Sea. Weaverville Community Services District*

Recommendations 5

• R1
  All Water Providers should examine their minutes, resolutions, bylaws, charters, enabling legislation, and statutes to determine what authority they have, if any, to sell or otherwise provide water to any person or property that is not within the boundaries served by the provider. If these practices do not comply, Water Providers should take immediate steps to change their practices to reflect this Recommendation. Response #1: As a Water Provider, we are faced with challenges on a daily and seasonal basis. We are continually challenged with changes in laws and regulations on a wide variety of issues including water rights. We must also be aware of supply and regulation issues caused by droughts such as the Governor's emergency regulations of 2015 and 2016 restricting the District's management of our own resources. The District is well aware of our Water Rights and obligations to our District residents. However, at the request of the Jury, we will conduct a review of our authorities pertaining to supplying water within and beyond our District boundaries.
• R2
  All Water Providers should meet with County officers and elected officials to examine and resolve the conflicting customs and practices described in this report regarding sale and transportation of bulk water for agricultural purposes. Response #2 Special Districts are specifically designed to run independently from other agencies in order to ensure efficient and prudent attention to the main goal of that District. Each water provider has unique characteristics as to business structure, water supplies, and regulations among many other variables. Overall management of practices by all systems would defeat the purpose of this successful structure. The success of any public water system requires a great amount of attention to the local characteristics, which cannot be achieved efficiently at such a broad level. The Districts would warn that what might seem like a reasonable restriction to one purveyor, could be a devastating blow to another, causing a collapse of the once successful public water system. Any attempt to provide oversight shall be extremely broad in nature and afford each system the ability to continue operations fitting to their circumstances.
• R5
  The Grand Jury recommends that the Trinity County Board of Supervisors and all Water Providers in the Trinity County take prompt action to establish goals that include sustainability and recognize water sustainability as a specific goal. Response #5 As a community water supplier, the implication of a lack of concern for water sustainability could be taken offensively. Needless to say, water sustainability is the utmost concern for all water systems. Our District strives to ensure sustainability for water supply today and in the future by balancing current demands with ecological needs. To date, we have never allowed our agencies to fully deplete our supplies during changes in land use at the County level, enactment of new state laws, and application of new propositions as well as severe droughts current and past. Our District has water shortage policies in place to deal with these challenging times and are prepared to implement them when necessary. The District is willing to educate parties on how our operations have evolved over the decades while maintaining this vital resource.
• R6
  The Grand Jury Recommends that the Trinity County Board of Supervisors and all Water Providers and all stakeholders assign a high priority to and participate in conducting a county wide study of carrying capacity. The study should also consider additional public and private water storage opportunities. Response #6 The District would be willing to participate in the portion of a county wide study that pertains to water availability within the District boundary. Care must be taken to avoid expending District funds studying portions of the County that will not relate to District activity. Such activities would be a misappropriation of District funds.
• R8
  All the Water Providers should examine their minutes, resolutions, bylaws, charters, enabling legislation and statutes regarding open meeting and public records. If they do not comply they should take immediate steps to change their practices. Response #8 We thank the Jury for this recommendation and will take appropriate action in conjunction with the previous Response #1.