The Joshua Basin Water District Board of Directors has been dragging its heels for a year on approving a will-serve letter to provide water to the NextEra Solar Project at the site of the former airport in Joshua Tree. NextEra threatened last month that it would dig its own high-capacity production well if the board didn’t approve a will-serve letter. At last night’s special meeting, Managing Editor Tami Roleff says the board postponed its decision again, despite dire warnings from the board’s president…
“We don’t want to see a production well. We don’t want a production well in our community. Once they go forward, they’re not coming back to us to look for water. This just protects the aquifer.”
Joshua Basin Water District Board President Victoria Fuller emphasized last night that the will-serve letter would require NextEra to pay for the resupply of water taken from the aquifer. During public comment, Julian Gonzalez of Joshua Tree said that while he doesn’t approve of the solar project, the issue is about property rights, and the owners of the property have the right to have water. Most residents, however, felt differently. Stephen Tuttle of Joshua Tree was adamant that NextEra should not get the will-serve letter.
“The water is for Joshua Tree, not some corporation. It’s for the people. We’re a community. It’s our water. Our water.”
Despite the warning from Fuller, the board voted 3-2 to postpone a vote on the will-serve letter until its May 18 meeting. The planning commission’s approval of the NextEra Solar project can be appealed to the Board of Supervisors until Monday, and Directors Mike Reynolds, Bob Johnson, and Rebecca Unger felt the board should wait until after the deadline to decide. Fuller said denying the will-serve letter puts the water district and the community in a precarious position.
“We can choose to say that we would rather gamble and go ahead and if they put in a well, then the community deals with it. And I personally think that’s a bad decision It’s very important we not be in that position.”
In other business, the directors gave direction to staff to revisit the policy of requiring a County permit prior to the installation of meters on inactive accounts. It seems water district staff and customers are receiving conflicting information from the county about whether permits are needed.
JOSHUA BASIN WATER DELAYS NEXTERA VOTE IN SPITE OF DIRE PREDICTIONS
