By Mary-Justine Lanyon
Editor
After 19 years of service to the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District, Steve Keefe resigned from the board due to other commitments. At the Oct. 22 meeting of the board, General Manager Catherine Cerri thanked Keefe for his dedicated service.
Cerri expressed her thanks to Keefe for his support of the staff and his “ability to keep the best interest of the district at the forefront.”
Two candidates to fill the vacated position presented themselves at the Nov. 12 meeting: Jacqueline Brown and Anthony Diones.
Brown told the board members who were present – President John Wurm, Vice President Steve Boydston and Bruce Reynolds – that she is a 37-year mountain resident who recently retired. She had worked as an administrative assistant with Special Districts, for a general contractor and for a trucking company. As such, she noted, she has had a lot experience with contracts.
When asked why she wants to be on the board, Brown said she felt she could help with her skills.
Diones said he had served on the Alpine Water board for a while and enjoyed it. He came up to the mountain in 1978 and never went back to the beach. Initially, he noted, he would be an observer on the board, get a feel for what is important. He also said he had had a lot of experience dealing with contracts.
President Wurm moved to appoint Jacqueline Brown to the board; that was seconded by Reynolds. All three directors approved her appointment.
Executive Assistant Marisa Meads then swore Brown in and she took her seat.
Operations Manager Matt Brooks gave the monthly report on water delivery. Consumption in October 2024 was up 20.3 percent when compared to October 2023. Through the first 10 months of 2024, consumption was up 5.5 percent with 1117.31 acre-feet drawn from Lake Arrowhead, compared to 1058.69 a-f the first 10 months of 2023.
Lake draw in October was down compared to 2023 – 62.92 a-f compared to 76.60 a-f – because LACSD has been purchasing more CLAWA water. Through the first 10 months of 2024, the total CLAWA purchase was 302.35 a-f compared to 39.06 a-f in the first 10 months of 2023. LACSD is taking more CLAWA water in order to blend it with Lake Arrowhead water and reduce the amount of PFAS in the water.
In his PFAS report, Brooks said the district met with the N2W design team to discuss options for construction of the new building at the Bernina water treatment plant, which is required to house the new PFAS treatment vessels and equipment. The district also received a design submittal for the Cedar Glen water treatment plant PFAS treatment system from N2W Engineering.
“The design is going well,” Brooks said. “We are excited with the team.”
LACSD had taken and submitted a treated blended sample from Bernina. The results came back lower than the California response level.
At Bernina, he said, they are currently blending 100 gallons per minute. They had been blending 200 gallons a minute but demand dropped off with the end to irrigation season.
When Garin Vartanian, attending online, asked if Battelle had produced a final report on where the PFAS contamination was coming from, Brooks said the district moved forward without a full signature analysis “because we were informed the PFAS levels were not high enough to do that analysis, to come up with an accurate conclusion. That’s what Battelle informed us. We were told we are on the lower end of PFAS levels.”
LACSD is subject to a cease-and-desist order by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board and must annually report its efforts to remediate inflow and infiltration (I&I) problems in its sewer system.
Field Operations Manager Nathan Porter presented information on the district’s efforts to achieve the desired goal. “We send guys out during storm events to open manholes and find the causes of I&I,” he said. They have been rehabbing manholes – raising, adjusting and rehabilitating 165 manholes – and slip lining pipes. They have replaced sewers where necessary.
“We are confident,” Porter said, “we can achieve the 2026 standards.”
To date, reported General Manager Catherine Cerri, the district has provided 126 rebates for PFAS filters.
The board approved the purchase of a new dump truck, which will replace a 36-year-old truck that has exceeded its useful life. The cost is projected to be just over $334,000. Vartanian referred the board to a website where a similar truck could be obtained for a lower cost. Cerri said they will look at that possibility.
Directors Boydston and Reynolds both commented on the excellent response they had had to recent calls to LACSD. The employees showed up at their homes and did a very professional job, the directors said.
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