Board Meeting - February 13, 2008

February 13, 2008
Contact: Ron Nelson
(530) 273-6185
Or: Dave Carter
(530) 265-NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

GRASS VALLEY - The Nevada Irrigation District will move forward with a major improvement project on the Cascade Canal water delivery system, following a legal settlement with property owners on Banner Mountain.
The settlement was filed in Nevada County Superior Court on Tuesday (Feb. 12) and announced at Wednesday’s (Feb. 13) regular meeting of the NID Board of Directors.
NID General Manager Ron Nelson and legal counsel Anthony Soares said the settlement with the Banner Mountain Homeowners Association Pipeline Committee, consisting of some 45 participants, includes three main points:

that NID agrees to enforce enviromental impact mitigation measures as called for in the project’s environmental impact report.
that properties fronting new treated water pipelines would be allowed to connect to the system at 2007 rates, or approximately $7000 per parcel.
that NID will monitor water well production levels for litigant property owners who feel their wells could be impacted by the project.

NID Asst. General Manager Tim Crough said the settlement eliminates a roadblock and that the major water project, now in the design phase, can move forward to construction and completion, hopefully by 2010/11.
NID has been planning the Lower Cascade Canal/Banner Cascade Pipeline Project since 2001 and studying its environmental impacts for the past five years. The lawsuit against the district was filed last Mar.16.
The project would divert some of the water from the Lower Cascade Canal through a buried pipeline across the southern flank of Banner Mountain to supply water treatment plants and wide areas of Nevada County. Service restrictions are in place in many areas because of the canal’s limited capacity.
Estimated at $36 million, the project is a continuation of NID’s upgrade of the Upper Cascade Canal, which was completed in 2002 at a cost of $20 million.

In other business, directors:

approved the Rodeo Flat Assessment District to provide water service to 36 parcels in the Rodeo Flat Road/Ridge Top Court area, just west of Lake of the Pines. Homeowners there have been working with the district on a pilot project that will allow the property owners to finance $870,000 in water system improvements. Each participant will prepay $20,923 or be responsible for $1800 annual assessments over a 25-year repayment period.
heard a presentation and hosted a public hearing on the Loma Rica Transmission Main Pipeline Project, which is planned from the Loma Rica Water Treatment Plant near the Nevada County Airpark to Brunswick Road. Final approval is expected at the board’s next meeting.

The next regular meeting of the NID Board of Directors will be held at 9 a.m. on Feb. 27 at the NID Business Center in Grass Valley. NID board meetings are open to the public.