, the Board of Supervisors’ first order of business Tuesday was to give Hamilton permission to begin lease negotiations with the BLM.
With permission to move forward, Hamilton said he would have a lease available for the board’s review and approval at a later date.
Next, the board identified and allocated revenue streams to cover costs as the Parks and Recreation Department moves forward with the lease negotiations and documentation associated with the engineering plans and environmental review.
The county allocated $60,000 in Prop 40 funds to Parks and Recreation Department for use on the project. That money, Hamilton explained, was originally set aside by the county for use in constructing an ADA fishing deck at Diaz Lake. That project was recently taken over, at no cost to the county, by the Pine Creek Lions Club and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, thus freeing up the $60,000.
The county also issued a loan of $90,000 to the Parks and Recreation Department from the General Fund that will be reimbursed as Prop 40 funds begin rolling in.
The total $150,000 allocated to the Public Works Department will be utilized to “pay up-front costs for completing the environmental documents and for preparing preliminary engineering studies and specifications that are needed for inclusion in the proposed Plan of Action for repair of the sewage pond,” a staff report states.
Once that work is completed, the remaining money will be used to reimburse the Public Works Department for engineering staff time and consultant costs it incurs associated with the project.
Next on the Tecopa to-do list was for the Board of Supervisors to authorize the Public Works Department to enter into contracts with MHA/RMT of San Mateo for environmental consulting services and Eastern Sierra Engineering of Reno, Nev. for engineering services.
“After the CEQA/NEPA environmental process has been completed and the lease has been renewed, Parks and Recreation will request reimbursement from the grant program and repay the (loan from the) General Fund,” the staff report states.
“The big expenditure here is going to be for the environmental,” said Acting Public Works Director Doug Wilson. “Once the environmental is clear, we should be able to know where we are and where we’re going to go” to complete the repairs.
“This whole thing has been going on for a long time and we should move forward as fast as possible to get this thing done,” said Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes, whose district includes Tecopa.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 November 2008 )
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