The working group was established on April 16 when Board President John Merchant secured approval to form the panel and appointed himself as chair. He named Operations Director Eric Houston and community members Janis Eckard and Jim Farrell to serve with him.

Their 12-page report highlighted problems with the 2024 draft water study, the most significant of which involved assumptions used to estimate water supplies for current residents and future development.

Although one director disagreed with the report’s findings, board members have agreed the community urgently needs a secondary water source: a need that, for now, could only be met through groundwater. The district has already hired Water System Consultants (WSC) to conduct a groundwater analysis, including a well-siting study.

The board covered a wide range of issues during the four-hour meeting. See separate stories for coverage of the district’s audit, two new staff hires and a round-up of other topics.

The 12-page document  – “Work Group Report: IWMP Questions, Issues and Findings and Recommended Next Steps & Guiding Principles to Advance Water Planning” – is available on the district’s website in the Aug. 20 board meeting packet. An audio recording of the meeting is also posted online.

Updating the IWMP became a focus in late 2022 when Rancho North updated its application for 697 lots with the county. (The number is now down to 561.)  The district’s request for proposals drew only one bid – a joint submission from Maddaus Water Management and Adkins Engineering – which the board approved in December 2022.

Based on certain assumptions and mitigation measures, principal consultant Lisa Maddaus concluded the community could meet both current and future water demands, with the exception of an extreme drought like the one in 1976 and 1977. Her analysis assumed the use of Lake Clementia as a drinking water source, expanded reliance on recycled water to reduce potable demand, irrigation of the golf courses with river water, increased reservoir storage through flashboards, and the development of multiple wells.

Save Our Lakes & Open Spaces, a community action group, along with Eckard, challenged those assumptions from the outset. While the board acknowledged the concerns, it took no major action until October 2024, when the 317-page draft report was completed. At that point, the board opened a 45-day review period and requested an outside technical review.

Progress stalled until January, when Houston advised against finalizing the IWMP, citing the plan’s lack of a clear path forward. He recommended that the district instead prepare an Urban Water Supply Plan, which will be required once the district reaches 3,000 water connections and becomes subject to state urban water supplier regulations.

Houston said he had asked Water System Consultants – who recently prepared an Urban Water Supply Plan and Water Vision report for the City of Folsom – to submit a scope of work for a similar plan for Rancho Murieta. The district has already contracted with Water System Consultants for a groundwater study and is expected to retain the firm to prepare the Urban Water Supply Plan once the state requirement takes effect.

Farrell, who worked in health care strategic planning before retiring, authored most of the report. During the meeting, he used slides to highlight the working group’s review of data accuracy and the assumptions underlying the study.

He noted many findings, but emphasized one key difference between the 2024 draft and earlier water studies from 2006, 2010 and 2016: for the first time, it identified a potential water supply shortage. 

“If we have a drought, we run out of water,” Farrell said. “That has never been said before in previous studies.”

Farrell also raised concerns about the water demand from newly entitled lots in the Riverview and Residences subdivisions. He also emphasized that the planning process must account for the full potential buildout by Rancho Murieta Properties, even though the investment group has withdrawn the lots around the back lakes from its Sacramento County application and has not submitted an application to develop the 39 acres adjacent to the CSD office.

Eckard, a licensed real estate broker, has been a community advocate since 2006. That year, she began questioning district water studies that repeatedly increased the number of homes claimed to be supported by the community’s water supply, even though the actual supply remained unchanged.

Speaking at the board meeting, Eckard said she wanted to respond to a comment made by Director Randy Jenco at the Improvements Committee. 

“You said that our report was simply making assumptions and that you preferred to rely on the experts,” she said.

Eckard said the working group relied on the “ultimate experts”: the California Department of Water Resources and the state Department of Health. Both agencies, she noted, had made it clear that the district could not use Lake Clementia as a source of drinking water because it is not permitted, nor could it rely on recycled water, which is not approved for residential use and lacks the necessary infrastructure for delivery. 

She added that flashboards also could not be considered a tool for planning future development.

“Last but not least, they said you cannot use conservation as a planning tool,” Eckard told the board. “In other words, a 50% usage reduction during drought conditions is too aggressive, and it places the community at risk of running out of water.”

Eckard said the second consultant, Dan Adkins, informed her during a town hall meeting that the disputed recycled water figures used in their study originated from the district itself.

Eckard also pointed to the district’s earlier history, noting that it modified its water supply reports after being sued by developers in 1989 and 1990. 

“The assumptions changed at that point,” she said. “They accepted the 50% usage reduction during drought conditions, and they also accepted the use of Clementia as a potable source of water. That is what brought it up to 1,000 more units.”

After Farrell and Eckard concluded their presentations, Merchant opened the floor for audience comments.

Carol Prinzo said she had previously urged the board to consider a temporary moratorium until the community’s water supply issues were resolved. 

“At the time, my request fell on deaf ears and nothing happened,” she said. “So the community took over and collected over 2,000 signatures… So where does the board stand today on a moratorium?”

Candy Hern addressed Directors Randy Jenco and Tim Maybee directly. 

“You both have stood in opposition to members of the community who have voiced concerns about the accuracy of the Rancho Murieta water supply and the study, without giving us facts and proof of why you have taken that position,” she said. “Will you please let the community review your facts and proof?”

Jenco, an engineer who serves as a director and sits on the Improvements Committee with Merchant, said he had better respond. He first asked whether the working group had involved Maddaus in its research. Merchant told him it had not.

Jenco said he disagreed with most of the conclusions in the working group’s report. 

“I think a lot of my problems with your report is that you didn’t get input from Maddaus,” he said. “I think you would have come up with a little bit different direction if you had her involvement, because you were working off the same template.”

Jenco added that he had spent considerable time reviewing the draft IWMP and submitted questions to Maddaus, who told him, “No. CSD won’t let me answer these. They want to answer them.” He said he never received answers to his questions “and wasn’t asked to be part of the working group for obvious reasons.”

Jenco pushed back on several of the working group’s assumptions, arguing it was unreasonable to say the district would never use recycled water for residential purposes and insisting there was no reason Lake Clementia could not be used once it is permitted.

Even so, Jenco said he was in full agreement that the district must secure a secondary water source. 

“I’m looking for a solution, and to get to a solution, how much water do we need?” he said.

In addition to serving as board president, Merchant has also been vice president of Save Our Lakes & Open Spaces since its formation in 2015. 

A retired businessman, he offered detailed comments during the discussion of the working group’s report and highlighted one key takeaway.

“If there is an accomplishment, either from Maddaus or from the working group, it is that I think we are somewhat comfortable at this point that we have a demand number that looks realistic,” Merchant said.

He also addressed the next steps in finalizing the draft Integrated Water Master Plan (IWMP) prepared by Maddaus and Adkins. 

“What we have to do about it is step two, and that is a WSC thing,” he said. “That’s one thing we have to clear up pretty quick; WSC won’t proceed until we close out the deal with Maddaus. So whatever the board decides to do, they are going to do. And then if we can get that done, we can proceed with WSC.”

Director Linda Butler and General Manager Houston also weighed in on the working group’s report, but Director Tim Maybee did not comment.