President O’Neil hit the bell with the normal sized gavel to open the meeting at 12:00 p.m.  He was warned to keep an eye on the gavel as Les Gudger was in the room (it was Les that warned him.) The Prez asked Steve Turner to lead the pledge, which he did. Joe Green was asked to give the invocation.  

 

Michael Caplan joined the meeting at this time. 

 

Tim Cahill introduced his guest, Robert Nelson, of CAK Insurance and proud sponsor of the very successful Rotary Golf Tournament.

 

Prez O’Neil, normally would go right to the money maker Bell Ringing but he diverged from his usual as he couldn’t wait to talk about the very successful golf tournament held last week.  He called upon Christine Jensen to report on the tournament’s bottom line.  While she did not have the final, final numbers, she could report that our club knocked it out of the park doing 90% of the fundraising as well as the volunteering with the other 10% being contributed by the Granite Bay Rotary Club.  The Foundation will receive about $25,000 for its efforts.  Our club receives a management fee for managing the books and records for these events and will receive $1,500 for our efforts.  We had the majority of the sponsors, donation for the raffle and silent auction and volunteers for the event.  It was a great event.  The Prez gave a big thank you to all the members of the Golf Committee, John Gabriel, Linda Biggler, Les Gudger, Lynn Lizarraga, Christine Jensen, and Rob Ford.  The club gave a hearty round of applause to the committee.

 

Ben Fox and Richard Goore arrived at this time.  They knew they were really late as Michael Caplan was already in the room.

 

The Prez could not have been happier with the outcome of the golf tournament.  It was for this reason that he became a Bell Ringer.

Jenny Davini – for being able to go camping with her family which meant she could not volunteer to help with the golf tournament.

Bill Hambrick – for being allowed to visit his cabin along Highway 50 and finding it still standing though other cabins nearby had burned down.  He does have to rebuild the water system and PG&E needs to do their work and then he will be able to use the cabin.

John Gabriel – for all the help and support the club gave to the golf tournament.  John noted that, as long as P.E. Olmstead wishes to do a golf tournament next year, it will be on September 19^th, 2022.

Rob Olmstead – for his birthday on Friday and for his 55-mile backpacking trip in Southern Utah… and surviving it.

Al Cady – for being allowed to drive 7,500 miles from New Mexico through Colorado, Canada, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and back and forth all over the place.  He had a great time using about 700 gallons of diesel purchased outside California so it was not as expensive as it sounds.  

 

Michael Caplan – $20 for his safe travel to Oregon to deliver his granddaughter to college and see the Ducks beat Arizona.

Ben Fox – $40 as shame bucks for coming to the meeting later than Caplan, no one should be later than Caplan, and for his 40^th birthday.  He missed the golf tournament because he and his wife went on vacation to Park City Utah.  He did more mountain biking than he ever has and his arms still feel like rubber. 

Richard Goore – $20 for depositing his last child in college last week.  His son told them 1.5 months earlier that he was already gone so it was not a difficult separation process.  They loaded his stuff in the dorm room and he said ‘Thanks, goodbye.”  That allowed them to take a vacation to Santa Barbara and Colorado, their first trip as empty nesters. 

Matt Ross announced he would have been a bell ringer today but the club took all his money last week.  He offered up $20 for his daughter being up for prep player of the week.

 

 

Matt Ross said our club partnered with Point West Rotary on a grant for the River City Food Bank.  Part of the grant requires club members to rollup their sleeves and do some work at the site.  Friday 8:30 to 2:30 we will help distribute food at the Morse/Edison food bank.  On Saturday 8:30 to 12:30 we will be cleaning the outside of their mid-town location, prepping it for a new mural and installing a hard covering over the outside area to provide an area for food distribution as they need all the space inside for the food storage.   

Bill Hambrick reported on the Great American River Clean-up.  He appreciated the club turn-out, Christine Jensen, Johnathan Parker, Carroll Cook and 24 others.  The total trash pickup was not determined as the county kept taking it away as they bagged it up.   The total for the event was about 23,000 pounds. 

 

Tim Cahill reported that he went to the Point West Brew Fest after the clean-up.  He talked with a couple of Rotarians there and they expressed their condolences about Shelia Romero’s passing.  Also, he received a nice note from Lynette Anderson from the North Sacramento Club, “Please pass on my heartfelt condolences to your entire club.  I worked with Shelia in the past and I know what an integral member she was.”  She was our first female president and Al Cady mentioned that Shelia was the first female Sergeant at Arms.

 

Lisa Asperger was the first to shout out “Parkway” as the secret word from the last newsletter.  For this she was allowed to either take one ticket or spin the wheel and take her chances.  Prez O’Neil jinxed her spin by saying she might land on 0 tickets, which is what she did.  Feeling bad for the jinx, he gave her one ticket anyway.

 

 

Rob Olmstead introduced guest speaker Rylan Gervase, Policy Advisor for the Department of Water Resources, State Water Project.   Pinch hitting for Assistant Deputy Director, John Yarborough. John has 15 years’ experience at the water bureau and Rylan has 2, so keep that in mind when asking questions.

The State Water project is operated by the State of California and is one of three major water systems in California including the Colorado River aqueduct and the Central Valley Water Project, which is federally operated.  The reason these systems exist is because 2/3 of the rainfall occurs in Northern California while 2/3 of the population lives in Southern California.  These projects move the rain from north to south.  This is done through a massive system of aqueducts, canals and dams.  The system includes hydroelectric dams and power plants.  They provide water to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland.

The Central Valley Project was created in the 1930’s.  The state goes through weather cycles of flood and drought.  Farmers and urban dwellers formed an alliance to provide water for the farmers and flood protection for the cities.  This set the stage for the state to create the central valley project in the 1950’s and 60’s.  A voter bond was passed in 1960 to fund the project.  The system is 60 to 70 years old and in need of ongoing maintenance.

There are elevation changes that allow the system to generate 1/3 of the electricity in the state but the electricity generated is primarily used to offset the cost of electricity to pump the water over the Tehachapi’s to Los Angeles.

The Delta Water Project uses pumps that transfer water from the Delta into the aqueducts south to Southern California.  There are many precautions taken to ensure the salmon and delta smelt are protected.  Care is taken to ensure that the water flows are not diminished to the point that the habitat is impacted by salt water intrusion.  The tunnel planned to go around the delta is designed to ensure safe transfer of water and protection from earthquakes.

The Governor made a proclamation in June that we are officially in a state of drought brought because of two successive years of below normal rainfall.  This followed the wettest year on record, 2017.  Presently we are in the third worst drought in California History with 1924 and 1977 being worst but we have not seen the end to this drought so it could possibly change the ranking. 

To make matters worse, the minimum average temperature is rising.  This impacts the snow pack and water runoff.   The faster the snow melts the more difficult it is to capture the water due to limited storage space.  The slower the snow melts the more water we can capture.  The faster it melts the more water has to be released from the dams and that is what caused the infrastructure failure at the Oroville Dam in 2017.   

The drought has impacted water runoff as the ground is so dry it is soaking up water that would normally help fill the reservoirs.  The reservoirs are projected to have only 35% capacity by the end of the year.  We will be starting the year off with record low level storage.  Water delivery will be dependent on the winter storms and runoff this year.  Water delivery to farmers may be under 10%.  Priorities for water will be public safety and drinking water, environmental species protection and then farmland.   Lack of water storage has impacted the problem. We are in a dire situation and we need a good wet rain year.   

 

Michael Caplan asked if there are ways to bank water in the ground?  He also asked about water rights that are being taken away if they will be restored once the emergency is over?                             

Rylan Gervase responded there are existing systems in place that do store water in the ground, banking excess water during wet years for use during dry years.  He is not knowledgeable in the area of water rights. However, reductions are usually made across the board by percentage.

   

John Gabriel watches the water outflows and wonders why the discharges are so high and leave the reservoirs lower than necessary.  Why, in the face of this drought, did they let out twice as much water in April and May as was coming into the lakes?   

Rylan Gervase responded that they are looking at adjusting their forecasts and that this year’s runoff was outside the normal projections.    

                                                                     

Matt Ross Wanted to know what is being done to minimize water loss due to evaporation and increase water storage.      

Rylan Gervase we are looking at ways to increase storage like the Sites Reservoir.

 

Rob Olmstead noted that there are multiple water agencies that work together to fund the water project and pay for the operations of it through their water fees.  As far as evaporation, they are looking at the possibility of cover portions of the aqueducts with solar panels to generate electricity and reduce evaporation. 

Rylan Gervase said the state is a water wholesaler selling water to the major agencies in the state.

 

Michael Caplan asked if reverse osmosis systems are being considered, especially for southern California cities and requiring them to fund their operations?                             Rylan Gervase the metropolitan water agency is always looking for ways to provide water and one would need to ask them about that.

 

Joe Green asked if plans are in place to address a third year of drought?                                 

Rylan Gervase stated that they are looking for ways to ensure water delivery to communities that are reliant on ground water and may be negatively impacted by dry wells.  They are looking at appropriate water regulations to address water use and water quality requirements. To keep water in the reservoirs. 

 

Prez O’Neil thanked Rylan for the presentation and hoped that the information wet everyone’s whistle and then blamed the bad pun on Mike Grace.

 

The Prez Called John Gabriel to the front of the room to bestow upon him the Rotarian of the Month pin for doing an excellent job with the golf tournament and for being an all-around good guy. 

 

President Patrick O’Neil pulled Lisa Asperger’s ticket, and she drew the 8 of clubs.

As a bonus, another ticket was drawn for a 12 pack of Michelob Ultra.  Bill Hambrick won and donated the beer to the guest speaker.

 

President Patrick O’Neil rang the bell at 1:08 P.M. closing the meeting.

 

Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,

 

Mike Grace