RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - The Rancho Murieta Community Services District may not be responsible for repairing four failed storm drain culverts at the Rancho Murieta Country Club, based on historical records.

The issue dominated the July 8 Improvements Committee meeting after staff uncovered a 1988 drainage master plan map indicating several golf course drainage culverts may never have been accepted by the district.

The committee also briefly discussed the Water Vision Subcommittee and related topics, but members delayed forwarding a proposal to the board to develop storm drain design standards for the district.

The investigation began after the country club reported sinkholes and failing culverts on North Course holes 14, 17, 8 and 3, along with South Course hole 1, prompting district staff to determine who owns the aging drainage system. Staff’s review found the culverts do not appear on district maps or as-built plans, leading employees to search historical records for evidence of ownership.

Utility Supervisor Corey Carskaddon said he recently discovered a June 1988 Storm Drainage and Flood Control Master Plan showing the drainage facilities were not identified as district facilities.

Interim General Manager Amelia Wilder said the district has found no permits, inspection records or acceptance documents showing it ever assumed ownership of the disputed pipes.

Chief Plant Operator Travis Bohannon said staff does not recommend the district assume responsibility for the repairs unless ownership can be established.

“There is no documentation stating that we’ve accepted those in any way, shape or form, and the cost of repairing those is going to be expensive,” Bohannon said.

Both committee members praised the staff’s research.

“I’d like to say, first of all, thank you to Corey. I think you’re doing a great job of discovery here,” Director Bill Gere said.

Director Randy Jenco added, “Great job of digging this out.”

The directors agreed that additional research is needed and that the issue could ultimately require legal review before responsibility for the drainage system can be determined.

Gere directed staff to invite all interested parties to participate before the issue returns to the Improvements Committee next month.

“We need to find all the documents,” Gere said, adding that interested parties should have an opportunity to present any records supporting their positions before the issue reaches the board.

One of those parties is Country Club General Manager Eric Dutton. He attended the meeting after being invited by district staff and said the club would search its own files.

“The records over at the Country Club are admittedly atrocious,” Dutton said, explaining that decades of construction records have not been well organized, making it difficult to locate documents that could help determine ownership of the drainage facilities.

“Just like you guys are doing, we are making a lot of hard decisions, trying to get the most out of the least amount of money,” Dutton added. “Working together is definitely a good thing.”

Dutton said discussions should also include the golf course owners (the Carol Anderson Ward Investment Group) because the club is the tenant leasing the property. During the discussion, it was also noted that Jeff Pearson already represents the golf course owners.

The committee also discussed the sinkhole on the South Course’s first fairway in more depth.

Unlike the other failing culverts, this location could trigger additional environmental monitoring requirements because it discharges into the Cosumnes River.

Carskaddon said Caltrans’ original Jackson Highway plans from the 1950s show the area was designed as an open drainage channel rather than a culvert. At some point, however, a pipe was installed that has since failed, but neither Caltrans nor the district has documentation showing who made the modification.

Because the culvert discharges into the Cosumnes River, staff is determining whether it must be added to the district’s municipal stormwater permit as an additional monitored outfall, which could increase annual monitoring costs.

The committee directed staff to continue researching ownership of the drainage facilities, work with the country club and other interested parties to gather additional documentation and return with an update at its next meeting.

During public comment, Rancho Murieta Properties representative Jeff Pearson, who is also a member of the Water Vision Ad Hoc Committee, questioned why several key water planning issues had disappeared from the committee’s agenda or appeared to have stalled. He noted the committee’s June meeting ended with plans to condense the Water Vision Working Group matrix and continue the discussion in July, but no update was scheduled. The matrix is a planning chart identifying what needs to be done, who is responsible and when each task should be completed to increase the water supply.

Pearson also reminded Gere that he had previously said (in May) he had taken it upon himself to search for a site for a third emergency water storage tank, saying Rancho North remained willing to discuss potential locations but had not been contacted. He also asked for an update on questions submitted to the district’s water attorney.

Pearson concluded by asking Gere to bring him up to speed, but received no response. Directors have a standard practice of not responding to issues raised during the public comment agenda item, but they have the option to do so.

However, Jenco said he shared Pearson’s concerns, noting the draft agenda had included both a Water Vision Working Group update and a discussion between water consultants Lisa Maddaus and Jim Farrell on the Integrated Water Management Plan before both items were removed from the final agenda.

Wilder said the discussion with Maddaus was removed because there was no update. A confusing dialogue ensued, indicating that Wilder and Gere took the Water Vision group off the agenda because no further work had been completed on the matrix.

In the director comments at the end of the meeting, Jenco said Gere had been adamant that anything involved with the Water Vision group must go through Improvements.  

“It’s got to be an agenda item at every Improvements Committee meeting because it is at the top of things that the community services district should be working on, in my opinion,” he said.

Storm Drain Standards

The Improvements Committee discussed a $19,092 proposal from Domenichelli & Associates to develop the district’s first stormwater quality design standards. Engineer Joe Domenichelli said the standards would give developers and district staff clear guidance for complying with state MS4 stormwater regulations while limiting acceptable design options to systems suited to Rancho Murieta and practical for the district to maintain, rather than relying on the much broader Sacramento and Placer County standards. The committee decided to review the proposal again at the next meeting before sending it to the board.