Budget Crisis in California = Water Project Crisis (CentralCoast)

Jan.11, 2009 in Drought, Water Conservation, Water Crisis, Water Industry, Water Management

(Jan. 11, 2009, Central Coast)

The water fountain at Pacific Elementary School has been turned off for years, school administrators say, and there’s concern it won’t operate anytime soon.

The school and the rest of the Davenport community are awaiting a $1.7 million overhaul of the town’s water treatment system. But the improvements, needed before the faucets can freely flow again, have joined the growing list of projects on hold because of the state budget stalemate.

That leaves students at the elementary school continuing to drink water from coolers, and residents in the community with an advisory to boil their water before drinking it during certain times of the year.

“We’re frustrated,” said Noel Garin Bock, who works at the school and chairs the town’s community association. “The upgrade has been years and years in the making, and we don’t want to delay further.”

County officials report that money has dried up for several dozen water projects because of the state financial crisis. The work was supposed to be funded by Proposition 50 and three other voter-approved financing measures, but because the governor and Legislature have yet to adopt a budget, the money has been frozen.

Other projects that have lost funding include the relocation of sewer mains at New Brighton and Seacliff state beaches, a $2 million plan to move wells in Soquel to avoid seawater intrusion and an expansion of Scotts Valley’s recycled-water lines. The list goes on.

Last week, similar funding cuts forced the county’s Resource Conservation District to temporarily shut down, halting several smaller erosion-control and land-restoration projects in the area.While state money is vital for all the work to continue, some can withstand delays better than others. The Davenport facility isn’t one of them.

“A good chunk of that work is scheduled for this year. If it delays too long we won’t be able to hit this construction season,” said John Ricker, the county’s water resources director.

Project managers, who expected to have the new Davenport facility running by next winter, are already talking about the following winter for completion.

State Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, didn’t know how long state money would be withheld for public projects. But the first-year lawmaker, who has been busy with budget negotiations, said Democratic legislators were doing their best to devise a healthy spending plan that Republicans and the governor could agree to, and hence end the funding freeze.

“The sooner the better,” he said, acknowledging the pain was “no longer theoretical” but “real.”

Back in Davenport, 27-year resident Roberta Smith says she continues to drink from the tap whether or not the upgrades come to the community’s water facility. But, she says, she’s become increasingly conscious of the risk.

The system overhaul was mandated when the state tightened standards for the parasites giardia and cryptosporidium, which can infect humans and make them ill.

“I do think there are things that could be present in the water,” Smith said. “I would rather have it treated.”