By Mary-Justine Lanyon
Following concerns expressed at last month’s meeting of the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District board of directors about the inspection and maintenance of hydrants, LACSD is meeting with County Fire representatives.
Operations Manager Matt Brooks said he reached out to Chief Jason Serrano to schedule a meeting. “We will meet and share information,” Brooks said. “They have been getting a lot of questions and concerns like we heard last month. We will see if there are any opportunities for improvements on both sides. We’ll look into training together.”
Brooks added he hopes this will be the first of several meetings and that they can establish an ongoing working relationship.
In his monthly report, Brooks said consumption in January 2025 was up slightly over January 2024: 67.74 acre-feet versus 64.48 a-f. Lake draw was down: 47.10 a-f compared to 54.54 a-f. Well production was down – 9.00 a-f versus 14.42 a-f – because a couple of wells are offline. Brooks said they hoped to get Well #5 up in a day or so. In January 2025, LACSD purchased 12.40 a-f of CLAWA water, compared to none last January.
The storm that took place on Feb. 13 and 14 yielded 7.2 inches of rain in 24 hours, Brooks reported. “We only had a few minor issues,” he said, adding they had staff at the treatment plants overnight. “Hats off to them,” Brooks said. “The reason we did so well is because of the work done throughout the year when the weather is good.”
In his report, Finance Manager John O’Brien said the current cost for the new corporate yard sits at $7.3 million; it was budgeted at $6.3 million. When Vice President Steve Boydston asked how much more the district would be spending, O’Brien estimated $150,000.
“Things cost a lot of money,” Boydston said. “Nothing goes down in price, especially building materials and wages. We’ll have a good place that will last for years.”
Later in the meeting – after Brooks detailed the work being done in house by district staff – Boydston said the ratepayers don’t realize how much money in-house work saves the district. “It’s an immense savings to the ratepayers,” he said. And, he added, “we do it right the first time.”
Reporting on the PFAS results of the quarterly blended treated sample, Brooks said they are happy with the blending. Staff met with the N2W design team; they hoped to see the 90-percent design later that week. The PFAS results are on the LACSD website: www.lakearrowheadcsd.com.
Ratepayer Michael Schultz wondered if the Arrowhead Lake Association has done any mitigation to help LACSD with PFAS in the lake. “Will ALA or LACSD determine what will be allowed in the lake?” he asked. “Is there something LACSD and ALA can institute where it dampens putting PFAS material in the lake?”
“I don’t think LACSD has any jurisdiction to tell people what they can do on the lake,” President John Wurm replied. “What we are doing is making sure the drinking water is within standards. You would have to ask ALA what they are doing.”
Boydston added he had gone down to the lake after the February storm and was surprised at all the trash in the lake. “You have never seen so much plastic trash in the water,” he said. “Water bottles, plastic bags, people’s trash. When you put your trash out on Sunday and they pick it up on Tuesday, everything ends up in the lake. It was disgusting to look at. It’s up to the residents – watch what you do with your trash.”
The board approved a project to slipline approximately 1,015 linear feet of pipe. Engineering Manager Scott Schroder said that Field Operations staff had discovered the issues during routine maintenance. The project is part of the district’s ongoing efforts to improve its aging wastewater collection system and manage inflow and infiltration.
“This is a smaller project within a larger project,” Schroder said.
The board also approved the procurement of materials to replace and upsize the piping, gate valves and appurtenances between the valve house and percolation ponds in Hesperia from eight-inch to 12-inch diameter. This upsizing will relieve a bottleneck and increase the available capacity of flow from the Grass Valley wastewater treatment plant to the Hesperia percolation ponds.
Schroder estimated that, by doing the work in-house, LACSD will save approximately $500,000.
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