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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/07/2011, COUNCIL COMMUNICATION - " RED FILE MEETING AGENDA Council Communication—Nacimiento Water Project DATE-&L-ILII ITEM 004AJiuc- - As you know, I serve on the Nacimiento Water Project Commission. It includes elected representatives from the five water purveyors participating in the pipeline project— SLO County, City of Paso Robles, Templeton CSD,Atascadero Mutual Water Company, and the City of SLO. In general, the commission meets every two months. In addition to County staff who manage the project, staff from the various water purveyors also attend the meetings. For 1k SLO, that means Gary Henderson and/or Carrie Mattingly. County staff and staff from the various purveyors also hold user group meetings. Pipeline Status The pipeline is operational,but the City of SLO is the only purveyor currently taking water from the lake. In April, we took 142.3 acre feet of water. I don't know the timetable for the other purveyors to begin using Nacimiento water. Although the pipeline is operational, there is still finishing work being completed on it. Most important are repairs to the intake pipe at the lake which collapsed at depth due to ti water pressure and an acknowledged faulty design. Change order claims for the pipeline, including a lawsuit, are still being dealt with. Nonetheless, it is anticipated that when the project is truly complete, it will come in $2 million under budget—$174 million projected actual vs. budget of$176 million. Sewer Line Breach As you are undoubtedly aware, a sewer line breach at the Oak Shores development on the lake took place in March. The line that broke goes under an arm of the lake. During the breach, water deliveries to SLO were stopped. The sewer line has been repaired. Although mandatory boil water orders were issued at the lake, extensive water testing of the lake and the pipeline during the breach did not show a cause for concern. That's because the impact was primarily lake water going into the sewer as opposed to sewer water going into the lake. Ouajzea Mussels The biggest on-going issue for the pipeline is the threat of quagga mussels getting into the lake. An extensive educational and inspection program is being implemented. This m includes mandatory inspections of all boats from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Through the personal lobbying of Supervisor Frank Meecham, Monterey County plans to participate in this effort. Monterey County staff is seeking $500,000 from their Board of Supervisors in their FY 2011-12 budget to pay for their work. hard cour. enism o COUNCIL. o CDD DIR o CITY MGR a FIT DIR G AMCM O ME CHIEF c ATTORNEY O PR'DIR O CIERB/ORIO O POLICE CHIEF PB o PARICSARECDIR o TRIBUNE a Urn DIR o NEWTIMFS o HRIUR o SLOCnTNEWS o COUNCIL o CITY MOR 6 CLERIC Much of the boat inspection work will be done by volunteers. SLO County staff has trained approximately 150 volunteers in the past two years. Inspection consists of screening all boats and then inspecting those which are not"clean, drained, and dry" or which have been on an infected water body (primarily southern California) in the past month. (See attached screening/inspection sheet.) Besides focusing on the threat to the pipeline, the County's educational efforts seek to emphasize the potential impact on boaters and lake residents. In effect, focusing on the "what's in it for me"phenomenon. (See photo of boat propeller on attached educational handout.) The impact on lake residents would be lots of sharp shells on the beach and the stinky gelatinous mess that the mussels leave behind. SLO County staff is to be praised for the thorough effort they are making in this area. Nonetheless, the on-going risk exists and can't be eliminated. That's because there are so many boat ramps on the lake(both public and private), because mandatory inspection is not occurring year-round,because volunteers have to be relied upon, etc. Even if every boat is inspected, it's still possible for contamination to occur in other ways— accidentally,by fisherman with their gear, or even on purpose. All it might take is for someone to pour a gallon of contaminated lake water from a southern California lake into Nacimiento. Through use of an outside consultant, County staff is in the process of quantifying the financial risk of quagga mussel contamination. This includes operation and maintenance costs plus excess energy costs. To fight clogging, chlorination and "pigging"of the pipeline would normally be used. The estimated cost (including the cost of a chlorination facility) would be $10 million over 16 years ($625,000 per year). One impact of chlorination, however, is the creation of trihalomethanes, a carcinogenic by-product of disinfection. Instead of chlorination (or in addition to it), filtering of the water could take place. Costs are being gathered on this option. Excess energy costs (not quantified yet)would be due to the greater difficulty of pumping water through a partially clogged pipeline. r-- F PUBLIC N0 MANDATORY WATERCRAFT INSPECTION Our local lakes face a serious threat: Invasive mussels. Protect your local lakes by verifying that your vessels: are CLEAN, DRAINED, DRY h,.=WUW0tC9ftrF,DWWUMIM Gf�.WGPM have not launched on mussel-infested lakes What are invasive mussels? are properly screened/Inspected •Non-native species •Introduced to USA(1980's) •Infested California (2007) *All vessels required to undergo screeninglinspection prior •Multiply rapidly at 1,000,000 to launch, starting Memorial Day Weekend 2011. eggs/female mussel/year •Can survive 30 days out of water *Cary Vessel Screening Permit stamped and signed by a •25 California Infested lakes(see certified screener on your vessel at all times. SLOCountyWaterorg for map) •Spread by boaters , DON'T MOVE A MUSSEL •No sure way to get rid of them ' q '®M.ntu aus� c ep owe o. DON'T NOVI A MUSSIL p 0 What's at risk? • Litter beaches with smelly, sharp mussel carcasses • Devastate lakes' ecosystem • Pollute lakes ' :;k • Negative impact on economy • Clog water delivery pipesj' _ • Increase costs vy�` 1 � • Clog engine intakes • Increase drag on boats Before launching on local lakes, have your vessel screened/inspected and carry a certified Vessel Screening Permit, Visit: SIAGountyWatereorg or hftp:ltvvwvv.slocounty.ca.gov/PVWNa cWPI Quagga-Zebra_Nlusse!_I nto.11ft County IT'S THE LAW! Code Chapter 11.20 4. f) n MOV-[,' A '�MUSSEL �: 5. DON ' T Mussel-Infested, California Lakes as of April 2011 r rt J1 . r ' ..fir„«. t ''� � � • • ti i 1 J r `''�i +i'�yr�J��^�4���J ''' s '�• 5 Iii I ,��� L u.. � "! f 1 Been on Any of These Lakes in the Last 10 Days? ... DON'T Launch! Last 30 Days? :.. MUST Vass In pection Before, You Launch! 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' � �. � �� � .. 1Y Ii � 1 Tuesday,June 07,2011 To: San Luis Obispo City Council, Subject: Concerns of the Commercial Zone surrounding Sacramento Drive The changes made to Sacramento Drive since completing its connection to Orcutt are not without serious impact on the'businesses in the oldest commercial/industrial zone in the city. The catering to organized crime big money special interests that,have infected our commercial zone with a housing tract in the middle of the largest block in the commercial zone disguised as mixed use housing was only the start. That project brought many more cars into the zone that needs parking and there is an overflow of parking onto-the-street. Not enough parking was provided for the condos and their internal roads are fire lanes that do not allow parking.. That project also treated the principle street in the commercial zone used by semi truck and buses and all the other commercial traffic like it was a residential street. The street is even narrower because residential standards were applied in the planning process even though the street still has to handle the larger vehicles that the commercial zone attracts. Sacramento Drive also became a principle bicycle path route and we recently had to'give up preciops parking on one side of the street to accommodate the inclusion.of dedicated bicycle lanes on both sides of the street They are some of the widest bicycle lanes in the town. On the East side of the street for the most part they are five feet wide. On the West side of the street the width is as much as Seven feet. That extreme width is common in front ofthe-Broad Street Village where.the road was narrowed in reflection of its residential construction parcel. Yet the same semi trucks and other oversize vehicles that use the street are crammed in undersized lanes that are not dimensioned as would be specified for a street being used fore regular commercial industrial traffic. Also a problem is occurring when:cars are.using the extremely wide bicycle,lane on the west side as a second lane. There have been several reports of cars running down that seven foot wide bike lane have had near collisions with vehicles trying to come out of the business complexes and having to poke out into the bicycle lane to see around the oversized vehicles that bracket those driveways. A few days ago I witnessed a car coming out of the driveway where I am located and a small car was bearing down South bound nicely fitting with in the bike lane that for the most part is un marked as a bicycle lane for most of the street The South bound car was traveling at the typical speed for the street except for being in the bike lane when it narrowly avoided a collision with the car Poking out from in front of a bus parked tightly up to the driveway. Only with an emergency swerve into the proper traffic lane was an accident avoided. That is to say that the South bound bicycle lane nearly no bike lane signage and only an occasional bike symbol on the pavement. Actually the other side of the street has very few bike symbols on the pavement either although there are so many bicycle lane sign posts that the other kinds of signs get lost in the visual clutter. The businesses along Sacramento Drive and the rest of the commercial zone that is serves were never included in the decision making process about the changes being o' made to our principle street. We are never included in the meetings that affect our businesses. In that sense we are not well represented in our local government meetings that make these decisions that we are inflicted with. The decision to make Sacramento Drive connect to Orcutt where that same organized crime developer grabbing real estate where ever possible to make their fast buck housing developments has another high density development did not seek out input from our commercial zone. That street connection has turned Sacramento Drive into an express short cut for cars in a hurry. Since the new stripping on the street the traffic even goes faster. The lanes are narrower and closer together,but because the lanes are so well defined,they have encouraged higher speeds. Since it is now a popular short cut for people in a hung they go faster. Connecting Sacramento Drive to Orcutt required building a bridge. That bridge is our new safety problem. For one,the bridge has made a narrowing of the traffic lanes to a sub standard width when it is taken into account the commercial/industrial traffic that is involved on the street When the travel lanes on a bridge are made narrower than the traffic lanes approaching the bridge,there should be warning signs for narrow bridge. That narrow bridge problem is made worse by the fact that there is a seventy five degree right curve that starts at the bridge on the North side. Because of its proximity to commercial traffic the lanes are way to narrow for the situation. Because of the added park way width between the sidewalk and the pavement as decorative road way treatment like it was part of a housing tract,that constriction to the road way at the curve makes it even more dangerous. That curve and bridge has been involved in at least four accidents so far this last year. Thefences along the outside of that curve have been taken out by vehicles traveling way to fast for the curve. The warnings curve and speed advisory signs that are lawfully required for that condition are none existent on the South bound and in fact preceded by three no left turn signs in a row just before the surprise sharp left curve. On the North bound side of the bridge there is a curve warning speed advisory sign so close to the bridge that there is no time for the high speed traffic on the street to adjust their speed in time. There should be more adequate warning of the curve and advised speed several hundred feet ahead of the bridge for both directions. At the South end of Sacramento Drive where it"Tees"into Industrial Way there is no warning sign that the street ends into Industrial Way. That has also been the location of accidents where cars have over shot the end of Sacramento and stuffed it through the fence. Sacramento Drive has been designated a Bicycle-route-and-in theory it was intended to couple up with the bicycle path in the housing tract to the South. There is an iron gate at that bicycle path. That gate has been locked for a decade and not to long ago it was even welded shut. When that housing tract was built,that bicycle path was part of the designed system of bicycle paths and was a requirement of that builder. Once the houses were built the access was cut off and seems a permanent condition even though it has been the justification for the bicycle path being placed through the commercial/industrial zone. Related to that is the issue that when the housing was put in the middle of the block next to UPS,the bicycle path previously ended there. When I tried to bring up the possibility of a bicycle path connection through that housing development to connect with the bicycle path at the North end of Garcia Damion Sports Field, attempts to involve the Bicycle Commission were ignored. Organized crime developers do not do bicycle paths it appears. i There is a distinct difference in the treatment of the bicycle path markings and signage between the two streets of Capitolio and Industrial Way. At Capitolio there are signs requesting right turn traffic to yield to bicycles and designated lines on the pavement. There are no such marking and signs at the Sacramento Drive intersection, very ambiguous. The sever offsetting of the traffic lanes due to the bicycle lane marking at Sacramento Drive and Industrial also increase the difficulty for the semi truck traffic to negotiate that turn. All this accommodation for bicycles on Sacramento to end up at a welded shut gate and the only place to go is down Industrial Way with not bike lanes at all and just some markings for Industrial Way to share the existing lane with bicycles. Why could not Sacramento Drive had had such a shared lane use in the first place and not taken away half of the street parking that is so much in need on our business street? There was so much paint marking done on Sacramento Drive that it out does most of the down town streets. Even then the painting and signage seems to not have been finished. Did they run out of paint? The lack of the bike symbol more often in the bike lanes and the excessive width of the southbound bike lane add to that lane being confused with there being two vehicle lanes Southbound. The East side of the street is cluttered with bike lane signage but the West side has none. Even if there were signs on the West side they might not be seen with all the busses that park along that side of the curb as part of the Bus operations based on Sacramento. Also semi trucks are attracted to the Street since is a commercial/industrial zone and has been since it is the oldest commercial zone in the town. There are many questions and complaints that are associated with the changes that have been inflicted on our commercial zone by the development of Sacramento Drive into a quasi residential street/expressway short cut to nowhere. Perhaps if the Fire Department had realized that this express short cut would connect to Industrial Way and on to the entrance to Garcia Damion Sports Field the argument for the Prado Road extension being directed to the North of the sports field would have been suggested to tie into Industrial and not needing another stop signal in a row to tie into the driveway of organized crimes mini center's parking lot. Let's revisit that Prado Road issue with this new expressway short cut in the picture and not need another stop sign on Broad Street. Sincerely, ���� � �� Donald E. Hedrick, Souths'de Mayor(unchallenged)