Grand jury calls for changes in water district practices

The Kern County grand jury has recommended changes in certain practices of the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District. It's also called on the district's board to "adhere to rules and policies" in an agreement it signed with the city of Tehachapi in 2020 — and to provide training and briefings for board members prior to the elected officials taking action on agenda items.

The recommendations are part of an 11-page report released by the grand jury on June 1. The report notes that the grand jury made inquiries about the water district to follow up on three areas discussed in its report about the district in 2018-19.

According to the report, the water district is complying with all of the recommendations cited in the 2018-2019 grand jury report.

But the report notes that "during the investigation, new areas of concern surfaced, including litigation and disputes." To conduct the review, representatives of the grand jury reviewed previous reports, meeting minutes and newspaper articles and interviewed various parties, including past and present board members.

On Monday morning, General Manager Tom Neisler said the water district "appreciates the efforts of the grand jury subcommittee in investigating and preparing their report. We look forward to the opportunity to provide a detailed response."

The report includes background information about the water district and notes that it is financially well-managed.

"However, TCCWD is not without problems," the report notes. "Research revealed that they are in litigation with the city of Tehachapi regarding water access for the Sage Ranch development project, a residential development including both single-family and multi-family housing units. The proposed additional water hookups would increase the total for the city from 3,000 to 4,000. They are at an impasse in negotiations. Recently, this litigation changed venue from Kern County Superior Court to the Sacramento Superior Court."

The report also discusses the district's water sales priority ordinance — a matter of contention in recent years as the city of Tehachapi and Golden Hills Community Services District have pushed the water district to establish a standing committee to develop the ordinance that is needed whenever the State Water Project isn't able to provide enough water to meet water district customer requests. The district board has resisted this request and has used an ad hoc committee of two board members to develop the priority list for board approval, although earlier this year it involved the city, Golden Hills and a representative of a large farming company in roundtable workshops to discuss the priorities.

The grand jury's recommendations include replacing the ad hoc committee with a permanent Standing Water Committee to include representatives of the city and three community services districts — Bear Valley, Golden Hills and Stallion Springs — in addition to representatives of agricultural interests and other customers. A second recommendation is that the district should form a permanent standing committee for Operations and Budget/Financials. Both of these recommendations call for the district to create the new standing committees by Nov. 1.

"Transparency is an important part of governance," the grand jury's findings note. "To ease differences, when TCCWD forms an ad hoc Water Priority Committee for writing the water (priority) ordinance, the public would be better served with the inclusion of all stakeholders."

And, "instead of ad hoc committees, if TCCWD formed two permanent standing committees, one for operations and another for finances, ongoing reports would be made to the board."

Water recycling — specifically the city's Groundwater Sustainability Project (which the water district refers to as IPR (an acronym for Indirect Potable Recharge), was also reviewed by the grand jury.

According to the report, the city and water district entered into a memorandum of understanding in May 2020, related to the city's plans to upgrade its wastewater treatment process to add tertiary filtration and disinfection, then pipe the treated water into the flood control basin called Blackburn Dam that is owned by the water district.

"Signed by both parties in May 2020, the MOU agreement allowed the city to claim 94 percent of the recharged water delivered to the basin (a 6 percent reduction is due to evapotranspiration loss), but later TCCWD attempted to unilaterally alter the MOU terms by lowering the amount to half of the recharged/reclaimed water," the grand jury report states.

"TCCWD publicly stated that they were collaborating with the city, but the city does not agree with this assessment," the report notes.

As noted in a report city Development Services Director Jay Schlosser made to the water district board in March 2022, the project — estimated to cost between $15 million and $20 million — is a multiyear effort to upgrade treatment of the city's wastewater to allow the treated water stored underground to eventually become part of the potable water supply.

"The grand jury consulted with the California State Water Resource Board regarding water rights to recharged/reclaimed wastewater," the report states. "Their legal counsel and water rights experts both confirmed the recharged/reclaimed wastewater belonged 100 percent to the original owner of the wastewater, which would be the city of Tehachapi. Legal counsel for the (state board) recommended that the MOU parties follow the guidelines stated in the MOU and proceed to arbitration."

In a related finding, the grand jury stated that city's treated wastewater project is a responsible way to mitigate drought and that the public is best served by all parties honoring all aspects of the MOU.

The grand jury noted that the water district and the city of Tehachapi should post a copy of the report where it will be available for public review.

Response from the water district is required within 90 days and response from the city of Tehachapi and Golden Hills CSD is requested within the same time period.

Representatives of the city and Golden Hills CSD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Claudia Elliott is a freelance journalist and former editor of the Tehachapi News. She lives in Tehachapi and can be reached by email: [email protected].

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