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Palomar Mountain Planning Organization Minutes, 8/14/2004 Board Meeting minutes

Minutes of the Palomar Mountain Planning Organization Meeting

August 14, 2004

Board Members Present:

Thomas Burton, Robert Carlyle, Tracy Dixon, Bruce Graves, Susan Humason, Scott Kardel, Elliot Miller, Jack Norvall, Bonnie Phelps, Michael Pique, Alan Serry, John Tainer.

About 14 members attended as well.

The PMPO Board meeting was convened 10:30 A.M. August 14,2004, at the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department. The minutes of the April 3, May 29, and July 17, 2004, board meetings were distributed and approved. The treasurer, Tracy Dixon, reported income of $1100 from donations with expenses of $7000 as a loan to the Palomar Mountain Fire Safe Council, documentation for which was signed by the Board. Our beginning bank balance was $32,812.36 and ending bank balance was $26,912.36. The report was approved.

OLD BUSINESS:

Dual Government Survey Problem:

Jack Norvall said the PMPO work is on hold pending new measurements of the Section 24 - Section 19 corner at the range line between Townships T10SR1E and T10SR2E.

County of San Diego Year 2020 General Plan Update:

Tom Burton reported there was no news he is aware of.

Community Center of Palomar Mountain (CCPM):

Earl Walls noted he needs help; specifically, a volunteer to take on the job of preparing the grant application for the October 1, 2004 deadline.

Motorcycle Safety:

Alan Serry said Tamara Davis is collecting Palomar resident reports of unsafe motorcyclists and will forward them to the Oceanside CHP Sergeant George Griffith. Her telephone is (760) 742-4546 and email tdfrank@mindspring.com. Recent increased patrols over the past two or three months have reduced accidents and problems. Fire chief Jay Ackerman noted that most motorcyclists he has talked to have been supportive of the program.

Cedar Creek Yale Water Project:

John Tainer noted that the PMPO and the Palomar Mountain community have had a long-standing concern over William Yale's attempts to pump and sell water from a commercial well on his 7-acre parcel along the East Grade Road. When Mr. Yale was pursuing a county Major Use Permit, the county required him to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) after a 48-hour pumping test lowered water levels in several wells on adjacent properties. The PMPO asked Dr. David Huntley to analyze the well test; his judgement was that the pumping period was too brief to measure the extent of the aquifer and possible effects, that at least a two-week test would be needed. Huntley calculated that the average annual recharge on a 7-acre property would support pumping at approximately 2 1/2 gallons per minute; Mr.~ Yales new plan is to pump at 150 gallons per minute for 16 hours per day. John Tainer noted this was the equivalent of hundreds of houses on a 7-acre parcel.

The PMPO, the Palomar Mountain Mutual Water Company, the San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use, and 25 Palomar residents wrote letters to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) regarding Mr. Yale's pending agreement with the La Jolla Indian Reservation to sell his parcel to the Reservation and build a pipeline to carry his pumped well water down to Highway 76. In June, project consultants Tierra Environmental filed an Environmental Assessment (EA) with the BIA saying that the project would have insignificant environmental impact and should be approved without further study. The PMPO and consultants sent letters and documentation contesting this statement and outlining the 10-year history of Palomar Mountain concerns and correspondence. The public comment period ended July 30, 2004, but the BIA granted the PMPO's requested extension to August 13.

John Tainer said that over 10 years of effort, the county's requirements were not met and we need to do our utmost to raise our objections now with the BIA and with the Reservation members. Bonnie Phelps has, in the past, met with La Jolla Indian Reservation members Jack Musak and Tracy Lee Nelson and will attempt to set up a meeting between them and representatives from the PMPO about the well pumping issue. A PMPO subcommittee of Bruce Graves, Tom Burton, Elizabeth Getzoff, Robert Hawk, and Jay Ackerman was appointed to meet with the Reservation members and with Congressman Issa's office. The subcommittee was authorized to spend up to $5000 ($4000 in addition to the $1000 authorized on May 29, 2004) for expert advice and consultation regarding the Yale well project, to be disbursed by majority decision of the subcommittee. The subcommitee voted to pay $300 to Virginia Moran of Environmental Outreach Services for her research and communication to the BIA regarding the habitats and species she observed in her investigations of Cedar Creek.

An article appeared Thursday August 12, 2004, in the San Diego Union-Tribune saying the La Jolla Indian Reservation is going to build a 349-slot-machine casino on Highway 76, apparently where the well-pumping project's pipeline is intended to terminate. Michael Pique speculated that the tribe's plan is to use the water for the casino and its 75-room hotel, not for bottled drinking water.

Next Meetings:

The next board meetings will be October 9, 2004, and January 15, 2005, at the Fire Station.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 P.M.

Michael E. Pique, Secretary.




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