Area Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the East Region Town Hall meeting for May 6th. It's 4:00. We're at the Moose Lodge in Clear Lake Oaks. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. We'll start with a roll call of board members. Um Angela Emerald, present. Lori Korea, present. Holly Harris here. Donna Makowitz here. Sterling Woman here.

Thank you. All right. Next, we'll move on to public input. Public input is up to three minutes per citizen to discuss any item that is within the committee's jurisdiction and that is not on the agenda for this evening. Um, if you can go up to the podium, there's a podium in the back. And if anybody has any public input, when do you start? Okay. Seeing no public input, we'll move right along to approving the Earth minutes from April 1st, 2026. I I have a motion. I have a motion to approve the minutes. I have a sec. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed?

All right. Wonderful. So, we're going to shift. Which one do you want to move? The food donations. Okay. So, we're going to shift one item up um before our guest speaker just because of a time constraint and it's going to be the food donations. Um did you want to speak on that one? Lisa was Where is Lisa? Do you want to speak on the food donations? Lisa, if you can just state your name for those that don't know you.

Oh, and turn it on. There we go. Hi everyone. Uh Lisa Marie Benvdas. I am an Upper Lake resident also on the town hall um in Upper Lake and the president of the Bach Valley Range. And I'm here tonight to talk to you guys about a simple gesture, a simple gesture. I am the new administrator for the Northshore chapter. Um if you are not familiar with Simple Gesture, it is a monthly food donation program. There's a couple of really awesome facts about it. One, all of the food that's donated in Northshore goes right back to Northshore. The second thing is that it's a monthly donation that it's very minimal work for the donors. So, all you do is on the first Saturday of the month, you fill a bag up of non-p perishable or shelf shelf stable food. You put it on your porch and then we have other volunteers that drive by and pick it up. When we pick that up, um, we give you another bag so that next month you just fill that bag up. Uh, and then we take it to food pantries in Northshore. We take it to the Nice Community Baptist Church in uh, Nice and the Lassern um, B or the Lutheran Church in um, Lassern. Um, what the other cool thing is that if you sign up, you don't have to it's not like a a monthly commitment that you're you have to worry about or stress about. If uh about a week before and then a day before um you'll get a reminder email that and you can sign up for text as well and you can say I can't do it this month. I'm out of town or I I don't have it in me or whatever reason. Um and we skip skip that donation. No worries, no hassle, no nothing. So, I wanted to make sure we shared that information out. Um, the Northshore chapter does need more donors. That is one of the challenges that we're facing is that other um chapters around the lake have significantly more donors than the

Northshore. So, that is our big drive right now. If you are interested in signing up and becoming a donor, you just go to join sg.org. Very simple process, takes less than two minutes. Um, so I just wanted to make sure I came out and shared that information with you. You can contact me. Um, if you have any questions. Um, everyone has my phone number, but you can also find me on Facebook. Um, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you at the next one. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. And we'll also put the information up on the Earth website. Um, okay. Yeah, if you could send us the flyer, that would be Yes, I can do that.

Great. Thank you. All right. So, we'll move on to our guest speaker for this evening is e uh it's going to be Carter Jessup from the EPA for the Sulfur Bank Mercury Mine project. Um he's going to present an overview of the EPA's upcoming cleanup plans, including the history, schedule, community impacts, and potential business job training opportunities. Thank you. Welcome, Jessup. Again, Hey everybody, thanks for bearing with me with my incredibly slow computer here just for a second. All right. Uh, I appreciate your time. Uh, thanks for having me out to update you on the progress on the cleanup design for the Sulfur Bank Mercury Mine project.

So, just first of all, just an outline of what we'll be sharing. Uh we do have uh fact sheets in the back that hopefully you were able to grab on your way in that uh contain some similar information. Obviously going to more details on a couple specific things here today. Um wanted to give you some some background, give you an update on where things stand, talk about potential uh benefits and impacts of the project and uh then just quickly also update you on the other aspects of the site uh progress that's being made on the Clear Lake um and the North Wetlands portions of the site. if the slides will advance. Oops. All at once. All right. So, just uh I probably don't need to tell anyone here where this site is. Uh but it's on the terminal end of the oaks arm of Clear Lake. Uh Sulfurank Mine operated from the 1865 to 1957. They were mining for primarily mercury uh in the form of cineabar ore. Uh in the 20s they switched to open pit mining. Previous to that, it was underground mining. Uh, and in so doing spread about 3 million tons of mercury arsenic and antimony contaminated mine waste across the 200 acre mine site. The site is geothermally active. It's part of the clear volcanic field. That's why the ore body was there. That's why the mercury was there. And that is a natural condition that is still there today. And one of the big challenges that we're trying to contend with contend with contend with with as we are trying to uh clean up the site. Uh the site was added to the super fund list in 1990 um primarily due to impacts the mine was having on the Eli Indian community uh which is immediately adjacent to the mine site as well as the impacts of the mine on Clear Lake. Um it's the reason why Clear Lake has a mercury uh advisory for fish consumption. Um the site EPA has studied the site extensively in the time since it was listed. We've also implemented a number of emergency cleanup actions. Um but in 2023 we

issued our final cleanup decision for the basically the onland portion of the site. Um so not not the lake, not the wetland, but the the the main mine site and the residential soils that were contaminated nearby. Uh that that remedy is uh approximately $94 million and that's what we're designing to uh implement. Now, um, speaking of protecting Clear Lake, obviously the the purpose of this action, the most fundamental part purpose of this action is to protect Clear Lake. And so, it's an overriding uh principle of the action is how do we make sure that Clear Lake and its resources are being protected. It would defeat the whole purpose if in the course of implementing the action, we caused uh undue impacts to Clear Lake and its resources. So kind of the fundamental principle in um mine site remediation is you want to keep clean water clean and dirty water dirty. You segregate the water. Um so there's uh an effort to the water that flows into the the pit. Herman empoundment is primarily geothermal groundwater. It's natural groundwater. Um keeping that water from interacting with mine waste on its way to the lake is one of the fundamental principles. Likewise any once we start excavating and exposing mine waste to the elements that contact water can't be allowed to reach Clear Lake. And so we've got a lot of efforts related to management of water on site to protect Clear Lake. Uh so you know kind of the old adage of how do you uh eat an elephant or something? How how do we how do we go about um implementing this action? It's too much to try to execute in a single construction season. It's more than we can fund in a single construction season. So, we've broken down the project into four major phases. And each phase, the benefit of of phasing it is we can really prioritize that protection of Clear Lake. We can try to minimize our disruption to the local community. We can learn by doing. Uh as we as we go

incrementally through the action, we can kind of address the things that uh for for instance, the geothermal I mentioned. Um we've got a lot of geothermal gas that's coming out through the site, especially on the north side. So we're starting on the south side where we just have a bit of geothermal gas to deal with and we can learn by doing as we implement phase by phase. So what do the phases look like? Um we've got four main phases as I mentioned as and is is shown on that fact sheet. Um starting late this summer fall we'll be doing the residential portion of the action. I'll talk about what exactly that entails soon. Uh the next phase will be the the the blue area there to the to the south of of Herman empalment. um the whole southern side of Herman empowerment is is the next part of the action and then uh following that will be the north and the west portions of of the mine site and honestly what's in step three and step four might shift around um but what's in step one and step two is pretty pretty well established at this point. So zooming on on those because that's where we have the most clarity and where those stand in the process. So, the residential cleanup um EPA already implemented an emergency cleanup action on the Elim Indian colony in actually two um in the in the 90s and then again in 2006 that address the majority of the contamination there. Um but we're returning to finish the work. We've got 10 residential properties, three tribal use areas that that don't have um homes or structures on them. We've got a waste pile that unfortunately the Bureau of Indian Affairs placed on the shoreline of Clear Lake on the Ilimian colony. Um and then we are exploring our local soil borrow uh opportunities to the south of the mine as part of this first phase. Kind of piloting that to make sure that that's going to work for the for the large action. Uh the design on all of that is complete. It's out for contract acquisition right now. We actually have the bid uh but we're evaluating bids right now. Uh aiming all uh for groundbreaking in September. Worst case

gets pushed to October. um about 20 weeks of of activity is expected to complete that that first step. Um step two is where things really scale up. So about 5,000 6,000 cubic yards total earth work for step one. Pretty small relative to what's coming. Uh we've got about 590,000 cubic yards. A a ton of earth and a a cubic yards are similar. Um so about 590,000 tons of earth work over 15 months is what we're talking about for on mine phase one. Uh we're taking the um east or pile, west or pile, west waist rock pile, tailings pile and the southern portion of the waist rock dam consolidating all of that material down into a single waste management unit and then capping it with a cover similar to what they use on landfills. um to the the whole principle again is to exclude keep water and oxygen away from this material. The the the mine waste at the site is highly acid generating and once the water becomes acidic it dissolves metals out of the rock and then those metals go into hermit empment and then hermit empowerment flows to clear lake and that's how the contamination leaves the site. So, uh, right now we're at the 60% design level for this, uh, uh, on onmine the first portion of the onmine cleanup. Um, 90 is targeted for June, end of June. Uh we're in the midst of heavy civil, geotechnical, storm water, air modeling, road work, biological assessments, uh figuring out our materials handling, where are we getting what materials where, how are we sequencing the activity, all of that is going full tilt right now with our lead engineering firm, uh Jacob's Engineering is is who's leading that work. Uh this is targeting groundbreaking in September of 2027. So if everything goes according to plan, we're basically doing one phase per year and it'll take us roughly four years. I think realistically the way these things go, five years at least, I think is a fair assumption. But we're

trying to be aggressive on pushing the schedule because without a deadline, things just don't get done. So trying to visualize, you know, it's hard to get your head around moving 500,000 cubic yards of material. Um, so this is an aerial of the site looking kind of up the hill. The ridge uh at the top of the image, that's the ridge going over to Clear Lake. And this is Sulfurbank Drive along the west. Sorry, my laser pointer's dead. Oh, no, it's not. There you go. Uh, that's Sulurbank Drive going up the side. Um, so looking uh south west in this image. Um, that's the site in the middle and this is what we're talking about for the first phase of the onmine work. Um, so we are excavating excavating material here, excavating material here, here, here, and here, and bring it all into one large final waste cell. Um, one thing that's pretty different about this first phase of the work is because of the sequence of the action, we don't have much space or much material available. We're trying to keep as much, actually speaking to community impacts, I'll get there in a second, but we're trying to keep as much of the activity required for this on site as possible. So, we're importing as little as possible. We're still unfortunately importing a tremendous amount of material because it's just such a large project, but trying to keep it all enclosed uh means that we don't have much space for this initial phase of the action. What that means is that rather than doing a permanent vegetative cover on top of the landfill cap, this is going to be an alternative cover that's rock. Uh so, it'll be cover kind of armored with rock at the end of the action. Um so, again, trying to visualize that. This is kind of an aerial. Here's uh in the foreground is the clear oaks water treatment facility to give you a sense of what it might look like. We're a bit above ground. You won't actually see it quite that well from from this perspective, but just want to give a sense of what that looks like across the lake. Um environmental remediation is all about trade-offs. You don't you can't clean up a site like this without

causing some impact. And so obviously you aim to make that impact uh be in proportion to the benefit that you're that you're realizing. um related to that kind of on each of these categories we've got an impact and then we're talk I can talk about what we're doing to try to mitigate that impact make that manage that impact so the site it it looks heavily wooded today as if we go back to the image I had at the beginning of the open pit during the mining days it was not vegetated they they moved earth around all across the site and so the trees have moved in naturally and are rooted in mine waste it's kind of incredible that they are so resilient that they can tolerate growing in pH2 to water and yet they do. Um, but we can't excavate and consolidate the waste piles without removing the vegetation. And so just for the that that initial online phase, the the step two on the fact sheet, we're talking about removing about 3500 mature trees. Um, not something we want to have to do, but not something we have the option not to do if we want to execute this project. Um, we are aiming to reuse those trees in whatever beneficial way we can. So, we need to create top soil. And in order to create top soil, you can't just have bare mineral earth. You need organics. And so, we're piling all the wood chip mulch that we're going to generate from the removal of these trees. It's going to compost and then it's going to be blended back into our uh our just the mineral earth that we're going to be using in order to create top soil. Likewise, we're donating a portion of the of the um wood to the Elum tribe for for use in cultural practices. Um and then at the end of the action, we will be reveating the site. Um the areas that have the permanent cap will not be reveated with any sort of trees, but everywhere we're removing the mine waste, trees can then grow and wildlife can exist without interacting with the mercury, arsenic, and anamony that's so high in the in the waste all across the site. Um, so speaking of wildlife uh impacts, we are going to cause a

short-term loss of habitat um for 10 plus years before that habitat habitat begins to really grow back in and and those um those animals can move back in. Um we're taking particular care around protected status species. We've been working with US Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Fish and Wildlife to come up with mitigation measures. There's some um species of concern bats that um the site unfortunately is great habitat for bats. Um, so we're putting for instance bat boxes outside of our project area. So as we're destroying habitat, those animals have somewhere to go. Um, yeah, and as I mentioned that it's net beneficial to the wildlife in the long term. Um, despite the short-term impact, uh, tribal and archaeological resources, the ILM tribe has lived in this area for over 20,000 years. that was verified based on um materials that were actually collected as part of the earlier rem uh emergency cleanup action EPA did. Um the area is highly sensitive in terms of the trib's archaeological resources and history. We're working closely with the tribe and with the community to try to manage that impact to try to mitigate that impact as best we can. Um we're going to hire tribal uh representatives and archaeologists to monitor and minimize those impacts throughout the project. Um traffic and jobs I think are um always a particular um point of interest for local communities around these sites. Um the primary access to and from the sulfur bank mine site is going to be via highway 20 to Sulfurbank Drive. Um that's just the the by far the most direct route, the most efficient route, the um best route for our uh that the transit of heavy equipment that's going to be required. Um for the 15 months for online phase one, we expect a range between about 15 and 50 truck trips, probably an average about 35 truck trips per day continuously through that period. um we have a a lot of material

to bring to the site even considering the material that we're reusing on site. Uh speaking of reusing materials, so yeah, we're trying to minimize that impact as much as we can. The reuse of materials has already uh brought the total number of truck trips expected to be needed for the implementation of the action down by about 8,000, which is substantial, but we're still talking about, you know, if you do the math on 35 times 15 months, um it's something like 20,000 truck trips. Um, again trying to mitigate this impact, recognizing that it is a significant community impact. We're looking at the hall routes. We're looking at traffic controls. We're looking at uh speed limits. We're looking at schedules for school buses on roadways. Having hall trucks pull over off the road anytime a school bus is present. Trying to minimize that impact as best we can. I don't know if we want to do questions as we go or at the end.

Oh, sure, sure, sure. The mics the this the speaker's right behind me, so I feel like I was being loud. Sorry. Um would you like me to go back on anything? Is you good? Okay. All right. So that's that's the traffic side of things and we'll have time for questions at the end if you have questions related to that. Um also uh jobs, you know, this is a large action. Um we do expect about 35 full-time employees, not to mention numerous subcontractors coming in and out based on the specialty we need for a given activity at a given time. Um those subcontractors are hired locally basically as much as possible. Uh we'll talk about that in a subsequent slide uh slide. Um we will be hosting small business fairs trying to make sure that the local um community and and businesses are aware of the opportunities and have the opportunity to bid on the work. Um and also supporting that is uh will provide some training opportunities. I'll go into that in subsequent slides. Right. All right. So, economic benefits. Um, it's this is a large multi-year cleanup activity. Um, it's going to create at least five years of demand for construction, environmental services, hauling, logistics, traffic management, uh, equipment, materials, a variety of on-site support services, security, uh, fencing, all of those sorts of things. Um, and then of course the kind of compounding effects of economic activity in the local community, lodging, food, etc. Um yeah, there's compounding effects associated with that where uh you need to spend the money here and it causes it supports the local business who then they have more income to be able to purchase things from the other local business etc. So the the benefits for the community should not only be environmental but but also direct and economic. Um but of course environmental is is kind of the primary focus. Um really the success of these projects of super fund projects in general

depends upon local support local local knowledge. Um hiring subcontractors locally has meaningful advantages for EPA and for the project. Um no one knows the local resources better. No one knows the area better. There tends to be increased flexibility and availability. Generally speaking, that brings with it cost savings to the government um as well as the benefit to the community. Um EPA actually has explicit policy that that uh favors um small business hiring. We have a goal generally speaking of about slightly over half 51% of of our um contracting activity being um with small businesses. In this case, the structure of the contract is going to be the the actual uh the prime contractor would be from a pre-selected pool on an existing um overarching contract that EPA has. Uh but then they would be subbing out for the specific work. Um and towards that end um you know any anytime anyone is working on a super fun site on a hazardous site like this they need OSHA required training called haz whopper. Um I don't remember what the acronym stands for frankly but it's a it's a OSHA requirement for working on hazardous sites. Um sometimes that can be a barrier to local contractors being able to being eligible to bid on this kind of project. And so that's a really standard thing. The EPA comes out and provides that training free of cost. uh we don't compensate the individuals who take it for their time, but they don't have to pay for for for the for that training. Um and then once we have the construction contractor actually on board, we also have a process where we go through with them. What types of activities do you expect to subcontract and what types of positions might we be able to provide training in a time frame period of less than a month? a total total time like in-classroom training for a month that we could bring local community members up to speed so that they would be eligible to fill those roles. Uh so that's that's the update on the mine site. I did also want to give u

some updates on the other aspects of the site. Um the sulfur bank mine, the mine site itself is the source of the contamination. And so you want to address the source before you go downstream and try to address the places that have been receiving that contaminated flow. And so we're prioritizing taking those source control actions first. But we're also pushing forward on the clear side of things and the other operable unit site, the North Wetland area. So two months ago, UC Davis was here presenting about the hypolumnetic oxygenation pilot study that they're preparing to implement. Uh something about a third of the funding for that project is actually coming from EPA directly as part of the super fund site evaluation. Um their focus initially was on phosphorus on toxic or harmful algal blooms. Um but the same technology that the addition of oxygen to the lake bottom has been used in other systems to prevent mercury from winding up in the food chain. U mercury tends to bind to solid particles and stay in the sediments on the bottom of the lake until you have these low oxygen conditions where you get bacteria that create methyl mercury and it goes up the food chain. So, um we're hopeful that this technology I mean we we're evaluating it, we're funding it because we're hopeful that it could be effective in preventing the mercury that's already in the lake from winding up in the food chain where then people and wildlife are exposed to it. Um and and the timeline for that they talked about, but just so we're on the same page, right? They're they're they're um expecting to uh build the infrastructure for that in 2026, operate it in 2027, and then in 2028, hopefully they can do a second year, but if not, we'll be crunching the numbers, looking at the data um through 2028 to determine how well it worked. So the last bit is uh talking about the North Wetland area. Uh, I've got a colleague colleague Sasha Vanley who is leading the efforts at this other part of the site.

Hi, I'm Sasha Vanley. I'm another remedial project manager assisting Carter and now leading the operable unit for section of the site. You can see this operable unit is primarily north wetlands and then some of the other parcels above the mine. And then there's also another chunk to the east and to the south of the mine site. And currently we're in the remedial investigation phase. So this phase is basically what type of contamination is there? Is it going to move? is what are those risks that it poses to human health and the environment like the local wildlife. Um and then once the remedial investigation is complete, the next step is the feasibility study. So that's when we figure out how we're going to clean up the site, what are our options, weighing them based on cost effectiveness and efficacy. So, that's the exciting time when we get to figure out how we're actually going to clean it up. Yeah, that's a brief overview of where we're at for operable unit 4.

That's all I've got um as far as presentation. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

Carter, I just wanted to say thank you for that presentation and right here. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. And uh my husband Chuck Lamb and I uh back in 2003, we got uh the EPA technical advisory grant which we had for seven years. It was supposed to be a three-year grant and they just kept asking us to redo it. And so we've been dealing with this for about 25 years. And I just really want to thank you. uh ba back in the past we talked about um working on economic development and keeping you know uh training people doing all of that and they kind of listened to us but they didn't and Earth did send in the letter asking uh for a lot of these different things and I really appreciate that you've all taken it to heart and you really take to heart uh the environment you know the trees you know the the wildlife thanks

thank you how do you guys want to do questions yeah so We'll do questions in just one moment. I just have a question for you, though, because it's probably going to get asked, but we I know we've talked about it. Um, using sediment from other areas. So, we have Middle Creek, we have Spring Valley that has a lot of sediment that we need to put somewhere. So, can it be used here?

Basically, the answer is yes, it can, but lots of lots of details to sort out in in the in the how. um you as we're sort of uh reckoning with right now as we go through the design, it's one thing to say you're going to do something, it's another thing to figure out exactly how you're going to go about doing it. So, we are we need a tremendous amount of clean dirt to build the caps over the waist piles. Um and we are open to all options. Um, I've been in pretty close coordination with the state parks uh over at uh Clear State Park where they have a dredging project that the timing looks pretty great for lining up with ours. I think they're talking about something like 15 or 20,000 yards. Um, which is small by our standard, but giant by any other standard. That's a lot of material. Um, and and so we're we've provided them with a bunch of of information on how they would need to uh test the sediments to make sure they're going to be clean enough to meet our needs. Um, and if they pass those tests, um, there's an area right south of the mine, um, that is the EPA sort of controls. Um, this land is private property. It's not actually owned by by EPA, but we have a pretty, uh, exclusive right of use. We can use it however we need in order to operate the remedy. So, there's a beach area here that we're talking about having like a a barge landing location potentially. Um, so the way that these things usually work is it's sort of structured as if you can bring us clean dirt, we're happy to use it. And so it could be so long as it's proven safe, we're we're we're game.

I'm not on that. Have you talked to water resources with the water with the sediment from Middle Creek and testing that to see if not specifically with Clear Clear Lake water resources? No, the county lake county water resources. Um, no. I I mean I've I've been in touch with them on and off, but not specifically on that topic. No. Okay. And about special districts for Spring Valley? Have you been in contact with them? I've talked with EJ um and again, what we were enthusiastic about any beneficial reuse. Um it just has to be tested before

Yeah. And and the problem at Spring Valley, as I understand it, is the the suggestion was, well, you come dig it and you can have it. Um, but we're not we're not also opening a quarry operation. That's that's we're looking to execute this project. And so, you know, if there was a if it was being excavated and there was a pile and it was a matter of put it in our trucks instead of put it in their trucks, send it to our site instead of send it to their disposal location. Awesome. Like, we're we're we're game for that. And then it's just a matter of proving it's clean enough to be used. Um, so we're still totally open to it and we should have more conversation on the on the details. Okay. Wonderful. We open to that. Um, all right. So, we will go ahead and open it. Yep. So, if anybody has public comment, we're going to go up to the microphone at the podium.

Yeah. Oh, I didn't know there was a microphone in the audience. I was going to say you can try Quack and Bush. They've been giving away free top soil for like a year and a half because the place up in too much and then Quack Bush had too much and the state said that you have to get rid of it. It's keep coming in. So, you need soil. It's right there. go right there and it's top soil. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. Um, thank you for that presentation. It was great. You know, first I was hearing uh that there were going to be 20,000 truckloads of dirt coming in, maybe 50 per day, and you're saying 15 to 45. Are these huge semi trucks with two loads on them? Uh, are they that big and large? because that could be yeah that could be make the roads very congested and uh I'm wondering are we talking every day or Monday through Friday and what are the hours so people can plan because I know you're going to probably be going down Sulfur Bank that's a very small road

and uh you know will you be hiring someone to uh deal with you know uh the different uh you know the congestions in the road and traffic

uh sorry yeah lot lots of things there but basically yes to most of those questions um we are yeah absolutely aware that that the traffic impacts on Sulank Drive are going to be significant I think 15 to 35 additional trucks on Highway 20 isn't that meaningful but certainly on Sulphur Bank Drive it very much is that left-hand turn going in is going to be tricky um and we'll have to figure those details out as we get there. The way that the the design process works is generally speaking, we don't want to overstep into too much of the means and methods for the execution of the project. We put that on the contract firm uh on the construction firm. So, we're saying you need this volume of this kind of material. It has to get here safely. And so, then they will develop a traffic management plan. We're kind of scoping out the rough outlines of what that might look like because on the design side it's important we prove it can be done and at this point this is the route where these will have to come. Uh the size of the semis yeah we are talking about bringing in importing that those 15 to 50 averaging 35 that's importation of material. So we are talking heavy loaded semis. Yeah.

Okay. And um if there's an incident or accident, who do you call? Do you have cleanup crews? And what does that consist of? You know, we're going to have a lot of school age kids and teenagers riding their bikes and stuff around there. And will you also be dealing with the kids schools and letting the parents know, hey, we're starting this project now. You're going to see a lot of trucks and so they can talk to their kids.

All good points. Um we're not there yet. Um so for for the the residential action it's really pretty much enclosed on the eliminating colony and just uh two properties south of the mine site. So for the work this fall uh we are working closely with the the community there about the impact. We will then expand the detail as we get more detail. We will work with the community here on all of those sorts of details. It's standard to be expected that we will make special accommodations for the hours when school buses are there. you know, generally it's done as if anyone on the project sees a school bus, all the hall trucks pull over until it's gone. That that kind of an approach. Um, but all those details are yet to be determined, frankly. Okay. Thank you. Sure thing.

Yeah. Thanks for the presentation. My name is Robera McIntyre. I'm from South County. I have a comment and a question. My comment is I'm presuming this qualifies as a project under SQA. So, that piece of it will be taken care of in terms of meeting all the squa uh stuff. That's just a comment. I'm not expecting you to respond to that, but you can if you'd like. Um, but my question is, you mentioned earlier that the trees are their roots are in a pH of two, which is extremely aesthetic, and you're going to turn the trees into mulch. Is there a chance that the trees themselves will need to be treated postmastication or chipping to make their pH more like a six or seven, closer to normal before you use them as mulch? Thank you.

Sure. Thanks. Um both I I'll address both because so the cleanup is being done under the comprehensive envir environmental response uh compensation and liability act super fund for for short and under super fund it's actually viewed as a uh NEPA or squa equivalent process. So the process we went through to determine how we were going to go about cleaning up the the the site, we have to do all kinds of biological assessments and all of those all of those steps that are typically included in a SQA analysis in order just to even get here. So we have done those processes. Um to your point about pH um yeah the the the trees don't um the trees don't pull the pH up into their into their wood. Um but we have absolutely looked at whether they pull up metals into their wood. Yeah. And I um we've collected uh samples of different parts of the trees of different species of the vegetation on site and evaluated whether or not this is a problem. And generally speaking, they do not have concentrations that are going to be a problem. The majority of a of a tree is just cellulose and it doesn't it doesn't tend to hold metals in it. Some trees, some vegetation will uh put metals into like their fruit, but that's such a small relative component when you're creating a giant pile of mulch that it's not actually it's not an issue,

but it's a good question. Thank you. Can I just um say one thing uh to Roberta? Uh but all of the documents that um were prepared by the EPA are at the Clear Lake Library. I think also the Lakeport Library. I mean, I know just from our seven years, I have CD ROMs about this big from all of the tests they've done.

And now they're actually all online, too. So, if you go to the web page here, um that one um there's uh it's called the administrative record. So, it's it's all of the documents that inform the decision. It's not every document we've developed for the site. It's the ones that actually were used to say this is the right way to clean this up. Um, and they're they're at a there's several administrative records because each time we make an official decision and there's a new one, but over the course of all those administrative records, all of the all the documents are that might be relevant are there. I do have a question about the trees. Sure. So, since they are Do you have your microphone, Sterling? Yeah, I do have it on. Am I just not talking loud enough? Yeah.

Okay. So, my question is is since the trees are in that acidic trees do absorb, they do help filter the soil. Is it actually removing the trees? Maybe could it not? Could it make things worse because it's literally helping filter the soil in a sense? No. So, that's why I'm kind of questioning. Yeah. Certain types like you're pulling it up, it absorbs it.

Yeah. Certain types of plants do have, you know, they help attenuate metals. Um the what we're talking about on site is mostly gray pine, mania, and oak. Um, so like wetland vegetation serves that function and it it can sometimes actually pull it up into its material and that's why we were concerned about it and that's why we tested it. But a tree is kind of different because it forms so much cellulose such of the so much of the mass is just basically pure cellulose in the middle of the trunk. Um, so yeah, it's a fair question though.

Hi. Um, I just have a recommendation. Um, you mentioned that you're hiring maybe 35 full-time folks and you have this training that you provide at no cost, but there might be a potential barrier, you know, if pe folks aren't being paid to attend it. So, if you haven't already considered it, I would strongly encourage you reaching out to the American Job Center of California that has 19 workforce development partners. And some of those partners definitely could a assist you with a job fair or assist you with hiring local folks, particularly local folks that have been put through training and development programs. So those that may have needed a little more help to get up. Um and two, they often I said a b you know um um they often have funds that they could provide stipens or support for individuals to attend these trainings. So, that is something that if you have not considered it, potentially could consider here in Lake County. The um American Job Center is going through a little bit of a transition, but they still provide services to Lake County residents. Um and it's Career Point. So, if you need that contact, I can give it to you, but just wanted to put that out there.

Thank you. I I'd love that contact. That's a great idea. Thank you. And I just wanted to be clear also the 35 full-time jobs, a significant portion of those would be our prime contractor. Um, and so I think a lot of the local opportunities are going to be on the subcontracting side, which so that that that's in addition to the 35 count.

Hi, thank you Carter for making this a very in inclusive presentation and thanks to the earth for hosting the presentation. I'm Julia Carrera from Upper Lake. I'm an environmental scientist also running for the third district supervisor. Um, I have four questions and since we were talking about hiring, um, I'll start with that one. Um, in hiring locals whenever possible by the subcontractor, is it included in the subcontractor's contract that they're required to hire hire locals as a first choice?

Generally speaking, no. Um, we've got federal contracting um, regulations are pretty strict that we're not allowed I'm not allowed to bias their selection of subcontractors. So, it's generally speaking, like I said, the the the benefit of of local hiring is that they know the resources, they're available, they're close, their costs generally speaking, are going to be lower just because they're not paying for someone's travel, etc. Okay. Um and so that's also why the training efforts are important because the training is local and so again giving kind of an edge to local firms.

Right. Thank you for responding to that. And then in your wetland number four remediation, are you using any certified wetland biologists? Yes. Uh we actually were out there uh last week two weeks ago uh with a certified wetland biologist from from EPA as well as one from Jacob's engineering um evaluating the wetlands on site. Uh we do as part of this first part of the cleanup we are going to be doing a waste pile extends into that wetland. So the first bit of cleanup of that wetland is actually part of the mine site cleanup. Um so to answer your question is is yes, but EPA has in-house uh engineers. Yeah.

Wonder and where is Jacob's Engineering located? They're a they acquired CH2M Hill. So our our actual contract originally was with CH2M Hill which was kind of west coast of the US. Yes. Um Jacobs is a a international firm. I think they've got 35,000 people. Okay. Um CH2M Hill was was a fraction of 8,000 something like that.

It's all right. I can research their home base. Thank you for answering that. And then lastly on the used uh removed trees um h chipping. You're talking about chipping and I'm wondering, you know, this might be too in the weeds of a question, but when would you be doing those that chipping because there's noise and dust and are you only doing chipping or are you also going to do any kind of mastification or s gas processes?

Yeah, all of them actually probably. Um so so we'll need to fell the trees, we'll need to process that material. We'll need to chip it. We'll need to um um mastication is likely for the for the for the finer stuff, the smaller stuff. So So like the the big uh mature trees will be pulled out, loaded on trucks, hauled out potentially or chipped and then hauled out. Um but the smaller vegetation is probably going to be masticated. Um and we are talking about trying to generate like biochar on site. Um again trying to keep as much if we if we need biochar the alternative to generating on site is to import it. And that has its own impacts. Not only does it drive up costs, but it means more truck trips on on on um sulfur bank drive. So uh we don't yet have all of those details precisely established, but um probably all of those. Thank you.

Carter, I have a question. What is the percentage of increase in wetlands? We know that will be increased.

I don't have that number on the tip of my fingers because it's also incremental. Um, you know, the overall action is certainly net beneficial. So, as far as like clean water act compliance, there's a nationwide permit 38 about excavation, removal of contaminated waste from wetlands. And so that is generally viewed just as a beneficial thing to do even if you are causing a loss of wetland footprint. Even uh removing mercury from a wetland is is a good thing. Um we are though we do expect that this is going to be net increase in wetland footprint. Um there's a couple very small wetland areas that will be lost and then in the course of removing the northwest waist rock pile. So it's not yet the phase that we're in now. Um trying to show it on screen here. I don't have a one that really draws a shape around it because it's the next phase of work. Um it's a it's a couple acres out into the north wetland. Um and with with pretty minimal here we go. Pretty pretty minimal loss. So this this waist rock pile that it actually sends into the wetland. Bradley Ming Corporation, who was the uh potentially responsible party here, they just pushed waste straight into the wetland. Um and so it's whole toe is sitting saturated in waste in in the wetland. Yeah. Um, and there's again the what we're talking about loss would be a little bit of water here and a little bit of water here. Um, and then gain in this area.

All right. We have to ask questions now. Go ahead. Thank you for your Thank you. Uh, thank you for your program and your important work. Um, I ask this question because there's a lot of uncertainty in our environment and that is how secure is the funding for this program? Um, the current administration isn't all that keen on environmental projects and has been known to cancel, if not cut back funding pretty drastically. Thank you.

Yeah, fair fair question. Um we have the first $30 million to execute the project basically secured in hand. Um we have there's no sort of guarantee beyond that to totally just total transparency but uh the site rank has a we've got a ranking where they they have a prioritization for how they go about implementing these cleanups and it ranks really high and so I think that we have a a high degree of confidence that once we start there's also major costs if you start a project and you start something rolling and then you interrupt it you you you stop funding it has a huge cost associated with And so, um, we've got basically as much assurance as we can ever get from EPA headquarters that once this thing starts rolling, they're going to continue to fund it through through its end, which, you know, that's a squishy answer, but that's that's where things stand. Yeah. Uh, another important bit, super fund is funded by actually they they changed the funding structure. It's actually funded by a tax on the chemical manufacturing industry. And so, uh, it's it's separated from c congressional appropriation, which hopefully makes the funding stream more consistent. That was the idea when they when they repassed the super fund tax.

Oh. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's that's worth highlighting. Uh I did I talked with Sasha about what I wanted to talk about at the um today and I I forgot to uh touch on this one that it's an important bit on the bottom. Uh you know Davis the the folks from Davis maybe have a slightly different focus. Uh I'm a lifetime fisherman. I grew up fishing. I grew up in San Diego. I'm I'm on the water all the time. Um I really wanted to emphasize they kind of joked about like oh fishing around the hos if if it's regularly snagged. It's just it's just um soaker hose and if you snag it and pull on it that'll rip and every time it gets ripped they've got to raise the whole system and replace it. And so if this might work to help really mitigate both the mercury and algae issues in Clear Lake. And so we need to really somehow get the word out. Please please do not fish over the top of this thing. If you snag it often it could kill this idea from you know they would basically say it's infeasible because it's going to be broken too many times. that'll have to be lifted and replaced too many times.

Um, the number one bass fishing lake in the nation. It's just one little area. So, so it's it's it's one it's a it's one stretch of water uh below uh do I have a figure that might snake island? Yeah. There they'll be buoys to market. Um and it's not again if I have a figure I'm not sure I do. Um it's it's that area that they showed in the in the figure they had just below Rattlesnake Island. It's a pretty small stretch of water. Yeah. But a lot of bass fishermen are out in that area. That's where I mean like maybe no fishing signs because of the oxygen. And the issue is really just don't drag over the top of it. Yeah. And I think I think Steve Camden when he was here, he said that they were going to put up buoys around it and he's doing outreach at the catfish derby.

We'll be there with him actually. Oh, okay. Perfect. Yeah. So they're gonna they're gonna try to Yeah. I just wanted to emphasize the point, please. Absolutely. That's I'm I'm more concerned about it than they are so far because I like you know I'm a fisherman. I get it. Uh yeah, you want to fish or you want you want to bottom fish, right? Okay. So, I do have some questions. Sure.

Um because I kind of looked into the whole process that you guys are doing out there, not just this phase, but f fuller on phases. You guys are also looking into maybe some um environmental dredging of maybe looking into the sludge on the bottom of the lake eventually. Um but also, are we going to close the impound? Are you going to completely just try to cap it? Because then my question would be when they were digging into it, they hit the hydrothermal by accident and now it's it's been able to like regulate the pressure. Now we're going to be closing that off and closing the pressure back into the earth. What's that going to do? And then also with all the fault lines around here. And then one other major question is we have a geothermal coming in right um on the pleuth property which is like a half a mile from a crow flies to that and it could potentially tap into that same vein that created this super fund here and if that happens I mean is there a chance that that geothermal could hit that and now we have a second super fund in our county within a mile of each other. Yeah. So, um, the geothermal system at the site is naturally occurring. Um, so there's like pre-1850s documents saying that there's basically like a bubbling hotring. Imagine yuseite or something at the site. So the the we've got about 50 gallons per minute of just continuous flow of geothermal groundwater. That was the existing condition prior to the mine.

They then mine down and that water instead of coming out on the surface and flowing down to clear lake fills this pit. And then when it fills high enough, it flows through the waist rock dam through mine waste into Clear Lake. Um our plan actually is shown on this figure. It's to take these piles and consolidate them into a smaller footprint. Um reduce the total footprint of area that where we've got this contaminated waste spread around. But we are not filling Herman empowerment. Herman empowerment is just continuously fed by this natural geothermal groundwater. And we looked at like running a treatment plant so we could dewater her empowerment. It was going to cost about $2 million. Oh, there you go. Yeah, we could plug that in. It's going to cost about it would have cost like $2 million a year forever.

Yeah. And so forever is that's impossibly expensive. That doesn't that doesn't make sense. And the the water flowing into the empowerment is natural. And so letting that like it's sort of similar to Borax Lake where it it doesn't meet any sort of water quality criteria, but it's naturally occurring. It's part of this volcanic system that that we this region sits over.

Um and so we're not capping it off. We're not trying to block or prevent that discharge. We we we can't that would be actually going beyond our authority and we we can't address things that are naturally occurring. Um and so Sasha brought that up the uh the figure of where we're talking about for caution around the uh the fishing. Was there another part of your question that I didn't answer? Yeah, with the the the new it's the EGX that's proposing right here and it's like a half mile from the crow flies from the super. Even closer. Yeah, even closer. And then if they're going to be like drilling horizontal and fracking and they're trying to crack the same system, this vein Yeah.

because I did my own research and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but this vein actually goes all the way through here. Yeah. It goes out through Old Long Valley through Spring Valley to Walker Ridge. Yeah. Um and this is all connected and that and those were all those because Spring Valley has our mine that we had which is Chalk Mountain, Walker Ridge. I believe there's one out by Wilbur or Wilbur Springs. So, this is all connected. So, that's my biggest concern with everything. Yeah. I mean, Mount Kanaka is a volcano. That's that's ground mountain is too.

Yeah. So, uh, yeah, there's a there's a fault that runs right down the middle of of Herman empowerment. Um, and specifically right down the center of Herman empowerment. That's why there was an ore body there is there was this fault that was discharging geothermal fluids that deposited the mercury in the first place. Um, I've had a couple initial conversations with EGX um, and have uh, been really clear with them that we're cleaning up the contamination at the site. They're a private development project. If they have the potential to impact the contamination at the site, they have a responsibility under CIRCA to evaluate basically evaluate their potential to impact the site. Uh the liability under CIRCA is uh um like non- severable. You basically any party any individual party can be held responsible for the entirety of the contamination at the site. And so, um, they have to prove to themselves that they won't cause an issue and they need to prove to themselves to such a degree that if it ever came to a court that the judge would say they they did everything they needed to to make sure that they weren't going to c make the contamination worse. Um, so we don't have a specific like approval role other than we would look at their project and say, you know, have you thought about this? Did you think about that? what about these other ways in which you can impact things? Um, the thing that I'm most concerned about about that would be affecting the rate of gas discharge at the site. So, the mine discharges about 250 tons of CO2 per day. That's that's like 20,000 cars off the road. It's a tremendous amount of CO2 coming off the site continuously. And that's associated with the natural geothermal system. Now, if they start fracking into that, are they going to affect that? I don't I don't know. I it's not my job to have an opinion about a private development project, right? Like they're they've got to do their due diligence and I I I I want to make sure I give every

information that we have as a public agency that we prepared so that they have all the information they need to assess and then it's it's up it's up to them to do that. Yeah. All right. So, we want to thank you again, Carter, for coming out here and giving another presentation and um would you like to come out in September to give us a kickoff update or Sure. Yeah, happy to. Okay. Yeah, I mean probably over the next few years it would make sense to come out incrementally as things move along. Yeah. And will you be sticking around till the end of the meeting if people have questions they want to ask you? Okay. Yep. Sure thing. Perfect. Thank you so much for coming out.

All right. So, we'll go ahead and move on to Earth business. Um update and consideration of Earth activities, projects, and housekeeping items. general plan status and Earth letter.

Um okay. So last month um Earth voted to send a combined comment letter uh from uh the uh the council members uh to CDD for the general plan uh the draft general plan and the draft uh East Lake area plan. Uh a copy of our letter is up there on the table. Uh it's also on the website if you want to see it. Uh so basically um comment right now comments for the EIR the general plan and the Eastlake plan are now closed. Uh the local area plan committee did meet five or six times. We did make many modifications, additions and deletions. Uh CDD uh community development will now update all of the plans and uh with an anticipated review by the planning commission and the board this fall. So that's that. uh EGX geothermal uh they had requested to uh give a presentation in June. Uh when we asked them about what they wanted to present, it was basically they wanted to bring their geologist to speak about geothermal generalities. Uh Earth felt that this should wait until they have something more specific, more specific info to give to us uh and um to present to the public, but nothing is scheduled now. They we're not at that point. uh food donations. Uh Lisa Marie already spoke to that about you. Uh one thing that was brought up to us uh so I'm going to ask what you think. Uh it was suggested that we need an Earth logo. So I'm going to ask what the council members think about that.

Obviously by my smile I'll say yeah. Okay. So does everybody consensus on having an Earth logo? I want a logo. Okay. Yeah. All right. Okay. Okay. So with that, we want people to submit a logo. Okay? How about if some of you come up with it, uh, submit it through the Earth website, through Gmail, etc. And we will bring them all in and everybody can vote on the logo. Does that sound right? Could we open it up to the schools also? I think be the best. I'll do that. I'll reach out to the school.

That's a good idea. Uh, basically the one thing I want to say though is it's something that should um can be easily seen in black. It can be in color but it should be easily done and seen in black and white because that's mostly how we print everything. So anyway, come up with logos and go to the schools. That would be great idea. Okay. Uh that's everything I had on the earth business. Okay. Uh land use committee. Okay. Land use.

Yeah. Land use committee. So, uh, last, uh, since this last time, uh, we were, uh, sent a request for review on Catholic Church, uh, which is a cannabis grow down here off of Highway 20, uh, just about a mile down here. Uh, so we went through uh, we put together a letter because it was, um, which was approved by the, uh, the board because it had to be in by, uh, I think it was the 20th. A copy of the letter we sent in is back there. Uh what we did bring up and this is just a a request for review of the agencies. Uh one thing that we pointed out is that the documents that they gave us uh were totally discrepant. You know, um cannabis was being grown within the community boundary and it was in another one it wasn't. So we asked them to go through and review that. Uh that's basically the biggest thing. Uh we do have it online if you want to take a look at that too. Uh and then dura cell tower which is um uh out at double eagle uh it was uh turned down by the planning commission and it was appealed by the applicant. Uh CDD said they're currently drafting a memorandum. I'm not quite sure what that means but

I have no Okay, that is it.

Okay, wonderful. Um road safety committee. Uh let's see general activities. So on the tables there is the east the east region town hall road safety committee project list. This is a rough draft of what we're what we've compiled that are um concerns for the safety committee. Uh so if you guys want to take a look at that list if anybody has any suggestions additions um we do cover a lot of area and there we'll do some outreach for elim um and if anybody knows of any problems in Glenn Haven we didn't know of any directly for Glenn Haven.

Should I put that on the uh website the list? Okay. So, I'll put that on the website and if anybody has anything to add to it or any comments, uh, just send us a comment through the website. Yep. And then, um, the school safety sign that we announced last month was defective, so we had to return it. We're waiting for a replacement. Um, you want an update on that as of an hour ago? Okay, sure. Go for it.

Okay. I I I got it in, so it's Chuck's been trying to work on it. Uh, anyway, uh, it came in defective. They sent us a new battery. Uh that didn't work. Uh they sent us a new sign. The new sign didn't work. I think there was another one in between. It's been like six weeks. Uh anyway, as of today, uh the newest one that came in didn't work and so they gave us a full refund and they let us uh keep it. Now, it actually works, but it's intermittent. In the interim, we did find that the original one that we had bought that was cancelled because they no longer carried it uh from a different company, uh it now has some. So, we're ordering that in. So, it may be that we have two signs to give to them.

Okay. Well, then we'll they'll have two uh if one doesn't work.

I do have a question. Um I know I sent a letter to Holly which sent it to you guys for the bridge over Spring Valley. I'm wondering if we can do a vote on sending that letter to Lars about um the grant funding that we can start looking for to get that bridge out there. And in that letter, it also shows all the evacuation Spring Valley's been under. Um, just the risk of only having one way in and one way out. And we've been on the uh hazardous mitigation uh list for over 10 years and nothing has happened and I really am trying to fight for my community. So, if we can vote on that and maybe get it sent so we can get start with Lars.

If I could just make a com I haven't seen the letter. So, um, is it possible that the road committee can actually take a look at it within the next week or so and then come up with a recommendation on what to send in and then we can vote on it? Is that does that work? Yeah, that's fine. I just want to try to get it started because so it's been like 10 plus years and we're still fighting for a bridge. So,

yeah. So, it got forwarded to me for the road committee and I looked at it and what we're going to do is if you look at the list of the road Did you get a copy? No. Okay. Um, if you look at what we have on the project, we do have one way in, one way out for Spring Valley. And we're gonna compile all of this stuff and send Lars a letter and just ask him for updates on everything. And then we're going to go after I I I appreciate that, but I want to do it just single for Spring Valley because I feel like every time we combine Spring Valley in with everything, Spring Valley always gets left out, right? So that's my opinion and that's what I'm asking. Okay. So, um, what we can we we didn't provide the letter to the public. Okay.

So, because you have when you want something on the agenda to be approved, you have to give it to us before the 72 hour before we put the agenda out, right? So, I didn't get it until yesterday, I think. Maybe. When did you send it? Uh, I think maybe yesterday. So, it wasn't in We couldn't public. It wasn't on the agenda. We couldn't add it in there. And um so okay, I we'll put it on for next month. We'll work on it. I know it's another month, Sterling. I'm sorry, but we have to follow maybe we can vote and say, "Yeah, we can put a letter together." We couldn't We didn't have time to publicly notice the letter for people to review it. Okay. That's That's where we're stuck. Okay. Is that okay? Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. So, we'll put it for next month. Um, Mountain View Gates. I think we're coming up with a solution for the dumping on Mountain View. Um, but we'll I'm going to move things kind of along a little quicker because we're running out of time. Um, and we'll give an update on that. We're it's still kind of with county council. Um, so we're waiting for a final on that. Uh, lighting district request that they are asking us to look at the lights for the road safety committee for the replacements that were supposed to be done. Um because I think the lights that right now had a six to seven life uh six to sevenyear lifespan and they're reaching their life expectancy. So that is what I have for the road safety committee right now. Uh do you have any updates Lori or or Chuck? Okay. Um all right. So we'll go ahead and move on to the district 3 MAC update. So, um, as many of you know, we had, um, our very first District 3 MAC, uh, Thomas As from Worth is here, and, uh, Lisa Marie, who was up speaking before, she's also from Worth. Uh, and, uh, it was, it was great at, um, we got good feedback. Uh, at one point, I know Lori counted 119 people there, so there were a number of people at it. Uh, we had earmarked 20 minutes, uh, at the end for people to go to topic tables and ask questions, and they stayed for an hour. Um I do want to thank Thomas for uh coming in, Thomas Dit for coming in and doing this and the Lassern Senior Center for um hosting it there. Uh we had many presentations on the MAX, the purpose of the councils, law and code enforcement, parks, roads, CALR, public works, water resources. We had a zillion handouts. Uh all of the handouts that we got at that um that show have been compiled into a PDF and we now have it on the Earth website. There's about a hundred pages of handouts uh from uh all different uh

I mean just about anything you can think of. A number of the handouts are also on the table uh that we had but uh you can go in and and find quite a number of things. Uh so anyway um our group is going to be meeting again next week to consider the next steps. The video is also up on the Earth website. Uh right now we're also helping CIR set up a website. They do not have one. Uh, and for the meeting, and it seems to have disappeared here, but oh, here it is. Okay. Uh, for the meeting, we uh developed a QR code page uh to help people submit their concerns on code enforcement, law enforcement, roads, and animal control. So, basically, you'll see this here. uh we're going to start posting it on the bulletin boards uh on the post office. But if you have a code enforcement complaint or a law enforcement complaint or um a county road complaint uh or animal control report an animal, you can just uh scan this uh with your phone and it will take you right to that page. Uh this is also up on our website, too.

And it'll be at the post office. Yes, the post office. Okay. And so that wraps up the Earth business. Um, move on to commercial cannabis report and cannabis ordinance update.

So, uh, basically, uh, Leonglow, which is a 20 acre proposed grow up on High Valley Road, uh, I was told they're redlining the initial study right now, and then they're going to start writing the staff report, uh, prior to going to the uh, planning commission. Uh, it appears that the project may have changed substantially, but they are not giving us the documents. Uh we asked for recirculation of the documents to the agencies for comments and have not gotten a response back from that. Uh Lamperity 2 which is over um where GEGX wants to do the geothermal. Uh that CDD's requested changes to that project which is under review. Uh Global Enterprises is on Highway 53 right next to the grow that's right up on the highway and that is going to the planning commission on May 14th. Uh we did have to file a code enforcement complaint for nighttime lights on High Valley Oak which were very very bright, you know, all night long, days on. And the next uh the continuing cannabis ordinance update is scheduled for May 12th at the board of supervisors. Okay. Um moving on to the ongoing project updates, the Big Oak Pier Center.

Um okay. Uh so Earth as you know uh last time uh Dave Ables from the peier center gave a presentation on the fact that they were getting shut down uh and which meant that we would no longer have food drop offs or the showers or uh peer support. Uh so Earth sent a letter to behavioral health requesting that they continue the pier center until the end of the year because uh there were people that were trying to put together a nonprofit to continue this uh with the hope of being able to put it into the church buildings uh get access or purchase the church buildings down on the plaza. Uh so anyway, the letter that we sent in is on the table. Uh at first, behavioral health responded with no updates or suggestions. Uh Angela went to the board and read the letter during public comment. Uh we followed up uh a couple of times and we got a email back from behavioral health at uh yesterday that said yes, arrangements are now in place to continue key services following the closure of the wellness center. Specifically, the shower trailer and food distribution services will continue to operate at the uh room next door. Uh and a peer support presence will be maintained there for the next six months to support individuals during uh the transition. and we appreciate your support. Um, right now the reorganization closure plan is out for public comment with a hearing scheduled before behavioral health on the 14th. Uh, I was going to ask if Earth should modify their letter and send it to the hearing along with uh there was a petition that was going around to keep it in place. It's got about 165 signatures right now that could be included. I mean, do you want to send should we send that in just to reinforce that we want the support still to continue?

I think so. Do we need a motion? Well, I would hope that Elise would just automatically include it. I guess we might need to resend it. Um, so do we want to resend the letter for the public comment period that's open right now for behavioral health? Just re just reinfor. Okay. Do I So, do you need a motion? Do we need a motion? You need a motion. Uh, go for it. Just for fun, why not? I'll make a motion to update the letter and resubmit it for public comment. Okay. Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Motion in a second. All those in favor? I I Any opposed?

All right. Thank you. And then we'll move on to the Clear Lake Oaks County Water Company proposed rate increase.

Okay. So, just so you know, Earth does not have control over any water or sewer rate increases. Um, we did have a little bit of control over the Pier Center because the Pier Center was operated by behavioral health and behavioral health reports to the board of supervisors. That said, we wanted to get in front of this. We wanted to um make sure that everybody knew about the proposed rate increases. Um I I I'm assuming everybody got uh the letter in the mail. Um I did put down uh copies of it on all the tables. So you can see uh per prop 218 uh the water company can request increase rates based on the cost of providing service. Uh they have completed a waist wastewater financial plan which is posted on their website. Uh and a water cost of service report which is was supposed to be available today. As soon as it uh is available, we will get it up on the Earth website. The Earth website has links to every single one of these things and the proposed rate increases. Currently, they're requesting a 25.6 increase to the combined water sewer bill effective July 1st. So, it' be increasing from 12911 a month to 16209 a month and then increasing annually to 2030 to 20763 a month. A public hearing is scheduled for June 18th, 10:00 a.m. at the water company. You can submit a written request prior to 10:00 am of that day. It must be mailed or dropped off. You cannot email it. Uh it must also, it's very clear what you have to do or it won't be counted. Uh it must include your name, your address, a statement indicating opposition and your signature. If 50% plus one of the rateayers uh oppose it, it will not pass. Uh but I think it also is reviewed by the um the board. Uh I will let you answer that. uh oral comments at the meeting do not qualify unless accompanied by a written protest.

So that's what we have so far. And just to clarify the reason um so this is different than the prop 218 in Spring Valley because Spring Valley is special districts. This is Colle's water. Um so there it's not county. We're just trying to disseminate that and give you guys the information to, you know, make your decision and participate in this process.

Um, I also forgot to say, um, I did speak with Diana Man and Olivia Man, u, the general manager and the admin for about 45 minutes the other day. Um, a bunch of this is also because they're trying to get grant funding. Uh, there's about 15 million for wastewater, there's about 35 million for the water. uh and in order to get the grant, they have to show that they can actually afford to maintain the system. That's where some of this comes in. But what I do want to say is that Diana and Olivia very very specifically said they would like to hear from you people. If you have questions, call them. I'm suggesting that maybe some of you sit down with her and talk with her uh about it just to, you know, get some of your questions answered before June 18th. you know that that she said they're very she's very open to that. So,

is there maybe a way you can have her come next month and then she can explain stuff to the community here? It's possible. Yeah. I No, I thought you said June was the deadline. 18th. June 18th. June 18th is the deadline. Um we could have maybe we could have some type of joint thing because there was another uh we had another group that was on there. But

Cindy's coming for No, Cindy's coming for June. Um, and no, it's fine. Um, yeah, we can let's figure out our agenda. I my my only concern with it is that does Earth want to be in the middle of this? Right. This is something between the rateayers and the water company. And does Earth want to be in the middle? I'm not saying that we need to be in the middle, but I'm just saying bring her here and then the people that are here that are a part of the Prop 218 can hear it from her voice. But we don't have to if you don't. But they're doing a public hearing on June 18th. So we would need you want one before then. Is that what

the first Wednesdays before the 18th? She can at least give public. So what would the Okay. If you're a rateayer in the clerical district, would you like us to see Earth bring Diana and Olivia to come here? She was here. She was here. Yes. Right. Okay. So Kathy is saying that she was here and she said that she would give an update, but there wasn't an update. We just um Yeah. Okay. Um was just a thought to make it that complicated. Yeah. Um okay, we can ask her if they want to do it.

I'm not trying to make I was just trying to make easy because I've I've battled the 218. I know how difficult a 218 physically can be for for people to understand how to do it. I understand that. Yeah, I understand that. Um, I I guess I would suggest really people reaching out to Diana. You know, make an appointment and sit down with her and get all your questions answered because that would be better. You're going to get more information than sitting here and having us, you know, talk for 15 minutes.

So, um, okay. What do we recommend to the rateayers? If if you guys don't get the answers that you like or the information you want from the water company, then reach out to us as Earth. We have until the first week of June to put the agenda out. I mean, it'll be the last week of of May. So, try and reach out. If you can't, let us know and and we'll ask her to come. Um, we've had, like you said, we had to do it with Robin. So, or maybe we could facilitate a meeting outside of Earth where uh everybody sat down. Yeah. So, we'll wait to hear from you guys as the rate payers.

Yeah. Okay. All right. It's a 218. No. Um, can I explain a 218 real quick?

Um, so in in Spring Valley when we had our 218, what they're going to do, it's a California law with the 218 with anything that gets raised. So, they're going to send you like a little blurp of your uh public hearing. It's only going to have a little portion of what they're going to do. You need to go in and you need to ask for that rate study. you need to read through that rate study and make sure that there are variance reports, water losses added on there, all those things because if those things aren't added to your rate study and they're trying to make you pay for stuff, say like Spring Valley right now with the update that I have, um, not this billing cycle, but last billing cycle, we had 70% water loss. if they're not incorporating that into your rate study, you are now going to be paying for a failing system. And with 218, that protects you. So the 218 will say, let me rephrase this, sorry, it's my line brain. So what happens is if they don't put that into your rate study, they're not giving you the actual cost for the consumer. So you in a 218 protects the consumer is only you're going to pay for what comes through your pipes. if it's not coming through your pipes and there's more loss then the 218 cannot be passed by California. So it's very very very very important for you guys to get your fingers onto that rate study. I have a member here. She understands exactly how difficult this is. So I would suggest all of you that's with the water company go in tomorrow and get that rate study and start reading it. And then if you guys have concerns like said it's not

no that that's the whole issue. It's supposed to be here as of today and then Olivia wanted to review it for um accuracy, but I'll follow up on that. As soon as it is available, it will get posted on the Earth website. Okay. And then when you guys have your questions, like Holly said, you guys can ask and then let us know if we want her to come to answer your guys's questions from that rate study or also if we could facilitate um or I could outside of Earth facilitate setting up a meeting. You know, I was going to ask Sterling if she wants to help with the 218. I can hire her with it. I can't. So, um, if you guys and it is very specific. It has it's very the details are very specific on what you have to write.

So, um, okay. So, if you want to reach out, you know, want to get in touch with Sterling or one of us and we'll help facilitate um where we can and then if it does you guys don't get the answers, then we'll ask um they're only open Monday through Wednesday. Okay. So, um we will try to help facilitate as much as we can. All right. I'll I'll just call her and get the thing and I'll read it for him. Okay. Thank you, Sterling. Um PG update. PG Gen did not send the list of the updates, so we'll go ahead and skip that. Um do you want to do CDD real quick? Uh CDD did not send a project update, so we're not going to do that one. All right. Uh Spring Valley update. Oh, are you guys ready? You got anything?

Okay. All right. So, I got two papers. Um community parking lot paving um is in design and plans will be completed soon. Um we have the well on Pablo Trail which is grant funded. It has been completed and can be operated waiting for final water results after filtration approved from the state water board. Um so and then she's working on a video with Supervisor Crannle to show the community on the well and filtration system works and you can see all the new equipment. Um, we have the new generator for the community center and water plant which has been grant funded. Um, we are waiting for the final award notice and then they'll order it. The water disputiation uh system improvement project pressure zone um is in prelim. The design's going on. Um they're working on securing tanks for additional uh water for an additional water tank on Riverview. um final task order um to complete 60% plans preliminary SQUA and the ROW complete by June 2026. Uh that one we don't need the water lines. Okay, so this is going to be the water lines. It says we will then secure the construction funds to complete the project. Um we expect to replace all water manes and the roadways will be the roadways will be damaged when replacing the water manes installation of additional isolated valves and pressure zones. Installations of additional water tank and construction management. Um I got the lake recovery. Uh she said we have determined the area that will be excavated without requiring wetland mitigation. um waiting on final estimate/plans for consultant and permit approval. Uh the area is on the north

end of the area in the creek. The land lands into the lake. Sediment will be removed and a wire installed to limit additional sediments of the lake. There will also be a maintenance plan outlined to mitigate future sediment buildup. Um so we have illegal dumping going on on our green belt. they're trying to figure out. So, anybody that lives in Spring Valley, if you see people dumping there on our green belt, take pictures so we can get it reported. Scan this.

There you go. Um, so leak detections. This is where I just said we were at 70%, they got it down to 50%, but this is a continuous thing for 30 years out in Spring Valley. It's not stopping. It's still exactly the same. I do have concerns when we have 70% water loss, especially about contamination in our water because that's 70% of our treated water that's gone. Um, so that's all I have right now for Spring Valley updates. All right. Thank you.

All right. Now, we're going to move on to this is gonna So, it's we have the Northshore Fire Protection District, but I don't um and it's Northshore Fire Protection District/Calire update. Um I'll go ahead and give the Northshore Fire Protection District update. Chief Banks has resigned and Chief Donnelly has been appointed as the new Northshore Fire Protection District Chief. Um, a recent meeting showed that the agency is in dire straits and we'll be looking at a ballot measure to address fees. If the ballot measure does not pass, there is a possibility of bankruptcy. Um, so there's been a lot of discussion going on and um, and we talked about it at the D3 meeting. They talked about it a little bit, but they're still researching it. So when we have more information, we'll bring it back. Chief Donnelly will come down um, to speak with everyone on what is going on. And then for the CalFire update, I'm gonna turn it over to Chief Duncan. And you got the microphone at the podium right there. There you go.

Thank you.

Got me. All right. Well, I want to thank Angela for being so persistent. I can't imagine Angela's persistent, but she is especially persistent with getting me in one of these meetings. So, thank you. Um, I love being out here in the community and informing people of what we're doing. My name is Paul Duncan. I'm the operations chief for all of Lake County for Calire. And as a secondary hat, I'm the assistant chief for the South Lake County Fire Protection District. So, a couple of hats that I wear. Uh, the CalFire briefing is we are at full staffing currently. We have 31 engines that are staffed in the unit. So the unit is the Sonoma Lake Napa unit, but we're actually six counties. So we cover Sonoma Lake, Napa, Kousa, Yolo, and Solano. Um, so 31 engine staffed in that area. There's 22 stations that we have fully staffed. Our rotor wing aircraft, it is a agencyowned, is the CalFire Firehawk that sits on Bogs Mountain. It's an S70i model. Actually, the one they have up there is a brand new helicopter. It's the latest in the fleet. Um the numbering on the helicopters, you won't see a copter 104 anymore. That's those are old numbers. Uh with these new aircraft, um they require a lot of maintenance. So instead of having one assigned to a base, they have a fleet. And we may have one that's approaching maintenance, it just gets swapped out with another one out of out of our aviation management unit, which is in Sacramento. Numbers change all the time. So, we're just you'll hear them if you're listen to the scanner called Bogs Mountain Hell Attit. That's what we call them on the radio because they could be in any different aircraft. Um, on our fixed wing, we have one air attack which is staffed currently that is out of the Soma Air Base and we have one fixed wing air tanker that's an S2T model and it's uh equipped and that is also out of the Soma Air Base. Currently

staffed six dozers. There are 10 hand crews that are in the unit. There are eight, seven, eight um CDCR crews. So those are the those are the boys in orange. And then we have two uh firefighter one hand crews and those are out of the Hood Mountain Fire Center. Um so that is significant increase of over over what we've had the last couple years. uh effective June 1st, we will have another air tanker, another one of the small ones out of Sonoma for two and then two additional copters will come online. Those are what we call call when needed or they're under contract. So those are the larger one's a two rotor um Sakorski. Um another one would be similar to the Blackhawk, but we'll have that. Um that one comes out of Napa, one out of Soma. So those are type one. They carry a big 2500gallon bucket. um they really were hugely effective when we had fires a couple years ago that were of significance where they drop a lot of water real fast. So um we we like that in the fire service. More water quicker. That's good for us. Um we do have two agency C130s. So that is a new to us acquired from the uh the Coast Guard and retrofitted to dump water. Uh the one is out of Fresno and two are out of Mlullen which is just east of Sacramento. Um and those are coming online this year. So we'll have three of those. So very exciting on the aircraft side. Um our CalFire mission is that all five we keep all fires under 10 acres or less 95% of the time. So we start getting a big fire, you'll actually see aircraft getting pulled off for smaller stuff because we want to keep those small fires out and get them contained real fast. So that is the the CalFire mission. We do have a lot of fuels projects going on currently. So, um we have working around the city of Clear Lake is a big one. Um we're going to be

working um out in the double eagle here. So, working with clerk and Cindy's here uh in her outfit and appreciate that. So, hoping to get a masticator up there to do some road clearing uh for you guys to make things a little bit safer on the egress routes on that. Um we do have a burn ban that hit on May 1st. So just as a reminder for folks, there should not be any open burning other than things that require an exemption. So those are we go out there and verify that those are need that to have things burnt. Uh and there are those there are agricultural burns that have to happen. Uh if we have a landowner that has um mitigation stuff in there, meaning they have a dozer, they have a water tender, they have a water source, and they need something burnt before we get to fire season, we'll help them with that. But as a general rule, the burning is cut off May 1st. And then I'll go into uh some important things for the year. Um zone zero. So that's coming up in the board of forestry discussions. Hasn't been finalized yet. Um what I'm asking and what we're asking here is that to have that clearance done around your house that zero to 5t out cleared from any vegetation all the way around to bare dirt or concrete and then up the side of the house. nothing connecting the ground fuels to your house. So basically what we need is we need a fire to come up and bump that house, bump past it without catching the house on fire. Um and that is because we get in a big incident that we don't have enough engines to put one at every house. So those houses have to stand on their own. And by having that zone zero that allows that fire to get to the ground, creep around the house, not affect it, and then we are we've saved the house basically by doing the right thing. So please uh work on that, get that cleared. It's really um I don't I don't know how much the board of forestry is going to water down the regulations, but what we have seen from Valley Fire, from

Paradise, from um Palisades fire, if you had the clearing done and you got down to bare earth around your house, those houses stayed. So, um we can't what we can't do is the 150 foot wall of flame, there's just no defending that. Uh 100 mph wind, that's another one. But if we have a normal grass fire, um it'll keep that house safe. Uh another item for me is evacuate when asked. So for our communities that are at risk, uh monitor those uh watch duty. Not a huge fan, but it is a good asset for the public. Genesis protect um and make sure you are late co alerts. Get those uh alerts done. Listen to that. And then when he asks you to leave, leave. U because now I can use those firefighting assets to put the fire out and I don't have to work on evacuating people because that's what takes I have to go house to house with fire resources and law enforcement. Get those folks out and it keeps us from doing that line control that's going to slow or stop that fire down. Um and then last thing I want to thank Tyrie. He's here with me tonight. Uh please go over there and grab some handouts. Get some good information from the state. You pay for all that stuff. Uh, so please grab something there. Uh, and if you have questions for me, I'm happy to answer them now. Um, happy to stick around a little bit after the meeting and, uh, answer questions for you. So,

thank you, Chief Duncan. Do you have dip tank? Do you guys I'm guessing you guys have dip tanks throughout the county? We have a couple portable dip. Okay.

Yeah, we have a couple dip tanks. So, the helicopter guys don't like them a whole lot cuz they're small, but um in areas that we have water sources like Indian Valley, uh Pillsbury for now, um we can get in um they like those better than the tanks. But in areas where it's a long ways to water, those tanks are an option. So, if you're interested in putting a tank in, I have a different couple different specs. One is the Helilopod, which we purchased several of those are running about 65,000 a piece. Um, they take municipal water to flow into them. They're a 3,800-gallon tank and they're like a toilet. They have a float on them and when the copter comes, pulls water out, fills back up with water. Next copter comes in, same maintains that tank full all the time. So, it's a really good asset to have, especially in those areas where we don't have water to dip out of. the newer helicopters that I talk about the the Firehawk, great machine, but it's got a 15 foot snorkel on it that has to come down and that thing has to be right above the water. So, the days of having a big long line with a bucket on the bottom that we can go find a remote pond and pull out of, we just can't can't get that thing down next to that down the water.

So, good to know. All right. Does anybody have any questions for Chief Duncan? Perfect. Yeah, I guess that'll be Yeah, please grab some information off of the table over here. Um, they do have a lot of different uh programs. Do you know of any grant funding right now that helps with zone zero? Um, there may be uh that would be a question for one of our grant agencies like Cindy would probably know better about that. That so that would be a homeowner uh zone zero clearance grant. All right. So Cindy, now you have homework for next month. Not none that I'm aware of. Okay.

Um but again, that zone zero includes zone one, zone two. So getting that 100 feet out or to your property line, getting those trees limmed up six feet, make them look like lollipops, just keep that ground fuel from touching the ladder fuels, touching the aerial fuels, that he keeps those fires on the ground where we like them. Okay. And then my last question is, is there any chance of getting a fire break between the hills and BLM land and the community growth boundaries? Where at

I'm talking Well, they used to have a good fire break from 2018, right? 2018. They cut a good one all the way from the Kousa County line from Indian Valley all the way. Um, is there any chance of just regrading it? You can still see a faint line of it. Uh oh. Battery go dead. I was on. So uh it if it's already existing uh dozer line easier to get through SQA in that process. We just have to get Okay. So you just had to get funding and equipment. Uh I will help work on that.

Yeah. just because I need to stop talking. Uh yeah, so if it's an existing dozer line, so those ones we put in during the fires, they don't require nearly the level of environmental clearance to get put back in uh because they're already established. Okay.

But it still takes equipment time and it still takes uh money to get those cleared out. So, uh, great as strategic fuel brakes and we do have some funding for I think it's about 42 miles of fuel brakes around. Um, but it would be good to get that on the map. And what we're really trying to do countywide is to have a kind of a clearing house of what projects next up and who's working on it. So, would that be Hogback Bridge? Would that be the South Lake Excavator? Would it be a CalFire basticator? Would it be whatever? so that we can really utilize our resources for what we have. Wonderful. Yes. Thank you. Oh, hold on, Maria. Let me get you a mic. No, they can't hear.

But it's just the It's online, folks. Okay. Okay. Uh I'm Maria Khan. Have you heard of using sound frequencies to squatch flyers? Yeah, that's great for a really small fire. It doesn't work on a large scale. Okay. Yeah. Same with a leaf blower. Work great on little fires and on the edge of fires, but it doesn't work for anything of scale. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, Chief Duncan, and I look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. And then we'll move on to Supervisor Kandle's update.

All right. I'll get through this kind of quick. I just wanted to I'll start off with this. Uh Sterling, you you you did a public comment about Lyme disease. Uh and I actually found a proclamation and I put it into the uh act to staff to see if I can get that on. I'd like to get it on this week because at least it would declare May because it is May is awareness month. So, be looking out. I'll let you know as soon as I know. Thank you.

Um I I'm glad that you all uh mentioned the rates. I know we had another uh we had another proposition when it comes to special districts to to talk about the rates, but keep in mind, you know, you can protest this. Make sure that you know if you have your I'm not saying to do it or not to do it. I just want you to be educated because of what we dealt with in Spring Valley. And I know that you're going to work on that. But just, you know, it make we want to make sure that uh you pressure whoever is doing the notices and it's even good for the actual agency to make sure the notices say what they say as well because you don't want it to be, you know, uh contested or appealed or anything because of that. But on the other end, you want to be as educated as you can as a citizen to either fight it or support it or whatever the case may be. So just it's it's very important to get all of the information out. It's very good that you're putting a committee together to hold them to that. Um, next, Rodman Slooh Road. I don't know if anyone noticed, but they're starting to work on Rodman Slooh Road, which is good. Um, the other thing I've noticed a couple roads in Nice. I know one's Lake View Drive. I don't know if they've hit some other spots yet, but they've they've been really tackling, they want to do, I think it's 37 miles a year in the county, so see how that goes. Um, Lake Pillsbury, um, we're we're at a spot where, um, if you haven't heard about Lake Elsenor, uh, water district is looking to purchase, uh, to purchase this, uh,

Scott's Dam.

Yeah, the Scott Dam. Um, they're working, they went to DC and talked with the group. There's also some other things that have have played out where they're doing investigation. Congressman Huffman wants to do investigation. and they've already got some PAS out for folks that are involved. Two people that are on that are actually running for supervisor right now in Sonoma County. Um and um there this is just part of the process to slow things down, which is fine. We can keep it as slow as we want. Uh because we want to see it stay, right? I mean, that's the whole point. I'm glad that Chief Duncan had mentioned Lake Pillsbury as of right now is a good spot to get some water from because that's one of the biggest reasons we need to keep it. So, um, so in the meantime, we have that resource while they're doing and lining this out. Of course, we are doing our best to, um, stay in a in a spot to be at the table and to ensure that we accentuate what we want when it comes to Lake Pillsbury and keeping Scott Dan uh, up or getting a proper study that it says why or why not. Um, rent stabilization ordinance is with county council. Supervisor Sabbatia and myself redlined it one more time last week and so uh once county council has that ready, you'll see it. So, um you'll see it when the chair is ready to put it on and we'll go from there. So, um that's what I have with that. We're at a good point now with that. It's not sitting in limbo. It's just sitting on county council's desk, which we will continuously push to get that ready to to get that ready. and and actually county council redlined it and then we we fixed it and redlined it ourselves one more time to ensure that what we wanted was on there too to to make sure we have a good ordinance that can get that can get through there. We want to hit a home run. We don't want to hit a double and leave it in someone's you know what I mean? We don't want to leave it with somebody and have to depend on them. We're already at that spot right now with county council, but once we get this to the board, we want we want it we want it to pass, right? We want it to get it to go through. So, we we don't

want to stall it any longer. I know you've waited long enough. You know, we we've been working Lake uh Lake Village Estates since 24 or was it 24? Yeah, late 24. So, important for that. Be on the lookout. And that's what I have for now. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Any new business? Sterling, I have a question.

I would like our if we can do a geothermal energy committee for this uh for our town hall because it's coming our way and I think that we should be super involved in it more than this that we have the road committees, the land use committee. I really do believe that having a geothermal energy committee would be very very very important for the community. Okay. So, do you want to write up a proposal and bring it to the next meeting of like here's what we're going to look at and I'm totally down. I just wanted to bring it as an idea and so then maybe next next month we can can vote on it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh do you want a copy of what we did for or you have it for what we did for the road committee like the draft like here's what we want to work on the land use? I can forward you. I was going to say yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um any other new business? I have a question. So, um I don't know um if there's anything could be do about be done about this, but that 35 mph speed limit sign right when you come into Clear Lake Oaks, I was wondering if there's any way you could move that back like to Lakeshore so that people know to slow down before they get to town because right now they're they're not slowing down till they get right there. And I just think that's pretty dangerous. I'm sorry. Where's Lakeshore that you're talking about?

Um not I don't know if it's Lakeshore. Um, I'm kind of new here. So, right before Sulfur Bank, the lake lake um lake shore is it? Uh, no. No, it's by Lake Village Estates. Orchard Village. Orchard. Okay. Thank you. Orchard. Orchard Shore. Sorry, I'm kind of new here. So, yeah. But I just had noticed this in the two years I've been here that people don't slow down till they get right into town, right where that sign is. And I was wondering if there's any way to move that sign back to their back to Orchard Shores. Yeah. So there was and there was discussion about that before uh years ago and we just got the contact information at the district the MAC meeting. So we just got the contact information for our CALR what is he the

project manager. So um we're going to be reaching out to him with the stuff that's on that list right there and those are the things we're going to be asking exactly that on the list. Thank you so much and that one is on the list and what was your name? Nancy. Nancy. All right. And if you want um you can email us and we'll keep you up to date or you can come up after the meeting and give us your information and we'll keep you up to date with what's going on with that. But that is one of the concerns that people do have in the oaks. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. So, we'll go ahead and move on to announcements. Um announcements. So, um, I was going to say there's a candidate candidates forum for the district 3 candidates at the NICE event center tomorrow from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. uh for the 2026 election candidate forum. Uh, district 3 supervisor candidates Julia Carrera, uh, EJRandle and Danielle Santo Pietro will be there. It's sponsored by the Geysers Calpine and presented by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. Uh, the forum is going to be streamed and recorded by Peg TV. Uh then um I was also going to say the 42nd annual Catfish Derby runs from May 15th to the 17th. Uh awards and a barbecue are on the 17th. Uh and the derby headquarters is at the fire station in Clear Lake Oaks. Uh I was hoping that um someone from the Clear Lake Oaks Business Association would be here because I don't know when the next meeting is otherwise I was going to tell you.

I don't. Go ahead. I don't know. We'll put it on the website when we find out. The next meeting for the Clear Lake Oaks Glenn Haven Business Association meeting is the fourth Thursday and the guest speaker will be speaking on the Mediterranean oak bore beetle infestation. Oh, who is that? Uh, we thought it was going to be Mike Jones, but I believe it's going to be I can't think of his name. Bando. Oh, it's not you. It's and it's not Euing. No, but it'll be a really exciting presentation and something that all the community needs to be aware of because of the high spread of this invasive pest. So, Donna, can you keep us up to date with that?

Sure. Okay. And you don't have to buy the dinner. You can just come and watch the presentation and it will be held at the Keys Club instead of the Moose Lodge at Keys Club. All right. Great. Thank you. And with that, I think we are all done for this. Angela, um, I might mention that Cindy Jasar is here from clerk and also they do they have a cost share program if anybody's interested in tree planting, pre-commercial thinning, follow-up treatments, conservation practices, and they have consultations, too. So, reach out. Oh, and the chipping program. So, Cindy Jar is out in the

raise your hand. Cindy, stand up. Cindy is from Clark. Cindy is also a great wildlife rehabilitator and Cindy is our guest speaker for next month as well. What's what's the acronym mean? Oh, I'm sorry. Clear Lake Environmental Research Center clerk and the website is the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center.org. Clerk cler clerk clerk.org.org. And we do have a chipping day coming up in Spring Valley. Oh, you want it? Let's grab you a mic. Uh, is that battery dead on that one? Yeah,

it's for the Zoom. It's for the video after that, right? Yes. So, we do have a chipping day coming up. Uh, you can sign up at chipping day.org. We tried to make that one simple. Um, in Spring Valley, June 20th through 22nd.

Okay. Um, we also do countywide free shipping. So, if you missed our Northshore chipping day last month, um, definitely sign up and we'll get something else going for this area. And, you know, we do Clear Lake O. Well, we do the whole county, but we can do a Northshore day from anywhere from Clear Lake Oaks to Upper Lake. So, we'll group those together if people sign up. Um, the only other thing I wanted to mention is I'm going to leave back here on the back table and I'll talk more about this next month. Um, unless you need the water company to be here. I can I can definitely bump myself. Oh. Um but right of entry um we are going to be doing work roadside work in um Double Eagle as Paul said and also High Valley Road and um Cerrito Lake View in Clear Lake Oaks. Um so if you live in any of those areas, definitely let us know. Um, we definitely need the rights of entries to do all that work and we're trying to do as up to 100 ft of the roadside. So, um, we'll do less if there's a prop, you know, a homeowner there, but um, if it's vacant land, we'll go as far as that.

There is, um, Clear Lake, I mean, um, an endangered manzanita, the Kctai Manzanita on Alta Vista. So, we do botanical surveys and nesting bird surveys to try and catch all that. But if you know of something where we're going to be working, definitely, you know, where to reach me. Um, yeah. So, definitely sign up if you live in those areas or if you know people that live in those areas, have them come to our website. And one quick other thing that I think is very exciting, the fish and wildlife surveys finished their uh survey of Clear Lake Keys and Schindler Creek. The number one fish in the canals right now is the thread pin shad. Number two in great abundance is Clear Lake Hitch.

Great. All right. Well, and um thank you, Cindy. And we'll put that we'll get that fly. We'll get that flyer put up on our website as well so that people can go and find it, sign the right of entries, um so they can do the work that they need to do to keep the brush back from the roadways. Um and with that, we will go ahead and adjourn our meeting. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, June 3rd, right here at the Moose Lodge from 4 to 5:30. And with that, we'll go ahead and adjourn our meeting at 5:50. Thank you.