Buckeye Creek project on Douglas County Planning Commission agenda Tuesday

Much like the lake side of El Dorado County and the west slope don’t always see eye to eye, the Douglas County portion at the lake, and the valley residents are in the same situation.

The topic currently at the forefront is Buckeye Creek Reservoir, located in the eastern portion of Douglas County. BLM has most of the land in this undeveloped area, and the Douglas County Sewer Improvement District (DCSID) owns 1,001 of those acres.

There are a few major components surrounding the issues at Buckeye Creek Reservoir, the biggest ones are transport of effluent from the basin, future sources of aggregate, and flood control.

DCSID exports treated wastewater out of the basin. Just as the export from South Lake Tahoe goes into Alpine County for irrigation, the Nevada side water goes to the valleys to provide agricultural irrigation water. State and federal mandates in the 1960s dictated this method.

It has been determined that the capacity of the current reservoir used for this purpose on Bently Ranch will be exceeded within 15 years, and because of this, DSCID started looking for new ways to move the effluent back in 2007. What they came up with is a plan for creating a new reservoir on their land near Buckeye Creek that would also raise money to offset costs that are estimated to cost Tahoe Township residents an extra $881,000 annually for 20 years.

They found the 1,001 acres owned by the District at Buckeye Creek Reservoir to be the best solution. DSCID has owned it since the early 1990s, and was once the site for its effluent but when the federal government changed the type of lining that sewer ponds required it was moved to Minden-Gardnerville or Bently’s Ranch because they had the capacity. The agreement has always been that the District must move out of this space when capacity becomes an issue. The ponds will need to be regraded to meet the new standards required and the ponds will need to be relined.
Not only will this proposed move solve the effluent problem, but it could also provide benefits for the County as a flood control basin and be a commercial source for gravel (aggregate) pulled out of the land during the excavation of the reservoir.

Their property is located in a valley away from homes and businesses, two miles east of East Valley Road.

Construction projects from around the Sierra and Carson Valley buy their gravel from Bing Materials in Gardnerville. It is estimated that they will run out of aggregate by 2020. Travel costs for many private and public projects for buying the material from elsewhere would add an estimated 6% to project costs when Bing runs out. Currently, the haul route from Bing is along Kimmerling Road and utilizes six miles of public road, passing through neighborhoods and heavily used public areas. The new route would go through Bently Ranch’s property, exit at Airport Road, and use about one mile of public roads through an industrial area.

If passed by county government, not only will the treated wastewater have a new home, and a new source of aggregate created, a new flood basin for area residents will be created.

Even though just 9.18% of the residents of Douglas County live in Tahoe Township and only 1.54% of the County’s roads are at the lake, much of the County’s income from businesses and residents living at Lake Tahoe. 37.64% of the property tax, 85.96% of the room tax collected and 85.5% of the gaming tax comes from the lake portion of the county.

DCSID took 30 people on a field trip of the proposed reservoir area on October 31 so they could see for themselves the area involved. Both proponents and opponents were on board.

A major opponent to the project was once Steve Mothersell and SCM Homes, who owns the land at Grandview Estates where the old route of gravel trucks would use one road. He took out advertising and formally objected to the Douglas Planning Commission’s decision to approve the project in December. He has since withdrawn his appeal. DCSID has moved the route to go through Bently’s property.

There are two active citizens groups involved, the Tahoe Citizen’s Committee (TCC) and the Protect East Valley group. Over 150 people gathered on the South Shore for the Tahoe Township meeting on the matter September 29, while the East Valley group held a town hall meeting November 4 that had about 150 people present.

TCC President Kelly Krolicki said she was very encouraged by the turnout and the Tahoe Township’s passion to engage on the Buckeye Creek Reservoir proposal.

“The local demand for aggregate will always be there for road projects, paving, foundations, construction project, “said Krolicki. "If we get the aggregate outside of Douglas County, residents will have no control on how the trucks will deliver it to the site. If you have a local source, you at least have some control over the haul route and you can better control the costs of aggregate. "

The Douglas County Planning Commission will meet on the matter Tuesday, November 10 at 1 p.m. at the Douglas County Administrative Building, 1616 Eighth Street, Minden, Nevada.

Also on the agenda is Tahoe Shores, the planned development at the end of Kahle Drive in Stateline. Proposed are 15 lots for multi-family units on 19.73 acres. The developer is also asking for the width of roads in the development to be less than the required 60 feet.