Water District to Rebuild Reservoir : Decision: Board’s vote is a blow to residents’ battle to bar reopening of the facility.

In a decisive setback to the three-year battle of Monterey Park officials and residents to prevent the reopening of Garvey Reservoir, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on Tuesday approved a $28-million plan to rebuild the damaged facility.

After hearing 90 minutes of testimony from two dozen speakers--mostly in opposition--during a hearing in Los Angeles, the 51-member water district board voted 29-5-1 to accept an environmental study on repairs to the dam.

The decision allows the district to start the final designs for the project.

“We are looking forward to putting Garvey Reservoir back on line as soon as possible,” said Carl Boronkay, the district’s general manager. “Without it, we have been operating our system under serious risk to millions of Southland consumers.”

He said that the reservoir is a crucial link in the water supply system and that, without it, interruptions could occur.

Acknowledging the opposition, Boronkay said, “We will continue to work with Monterey Park officials and residents to address their concerns.”

The reservoir was drained in 1989 shortly after cracks were discovered and blamed for the flooding of one dozen residences next to the 41-acre facility.

Monterey Park City Manager Chris Jeffers said he was “dismayed and somewhat frustrated” by the vote, citing his belief that the water board made its decision without having “a complete picture.”

Jeffers said the City Council has 30 days from Tuesday to decide whether to take any legal action contesting the approval of the environmental study.

An environmental study by the water district concluded in June that the reservoir could be rebuilt to ensure the safety of the southeast Monterey Park neighborhood. The report said rebuilding was the best of eight options considered. But residents, city officials and consultants hired by the community disputed the study’s accuracy and raised seismic and technical issues.

Three weeks ago, the MWD board postponed a decision on the study so officials could review the city’s critique.

However, the district’s chief engineer, Gary Snyder, contended Tuesday that Monterey Park’s engineering consultants made faulty analyses.

“They had so many incorrect assumptions . . . it rendered the results invalid,” he said.

As an example, he said the consultants used an outdated, 20-year-old model of what would happen if there were an earthquake under the reservoir.

Snyder said the California Division of the Safety of Dams has reviewed the water district’s environmental study as well as the critique made by the Monterey Park engineers and has given its approval for the project.

He said there will be further reviews by the state’s dam experts as the project progresses.

“There is no question about it, that facility will be extremely safe,” Snyder said. When it is rebuilt, he said, it will be able to withstand a higher magnitude of earthquake “than most other structures in the city of Monterey Park.”