Water tank plan questioned

Much like the water tank located above Conifer Street, Triunfo Sanitation District’s plan to examine five different locations for a new water tank in Oak Park may rest on shaky ground.

Save Open Space and the adhoc Oak Park Water Tank Committee have hired a lawyer and a geological consulting firm to help them contest the way Triunfo Sanitation District selected five possible sites for a new water tank.

Residents contend Triunfo’s selection process has been arbitrary and is missing critical geological information.

“We want Triunfo to have an understandable system backed by hard data to choose a site and a procedure where they listen to citizen data,” said Janna Orkney, a member of the Oak Park Water Tank Committee.

The new water tank is needed to replace the deteriorating water tank above Conifer Street. For nearly a decade, water officials have said the 35-year-old Conifer tank is unsafe because of deterioration. A geological survey of the Conifer site in the late 1990s showed the tank may slide down the hill if the area was hit by a sizable earthquake.

The Triunfo Sanitation District will host a public workshop on Mon., Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Oak Park Community Center in Oak Park to discuss the five sites being considered for the new water tank.

Mark Lawler, Triunfo’s district manager, said Triunfo staff will give details on the five proposed sites so residents will better understand the pros and cons of each location.

Triunfo officials hope residents will use the information presented at the public workshop to give the Triunfo board of directors feedback at its next meeting on Fri., Nov. 28.

In mid-October, the Triunfo board of directors used a report presented by Triunfo staff comparing the 16 possible locations to select the five sites currently being considered. For each site, the report compared landslide concerns, total acres affected, aesthetic issues, environmental impact and traffic, as well as estimated construction costs.

According to Alyse Lazar, a Thousand Oaks attorney, Triunfo is not in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state-mandated law that defines the permit process required for a construction project to be built on undeveloped land.

“The summary matrix presented to the public and the board on Sept. 26, 2005 did not provide the public and the board with a factual basis for the board’s decision to eliminate 11 sites from its consideration for the replacement of the water tank,” Lazar wrote in her letter to the Triunfo board of directors. “CEQA requires that a lead agency ‘must publicly disclose its reasoning’ for alternatives selected and those rejected.”

Phone messages left for John Mathews, the attorney who represents Triunfo, by The Acorn were not returned.

Thomas Slosson, a geological engineer, recently sent the Triunfo board of directors a letter asking Triunfo to give data proving the current Conifer tank site is considered unsafe because of subsurface instability.

Slosson, who has worked as geologist for the cities of Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Moorpark, also said the topographical mapping provided by Triunfo conflicts with the State of California Seismic Hazards Zones map of the Thousand Oaks Quadrangle, which covers Oak Park.

Lawler said two geological firms, Fugro West Inc. and Southwestern Engineering Geology, surveyed the Conifer tank site. Although neither firm conducted subsurface boring tests, both consultants agreed the area was at risk of a landslide.

A single boring test costs between $5,000 and $7,000, depending on depth, said Lawler. If boring tests are used, Lawler is unsure how many borings would be needed to determine the depth and breadth of the landslide area.

Because Triunfo has begun investigating the five new sites for the replacement tank, the agency is required to re-issue a notice of preparation—the third in the project’s history.

Because there are multiple sites, Linda Parks, a Ventura County supervisor and Triunfo board member, said the issue may become further complicated.

“The staff and TSD board members say they haven’t agreed on a project site, yet EIRs (environmental impact report) look at one project site and include analyses of alternatives,” Parks said. “I’m thinking it’s becoming a semantics sleight of hand and they really have settled on one project site but don’t want to admit it because members of the community are up in arms against it.”

The five options were put forward after Oak Park residents voiced frustration with Triunfo’s decision to build a new tank in the Palo Comado Canyon above Doubletree Street.

Oak Park residents oppose the Palo Comado Canyon site because the new tank would sit at the juncture of multiple hiking trails leading into the neighboring national park.

“We can’t let this beautiful Palo Comado Canyon be destroyed. It’s the only entrance into the (national park) in Oak Park,” said Mary Wiesbrock, head of Save Open Space.