RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Infrastructure issues that included two broken pipes and insufficient storage in the community’s water tanks were topics when the Rancho Murieta Community Services District Improvements Committee met on July 2.

Acting operations manager Travis Bohannon updated the committee about an emergency repair to a sewer lift station and the discovery that a pipe that conveys raw water from the Cosumnes River to Calero Reservoir was probably broken. Bohannon said the break must be located and repaired before Nov. 1 so the district can pump water from the river into the reservoirs. 

The committee also continued a discussion from its June meeting about the need for more water tank storage to serve development. The immediate concern is that the Rio Oso Tank might not have enough water storage to serve the Residences East and West subdivision under construction next to Stonehouse Park.  

The Improvements Committee comprises two board directors, Martin Pohll and Randy Jenco, both engineers; Bohannon; General Manager Mimi Morris and other district staff. The committee looks at infrastructure issues in depth and makes recommendations to the entire board. The district’s contract engineer, Joe Domenichelli, also participated in the June and July discussions about water storage.  However, developer Bob Keil didn’t attend the July meeting because he was ill. 

Lift station 

Bohannon said the problem with the 6A Lift Station at the end of De La Cruz Drive surfaced on June 12 when an employee discovered a minor sewer leak. Staff determined that the sewage was spilling from a manhole outside of the lift station. After the leak was stopped, a camera inspection showed that the pipe from the manhole to the wet well in the lift station had broken. 

Although the district didn’t have the right equipment or sufficient manpower to fix the problem in-house, it had a master service agreement with TNT Industrial Contractors for emergency repairs. 

“It took about two-and-a-half days to get it done because it was deeper than was originally expected,” Bohannon reported. “So the total came out to $18,674.”

Conveyance Pipe

Bohannon said the issue with the pipe that conveys raw water from the river to Calero Reservoir was discovered after resident Roger Brandt reported a potential leak in the Lake Clementia spillway on June 20. The spillway is about 400 feet from the dam.  

“Since we were not pumping anymore, I closed the valve at Calero Lake so we wouldn’t lose any more water flowing backward and it did stop the leak,” Bohannon said.

Water was discovered coming up along a concrete slab in the spillway, mostly likely from the pipe underneath it. Although there is a manhole near the pipe, it partially blocked the inspection plate. Nor is the manhole big enough for a worker to burn off the bolts. Bohannon said TNT would come with an excavator to remove the manhole to make a camera inspection.

“Once we identify the problem, we will get a bid packet together to do the actual repair,” Bohannon said. “This is not an emergency but we have to get it done before November so we can pump…It could be extremely expensive, depending on what we find.”

Water Tanks

The community has two water tanks. The pressurized Rio Oso Tank, which holds 1.2 million gallons, serves 800 homes north of the second Guadalupe Drive. It has also been designated as the water tank for the Residences and for the 116-lot Village H in the proposed Rancho North subdivision. The 3,000,000-gallon Van Vleck Tank uses a gravity system to serve the remainder of the community. 

Water tank capacity first emerged as a significant development issue at the committee’s June meeting. The most immediate concern was that the Rio Oso Tank, which has been draining quickly, might not have enough capacity to serve the first phase of the Residences subdivision with 68 lots, much less the 130 lots in the second phase.  

Bohannon began the July discussion by reporting that Residences developer Bob Keil emailed the district on June 20 asking for district approval of his improvement plans for phase 1 so he could get a permit from Sacramento County to finish grading a wetlands area, with the understanding that water tank storage was yet to be resolved. Bohannon said that Domenichelli was reluctant to sign off because of the pending water issue. Because Morris was on vacation, Board President Tim Maybee instructed Bohannon to instruct the engineer to sign off on the plans.  Domenichelli did so three days later.

Jenco said he and Maybee both discussed Keil’s request to continue grading. 

“We didn’t see any downside allowing them to get into the wetlands with the caveat that it wasn’t an approval of their water tank issue or approving their water plans,” he said.

Jenco then asked Domenichelli about the status of the Rio Oso Tank. The engineer responded that his analysis wasn’t much further along than at the June meeting. That was the case, although he plugged three years of water usage records and water plant production data into a model developed by the Integrated Water Master Plan consultants but still encountered too many unknowns.

“All we have now are our water tank levels. We don’t know how much water is coming in and how much water is going out because there are no flow meters in the tank,” the engineer said.

At the June meeting, Bohannon said flow meters weren’t installed when the Rio Oso Tank was upgraded some years ago. They could be installed after the fact, Bohannon said, but 800 customers would have to go without water for a day.

Domenichelli said the model shows an unlimited amount of water going into the tank when it starts to empty and water levels drop quite a bit in the morning.

Bohannon confirmed that was the case. 

“So like yesterday, we actually hit low-level alarms just on the irrigation without the development pulling any water,” Bohannon said. “I don’t know how much the heat wave is contributing because this morning Van Vleck is dropping like a rock…which is very unusual this time of year.” 

Bohannon said he would increase water plant production to see if it would help with tank water levels, although his options are limited. The older Plant 2 was currently producing 1.7 million gallons per day, Bohannon said, but he would increase it to 2.7 million gallons. However, because of the manganese problem in the summer, he is limiting production at the newer Plant 1 to only 1 million gallons, which is how much water can be pre-treated. 

Although Plant I has a far greater capacity, increasing production would result in safe but brown drinking water as happened in 2019.

Domenichelli estimated that water demand from the first 68 Residences lots probably would drop the tank level less than a foot if lawns were barred in the subdivision. 

“I would like to see that in writing or in an ordinance that says they are not going have lawn watering,” Domenichelli said.

Domenichelli also reported that a plan by the development engineer to use the Van Vleck tank as a backup for the 68 lots wasn’t going to work.

Further discussion covered a myriad of other related water issues without any resolution. 

Near the end of the meeting, Morris pointed out that the water distribution system was never mentioned in the two financial services agreements with the developers. 

“So we are sort of on new territory in this,” Morris said.

Morris also proposed documenting the agreement allowing Keil to continue grading. 

“I think it would be beneficial if I drafted a letter that would rein him in a little bit on what authority was given to him by Tim until this water tank capacity issue is resolved,” Morris said.

Pohll and Jenco liked her suggestion.