Open Letter to Paul Sensibaugh, General Manager of MHCSD
The 2002 Environmental Impact Report seems to indicate that MHCSD recycled water is necessary for the operation of the plant. In that report, the CEC first considered a scenario where the EAEC would only use the Byron Bethany Irrigation District’s (BBID) water. They concluded that BBID’s water supply alone is insufficient to meet the needs of both the plant and BBID’s other customers:
Page 5.14-20:
“When EAEC’s proposed raw water demand is added to BBID’s other demand projections, staff finds that there is insufficient fresh (raw) water supplies to serve all of BBID’s demands as early as 2010 and thereafter for essentially the balance of the life of the project (the next 25 years) for both average and peak annual.”
The bold emphasis is mine. The report goes on to state in the final paragraph of this section:
“This effect is in conflict with CEQA guidelines as specified under Appendix G – Environmental Checklist Form, Section XVI – Utilities and Service Systems, posing the question, “(w)ould the project: d) Have sufficient water supplies available to serve the project from existing entitlements and resources, or are new or expanded entitlements needed”? Because BBID may be overcommitted in the near future, it is likely that without maximum use of local recycled water there would not be enough water to serve EAEC and BBID’s other customers. This would then result in significant adverse impacts to water supplies and to other users of this supply.”
Bold emphasis mine. The next section goes into how they can use MHCSD water (the local recycled water referenced above) to get around this deficiency. Now, apparently, MHCSD did agree to supply this water. Without prejudging the nature of his involvement, I have queried Paul Sensibaugh, the General Manager of MHCSD, for his thoughts on the matter. The letter I have sent him via email is show below. I will be sharing any response I get from him.
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Mr. Sensibaugh,
This is an open letter that I am sharing with the residents of the community.
I am a resident of Mountain House and am gathering information on the issue of the proposed EAEC plant. As I understand, MHCSD sent a letter of intent in 2002 to the CEC to supply recycled water to EAEC should it be built. I have seen your name as involved in some manner in those negotiations in the CEC documents.
According to my reading of the 2002 EIR, the use of MHCSD supplied recycled water is a precondition of the permitting of the plant, as the Byron Bethany District - after some initial claims to the contrary by EAEC, but rejected by CEC - does not by itself have sufficient capacity to supply the plant going forward, c.f. Section “Raw Water Supply” beginning on page 5.14-16 in the Water and Soil Resources section of the 2002 EIR.
Speaking for myself, I am concerned that by agreeing to supply such water, MHCSD has potentially enabled the construction of what will be a serious detriment to the desirability of our community.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter about which many residents are now deeply concerned, as we become more aware of the nature and scope of this proposed power plant project. As this is an open letter, be aware that I do intend to share your response with our residents on the internet so we can all come to a clearer understanding of the situation.
Thanks,
Robert W. Anderson
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