San Marino Officials Assail Draft Report on Reservoirs

Nearly a year after filing a lawsuit over the fate of two reservoirs, the city of San Marino is rocking the boat again--lambasting the San Gabriel County Water District’s draft environmental impact report, a city official said.

Residents and the city had to wring the environmental report out of the water district in two separate lawsuits last year, but the draft report offered them no comfort. In a response sent to the water district, citizens and officials described the proposed project to expand and reconstruct two reservoirs as inadequate, City Manager Deborah Bell said.

“I didn’t get every letter [that residents submitted] in response to the report, but I did get a stack of letters--and I’d have to say, it was about an inch and a half of paper,” Bell said.

The city sent more than 20 pages of suggestions and criticisms because once the final environmental impact report is written, the city has no approval rights in the project, Bell said.