FMHS/Lebec County Water District Water System Improvement Project

FMHS/Lebec County Water District Water System Improvement Project

The Project is located in southern Kern County within the unincorporated community of Lebec, CA. The Project would be located both east and west of Interstate 5 (I-5) near Frazier Park Mountain Road and the Lebec rest area. The Project involves the construction and operation of water system improvements for the purpose of improving water quality and capacity in LCWD’s water system as well as consolidating the FMHS water system with LCWD. The Project proposes to annex the territory of FMHS into the LCWD, construct necessary infrastructure and operate water system improvements necessary to improve water quality, enhance water supply reliability, expand water storage, and replace the FMHS drinking water supply by extending water service to FMHS. The following are the components of the Project: 1) Annexation: LCWD plans to annex the territory of FMHS. Annexation would be performed through the Kern Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) to implement a Sphere of Influence1, Amendment and Annexation allowing the consolidation of the FMHS water system into the LCWD water system and facilitate the installation the infrastructure and water tank to supply clean drinking water to the high school. 2) LCWD Well No. 4 (refer to Sheet B1 of Appendix D): Drill a new well at a depth of approximately 300 feet below ground surface (bgs) with associated equipment, including a new building, diesel fuel tank and power generator. 3) Water pipeline from Well Site to Distribution System (Sheets B2 through B5): construction of approximately 0.4 miles of 8-inch diameter pipeline, including a jack and bore of a 24-inch diameter steel casing with 10-inch carrier pipeline under I-5. 4) Pressure zone interconnection pipeline on the western side of I-5 (Sheets B5 through B7): construction of approximately 0.33 linear miles of pressure zone interconnection pipeline. 5) Pipeline Along Frazier Mountain Road between Lebec Road and Cuddy Canyon Road (Sheets A1 through A6): construction of approximately 1.3 linear miles of pipeline along Frazier Mountain Road between Cuddy Canyon Road and Wainright Court to move water from the Well No. 4 to the Chimney Canyon storage tank. A booster pump station would be installed at the FMHS Well Site (see Sheet A2) that would boost the pressure to the Chimney Canyon Pressure Zone. 6) Chimney Canyon Tank Site (Sheet C1): installation of new 200,000-gallon water storage tank. The Chimney Canyon Tank site has six (6) existing tanks. The new tank would bring the total number to seven (7). 7) FMHS Water System Improvements (Sheet D1 through D4): construct approximately 1.8 linear miles of new 4-inch diameter drinking water pipeline, add a new 25-gallon per minute (gpm) booster pump station (at the FMHS Well Site), a new power line, and add a new 40,000-gallon irrigation water storage tank at FMHS campus. FMHS’s existing water well would be designated for irrigation water, and water would be conveyed through the existing 6-inch diameter water pipeline to the new 40,000-gallon water storage tank for irrigation of ball fields. The existing 120,000-gallon water storage tank at FMHS would be designated for drinking water and fire protection purposes (with no cross connections between the irrigation and drinking water systems). FMHS currently has a water system that serves approximately 300 students and staff. The water system consists of a well, transmission pipeline, 120,000-gallon storage tank, and distribution pipelines. The transmission pipeline is used to deliver water from the well to the steel storage tank. Water is diverted by gravity from the tank through a short pipe that branches off into two subsystems, namely a mainline that provides domestic water to the main school facilities by gravity, and a mainline that serves the landscaped irrigated areas (e.g., sports fields) with a booster pump. This water system delivers on average 19.3 million gallons per year of potable water and has an estimated demand for non-potable water for yards and landscaping of approximately 6.6 acres. The potential school population to be served by the system in the future, if possible, is about 500 students and staff, to be consistent with the initial estimates when the school was built. Currently, FMHS obtains its water supply from a primary well (FMHS Well 01) located at 38793 Frazier Mountain Park Road, Lebec, CA 93243. The well was drilled in 1992, and currently violates the Safe Drinking Water Maximum Contaminant Level (state MCL) for fluoride and uranium. Because the fluoride and uranium levels exceed the state MCL, the El Tejon Unified School District (School District) — owner of the FMHS water system — has received compliance orders from the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Division of Drinking Water (DDW) for each of these violations. The Project would connect the LCWD water system to FMHS to provide drinking water for the FMHS facilities. A new booster pump station (with backup generator) would boost LCWD drinking water up to the existing 120,000-gallon located at the FMHS campus. The drinking water would be conveyed through a new 4-inch diameter transmission pipeline that would parallel the existing 6-inch diameter transmission pipeline. The existing FMHS Well 01 and existing 6-inch diameter transmission pipeline would be used strictly for irrigation at the FMHS campus. The existing pipeline would connect to a new 40,000-gallon storage tank would be constructed at the FMHS tank site to provide for irrigation water storage.

Lebec

Kern

Unincorporated

Kern