COSTA MESA : Reservoir Proposal Rankles Residents

The welcome that Cheryl Carlson received to her new neighborhood was not what she expected.

In January, about a month after Carlson moved into her $300,000 home, she learned of plans to excavate a field next door to build an underground tank the size of a football field.

“I certainly wouldn’t have bought here if I’d known about this,” said Carlson, who lives in one of 12 homes in the Sycamore Park development. “It’s devastating.”

The 10-acre field is part of the Kaiser Elementary School site, and Newport Mesa Unified School District officials are talking about leasing that property to the Mesa Consolidated Water District for a reservoir. Tonight, the water district will present a status report to the school board, and a group of angry residents plans to attend.

“I’m very upset about the whole thing,” said homeowner Sandy Morgan, adding that she is worried about the safety of schoolchildren and what will become of her “nice and quiet neighborhood.”

Karl Kemp, the water district’s general manager, said the 25-million-gallon tank is an integral part of Costa Mesa’s long-term water plan. Ground water will be pumped into the reservoir, which will serve the city’s east side, he said.

The $12-million reservoir could save residents from a 50% increase in water bills over the next 10 years, Kemp said. And because of an increasing drain on the Colorado and Sacramento rivers, Kemp said the city cannot rely forever on outside water sources.

The reservoir, scheduled to take 30 months to complete, will be 35 feet deep and 350 feet in diameter. If all goes as planned, construction will begin in mid-1991 with the heavy excavation completed while children are on summer vacation.

The project would be financed through the sale of 20-year bonds, Kemp said.

Area residents say they understand the need for the reservoir but think the school is the wrong place to build it.

Leslie Furman, who has one child attending Kaiser and another expected to start there next year, said she believes that the project is inevitable, although the school board has yet to vote on the lease.

After an initial public hearing, Furman said “the parents and community left without feeling as though they were heard. They (water district board members) clearly had already made up their minds.”

The school district has been negotiating with the water district for more than a year, school district Supt. John Nicoll said. The water district is now responding to residents’ concerns, Kemp said.

“We want to make this palatable with the community and find solutions to the problems,” said school board member Jim DeBoom.

Carlson is irked by what she says is a lack of response about noise and safety problems and the potential decline in property values.

“They had no answers for us at all. It was all very vague,” Carlson said. “Why do they want to put a reservoir on an active school site? It doesn’t make sense.”

Kemp stressed that the water district will do everything necessary during construction to ensure the children’s safety.

“We are equally as concerned as the parents and will do whatever it takes to have a safe job,” Kemp said. “If that means a 24-hour security guard, we’ll do it.”

If trustees approve the Kaiser site, negotiations will begin between the school district and the water district on a 99-year lease. Neither side would say what the expected income from the lease would provide to the school district.