Wed. 2/18/09 7pm - Discuss impacts on Mt Baldy natural areas

[Kevin]

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Please come out to the Hilyard Community Center for a short meeting on Wednesday evening and give feedback to EWEB on their possible construction project on Mount Baldy.

If you want to protect the integrity of Mt. Baldy natural areas, this is a critical time to come and voice your opinion:

EWEB Public Forum
Spring Boulevard Water Development Options
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
7:00pm to 8:30pm
Hilyard Community Center
2580 Hilyard Street, Eugene

Over the past several months, a group of our neighbors has been working with EWEB staff to address water service reliability and firefighting capacity concerns for about 200 houses along the ridgeline section of Spring Boulevard.

This group has considered options including reservoirs and water towers, weighed the pros and cons of different solutions, and selected two options for further consideration. It is likely that the EWEB Board will select one of these options for construction.

Both of these options meet all of the established engineering criteria for drinking water supply and firefighting water flow:

- Two Million Dollar Option - No Park Impact -

A secondary pump station with a back-up diesel generator, altogether about the size of a two-car garage, would be added in the area of 43rd and Spring Boulevard, water mains would be upgraded along Vine Maple, and the existing pump station off Shasta Loop would also be upgraded.

- Four Million Dollar Option - Significant Park Impact -

A buried, 750,000 gallon tank would be built along the top of Mt. Baldy, with an underground water main bored through the Ridgeline Park, from a large headworks excavation within the current park natural area, connecting to the existing water mains at the top of Spring Boulevard.

There would be two large areas of park impact, each around 100 feet across and involving large amounts of earth moving. The headworks area would have several dozen trees permanently removed from an existing natural area, possibly turning it into a parking lot. The large tank excavation area is meadow which would eventually be restored.

But why spend twice as much and damage our precious Ridgeline Park, when there is a much more economical option which keeps the park protected? Some think it is worth twice the cost and the park impacts for the small increment in percieved reliability of a gravity-feed system compared to double pump stations each with its own backup generator.

This is the second of two EWEB public forums on these project options, and our voices need to be heard. EWEB staff will open with a presentation on the options of about 20 minutes. Then members of the citizen advisory group will make short statements for 10 or 15 minutes. Then the rest of the meeting will be open for your questions and comments.

I'll look forward to seeing you there!

with best wishes,

Kevin Matthews
Southeast Neighbors




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Southeast Neighbors
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