Moules mariniere

Today’s Board meeting was pretty lively. The boardroom was prepared for a large turnout from the public, and certainly there were more people there than I’ve seen in the past, although the overflow chairs went unused. The issue that brought people out was the prospect of the District’s closing its reservoirs to boating in response to the presence of quagga mussels in San Justo reservoir in San Benito County. These were discovered in January, and the District and the County Parks Department have been working together on an inspection regime to prevent the spread of these invasive mollusks into local reservoirs.

The County and District staff have come up with a plan to inspect boats at the four reservoirs where power boats are allowed: Anderson, Calero, Coyote and Stevens Creek. But boats from counties with infested reservoirs will be turned away at the kiosk. County-registered boats which have been in infested counties will be put into quarantine for 30 days, as will boats that fail the inspection. Boats that pass inspection will be allowed to launch, then, upon leaving the water, will be attached to their trailers with a sealed band. On subsequent visits to county reservoirs, boats with intact bands will be allowed to launch without inspection. This will require full-time staff at both the kiosks and the launch ramps. Users of county parks must be aware that currently, kiosks often go unstaffed. The Parks Department suggests a $7 inspection fee, which will probably bring in about $80,000. No inspectors will work at Uvas, Lexington, Chesbro and Vasona, and boats will not be allowed on these reservoirs, except for the paddle boats already at Vasona. Parks staff will enforce this ban.

Although the problem has been known since January, the upcoming Memorial Day holiday is looming as a hard deadline to get an inspection regime in place. Assuming the County Board of Supervisors votes to approve the plan on Tuesday the 20th, the Parks staff says that they are ready to begin on Friday the 23rd.

The problem, of course, is who is going to pay for it. The estimate from the Parks Department is that it will cost $550,000 for a pilot program that would run through the end of 2008. This includes a $300,000 contract for a private company to perform the inspections, as well as the extra labor costs associated with full staffing of the kiosks and launch ramps.

The Board was sharply divided on the issue of who should pay for the program. The master lease that governs the county’s use of the reservoirs says that the County shall indemnify the District for costs arising from that use. Directors Sanchez, Judge, Santos and Wilson were of the opinion that the water ratepayers should not be expected to pay for boaters’ use of the reservoirs. Director Estremera, in contrast, made a strong plea not to look at the issue in terms of “us versus them.” In the event, however, the Board voted 4-3 to approve the proposed inspection program and to put off the question of who will pay.

However, the issue that brought out the public was the proposed ban on boating until the inspection program can begin. Director Kamei was emphatic that our surface water supplies cannot be put at risk, and asked for a moratorium on boating until the inspection program begins. Director Sanchez wondered at the wisdom of applying a ban for the last 10 days of a period that started in January (a sentiment that seemed to be shared by the people in the audience) but the motion to ban boating until the inspection program is in place passed 4-3 (and the Mercury had an online story up about it before the meeting was even over.

Further discussion of the cost brought out the opinions that the inspection program should be self-financing, should give preference to County residents, and that, given the hoped-for one-time nature of the inspection, could be much more than $7.

It’s very unfortunate that miscommunication between the County and the District led to such a contentious place. The County made a big mistake in publicly assuming that the District will pay for the whole program. But I believe that the majority of the Board that says the District shouldn’t pay a dime is being too cavalier about the very real public benefit of public use of the reservoirs. I agree with Director Estremera’s plea for unity, and also with Directors Kamei’s and Wilson’s call for creativity in financing this very important program.

This is already pretty long, so I’ll cover the rest of the meeting in another post.