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Menlo Park hosts a community outreach meeting Thursday night to discuss building a well in Jack Lyle Park to draw from a public aquifer to irrigate the Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club and potentially four public facilities.
The club, which has offered to pay for construction of the well, currently uses more than 60 million gallons of potable water per year, purchased from the Menlo Park Municipal Water District. The district in turn pulls its supply from the Hetch Hetchy, according to the club and city.
Using the well to irrigate Nealon, Jack Lyle, and Sharon Parks, along with La Entrada School, would decrease the city’s demand for Hetch Hetchy water by an additional 13 million gallons a year.
Nealon Park, zoned as an open space conservation district, was originally the preferred site. But feedback from the community and two commissions indicate Jack Lyle Park, which sits off Middle Avenue at Fremont Street and is zoned as a public facilities district, may be a better choice — if the council decides to proceed.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center at the Civic Center at 700 Alma St.
A clarification to this story,
As described accurately in the Almanac’s earlier story on the subject “the Environmental Quality Commission unanimously recommended on Feb. 3 that the council not pursue any specific proposals regarding ground water use, including cost, siting, and other considerations, until developing a city gray water plan and clarifying long-term ground water rights with the county.”
Avoiding construction in a park zoned open space was mentioned as a consideration by commissioners, but the primary consideration in the EQC’s recommendation was to refrain from allocating large amounts of aquifer resources until there are strategies in progress to better manage the local water supply.
Discloser: I serve on the Environmental Quality Commission
thank you commissioner Levin for this clarification. I think the Almanac is ignoring the main thrust of the Environmental Quality Commission’s recommendation, to not continue with a project like the well for the country club, until vital decisions and rules about how aquifer water should be used and protected have been made, as well as waiting for decisions to be made about a recycled or grey water system which could be used for purposes such as golf course irrigation.
Instead, the Almanac’s article implied that both commissions approve of looking at Lyle park for this project — which is just ridiculous. It appears that this project would be a rip off of public water with the intent of saving money for a private country club that wants to irrigate a golf course but not pay the price.
Some may see this issue differently, however, the story printed by the Almanac was grossly misleading. The Almanac’s editor should look more closely at the issue and be somewhat more responsible in the stories they print.