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Lake Arrowhead Water Accord Declared

Posted on: Sunday, 6 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Guy McCarthy, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

Nov. 6--LAKE ARROWHEAD -- Water, money and politics are stuck on spin cycle again in this millionaires' lakefront paradise.

An agreement announced Saturday between well-heeled homeowners and a water district is being portrayed as cooperation that gives the resort community one united voice. It came just two days before community services district board elections and a crucial water-rights hearing in Sacramento.

But a Lake Arrowhead Community Services District board member says that while the agreement itself is a great idea, it was reached illegally, without public vote or public input.

Regardless of the latest maneuvers by the community services district board and the Arrowhead Lake Association, the state hearing on rights to drinking water from the man-made reservoir will take place Tuesday as planned, said Liz Kanter, spokeswoman for the State Water Resources Control Board.

"We're going forward with the hearing," Kanter said Saturday afternoon. "I have no comment other than that."

Responding to a complaint made by district board member Ted Heyck and the Arrowhead Lake Association, the Water Resources Control Board issued a preliminary order to the district in August to stop drawing water from Lake Arrowhead and to impose a temporary injunction on new water hookups, pending the outcome of Tuesday's water-rights hearing.

The preliminary order underlined state Water Resource Control Board officials' view that Lake Arrowhead's water is for recreation only, and not for other uses, specifically not as a source of drinking water.

The district board responded by staging a news conference at the County Government Center in downtown San Bernardino and by purchasing full-page ads in a mountain newspaper to ensure its views reached its critical, local audience.

Angry residents packed a community services district board meeting demanding answers and solutions. Heyck, as complainant in the state water-rights dispute, was excluded from the board's closed sessions.

The Arrowhead Lake Association is made up of investors, residents and visitors who own the lake and the dam that forms it.

Legal terms of the agreement announced Saturday state the association recognizes that the community services district owns a valid pre-1914 right to divert water from the lake for consumption, and the district agrees the association owns a pre-1914 right to divert water to create Lake Arrowhead for recreational purposes.

Marv Shaw, the district's general manager, said Saturday that the agreement with the Arrowhead Lake Association, approved by the district Friday and by the association Saturday, is a "tremendous accomplishment."

"Now these two agencies are working together," Shaw said. "Now at the hearing Tuesday, (the association) withdraws its complaint and expresses support for the district."

But Heyck said the timing was designed to get misinformation into today's and Monday's newspapers before the district board elections and the water-rights hearing in Sacramento.

"It's a swell idea, but a portion of the board is simply not allowed to act in secret on behalf of the entire board," Heyck said. "It's another instance where the community services (district) shows no respect for its constituents or even the legal process itself."

The district's secretary confirmed there is no recorded vote or meeting of the board on the agreement.

"They called a special meeting on Friday of the board, and they went into an hourlong closed session," said Patti McGonigle. "Afterward, Mr. Shaw said there was no reportable action. That's what the audience believed."

Shaw said Saturday evening that the district's legal counsel continues to ensure that the district board adheres strictly to the Brown Act, California's open-meeting law.

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Copyright (c) 2005, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

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Source: San Bernardino County Sun

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