By Kristina Pritchett
The South Coast Water District approved an authorization of $22,500 for additional engineering and permitting services regarding the San Juan Creek boat and RV storage project during its July 14 board of directors meeting.
The additional funds, according to the district, will be used to complete additional permitting services related to revisions of the habitat mitigation swales’ locations based on the location of the proposed Doheny Ocean Desalination Project.
“As we went through a Doheny Desalination process, we realized there would be some potential conflicts with the desal plant and the mitigation swales,” said Chief Eningeer Rick Shintaku. “So we had the designer move the swales back into lot B.”
Shintaku said this would decrease the amount of parking spaces by 10.
Andrew Brunhart, General Manager for the district, said this is the fourth amendment to the consulting agreement.
“We’ve worked on this particular item since October 2013,” Brunhart said during the meeting.
In March 2014, the district awarded a consulting services agreement to Tetra Tech for $324,294 for engineering design services associated with the development of the boat and RV storage facilities.
According to the staff report, the original agreement cost $324,394, with the approval of the fourth amendment; the total cost is now $483,357. Director Bill Green commented on the matter, and added that it was a lot of money.
President Wayne Rayfield stated since the work needed to be done anyway, and could potentially cost more if the board waited, he would be in favor of passing the amendment.
Director Dennis Edrman, who voted against the amendment, stated he was concerned with the project.
“I’ve expressed my concern previously that this project falls outside the mission of South Coast Water District,” Erdman said. “I’m not in favor of continuing to support expenditures on engineering costs, even if it results in some delay in [the Lot B] project.”
Directors Dennis Erdman and Dick Dietmeier both voted against the amendment, resulting in a 3-2 vote.
A special meeting is scheduled for July 27 for a Doheny Desalination workshop at 9 a.m., and a regular meeting is scheduled for July 28 at 6 p.m.
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