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2021-07-20 Warren CC1 From:Alena Callimanis Sent:Tuesday, July 20, 2021 12:40 PM To:City Clerk Mail Cc:Monika Radeva; Sheila Warren Subject:Presentation today by Sheila Warren at the public comments section of today's City Council meeting Attachments:Sheila Warren City Council Presentation.pdf ** EXTERNAL: This message originated outside of the City of La Quinta. Please use proper judgement and caution when opening attachments, clicking links or responding to requests for information. ** Here is the document that Sheila Warren will be using during today’s City Council meeting. Sheila will be at City Hall in person. Thank you very much. Alena Callimanis CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JULY 20, 2021 - WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT SHEILA WARREN PUBLIC COMMENTS ON MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - OPPOSING THE WAVE PROJECT Good day Honorable Mayor Evans, Council Members and Staff. My name is Sheila Warren and I am a Trilogy Resident. I have two quick things to cover with you today. The first is that we are getting tired of the developer justifying his water use for the wave basin by saying that he will use only 25% of the water used by a golf course. What he fails to mention is that golf courses can use gray or recycled water and that he must used potable water from our aquifer. If you haven’t read it, there was an excellent article in the July 18 Desert Sun, Golf Courses prepare for water shortages. I would like to highlight just a few of the key points of that article: There is a 15% voluntary request in reduction of water use across the state, New level of drought emergency declaration will be coming by 2022. Unlike many golf courses elsewhere in the State which rely heavily on groundwater, Coachella Valley golf courses have sought to reduce reliance on the local aquifer. Protecting that groundwater, the main source of water for households and businesses in the desert is a focus of the Golf and Water Task Force. “Because the aquifer is literally the lifeblood of everything that happens in the desert, as important as it is reducing the overall water usage footprint over time, we do put more emphasis on the health of the aquifer. Desert courses have been moving away from aquifer water in the last decade. Desert courses have been removing turf. “We have to recognize that we are in a desert and the aquifer isn’t endless.” CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JULY 20, 2021 - WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT SHEILA WARREN PUBLIC COMMENTS ON MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - OPPOSING THE WAVE PROJECT So how will the wave pool move away from use of the aquifer? It can’t. How can a wave pool cut water use by 15%? It can’t because it will not be able to operate. And what about evaporation? When we asked the developer, they tried to compare evaporation at the Kelly Slater pool in Lemoore California with this one. Once we reminded them that Lemoore had 40 days over 100 in 2020 and we have 143 days over 100, that their high was 107 and our high was 124, that their lows were mostly in the 60s with a few 70s during those hot days, and our nights were always in the 100s, or high 90s and 80s, they stopped comparing evaporations. And finally, I would just like to mention about the 7AM to 10PM operation of the wave basin, 365 days of the year. Up to and including our face to face meeting with the developer on June 16, when asked, the developer always told us that it would be 12 hours of operation, 7AM to 7PM so we had nothing to worry about with noise or light at night. Two days later on June 18, the draft of environmental impact report that had the hours of 7AM to 10PM, 365 days of the year. Seems awfully strange they did not know that two days earlier… But who is going to be surfing during the day in this heat? With water temperatures in the 90s and air temperatures in the 100s, that is a recipe for heat stroke. This project is in the wrong place at the wrong time. CITY COUNCIL MEETING - JULY 20, 2021 - WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT SHEILA WARREN PUBLIC COMMENTS ON MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - OPPOSING THE WAVE PROJECT