ANDERSON SPRINGS, Calif. – One of the communities that was the hardest hit by the Valley fire is fighting to come back to life, as residents look to rebuild and state and local officials work to get the millions of dollars in funding necessary to create modern infrastructure.
Over the course of many decades, a close-knit community with nearly 200 homes had grown up in Anderson Springs.
Many of the homes began as vacation getaways, and some remained second homes. For others, they became year-round residences.
The community developed its own homeowners association, recreation center and water company.
And over the years, as seismicity in the area escalated due to the nearby geothermal operations that used wastewater injection, the Anderson Springs Community Alliance developed to give the community a voice in dealings with the county and geothermal operators such as Calpine.
For years, Jeff Gospe – who had been an active leader in the alliance and today serves as its treasurer – was concerned about those earthquakes and worked to bring attention to their impact on the community.
He said he finds it ironic that it was fire – not earthquakes – that ended up being the demise of the Anderson Springs community, at least as it was up until September of 2015.
When the Valley fire rushed from Cobb to Middletown on Sept. 12, 2015, one of the communities directly in its path was Anderson Springs, where an estimated 90 percent of the homes were destroyed.
Two of the Valley fire's four confirmed fatalities were Anderson Springs residents. Sixty-nine-year-old Leonard Neft's body was found a short distance from his car, which he had abandoned while trying to flee from the fire. The body of 72-year-old Barbara McWilliams was found in her home, which she had purchased in October 2014 from Gospe's former in-laws.
Although his family no longer owns property in Anderson Springs, Gospe – a financial advisor and executive with Morgan Stanley who lives in Sonoma County – has continued to stay involved with the community that he's fought for over the years, noting that he has 16 clients who lost their homes in Anderson Springs to the Valley fire.
After the fire, it became clear that if the community was to come back, it needed brand new infrastructure, in particular, a sewer system, since some of its homes had septic systems that would not be allowed under modern building code.
Special Districts Administrator Jan Coppinger said Anderson Springs' need for a communitywide wastewater system had been on the county's radar long before the fire.
A new system was recommended by Lake County Environmental Health because of the many older vacation homes that had been converted to permanent residences. “The septics were not adequate even at that time,” Coppinger said.
In 2009, a preliminary design report on a new wastewater system for Anderson Springs was completed. That report estimated it would cost $7 million to build that new system. Coppinger said the county is still working off that report and estimate.
The county didn't have $7 million to build the system or another half a million dollars for the project design.
That's when Lake County's state legislators, State Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Bill Dodd, swung into action.
The two men have been working in the wake of the fire to get Lake County assistance to meet the rebuilding needs as a result of the fire, which in total caused $1.2 billion in damage to Lake County, McGuire said.
Their behind-the-scenes efforts to help get the funding for Anderson Springs' sewer project have been going on since early this year, according to McGuire.
At a June 23 town hall meeting in Middletown, McGuire and Dodd announced that they had succeeded in securing the funding.
“The assemblyman and I will be the first to admit the state has not been involved as they should have been here in the county of Lake in years past,” said McGuire, who made it clear they're determined to change that fact by placing priority on rebuilding Lake County stronger than ever.
“You will be able to start rebuilding your homes in Anderson Springs starting next year,” he told community members.
In looking at the new infrastructure, Coppinger said the county plans to construct a system that would allow for full buildout in Anderson Springs.
As a result, the project is complex due to its geology and the need to run a brand new collection line along Highway 175 the three and a half miles from Anderson Springs down to the Middletown sewer treatment plant, Coppinger said.
“Sen. McGuire and Assemblyman Dodd have been working relentlessly on our behalf and without their assistance, we would not be this far along. This project was fraught with challenges and we continue to resolve them one by one with the assistance of state and county officials,” said Coppinger.
She said the State Water Resources Control Board is providing a $500,000 planning grant that will include engineering and design which will get Special Districts to bid-ready documents.
Coppinger said that the project is still in its early stages. Once Special Districts has those engineering documents, “We will know exactly what the cost will be and how it will be funded.”
The $7.5 million estimate – for both design and building – that the county has based on its 2009 study likely is close, Coppinger said.
However, she pointed out that since there have been changes since the study took place – including the Valley fire itself – Special Districts has to get the final design in hand before they know firm numbers.
Coppinger said Special Districts is working with the State Water Resources Control Board, the Community Development Block Grant program and the United States Department of Agriculture to secure funding for this project, “but cannot finalize who is providing what, until we know exactly how much is needed.”
She added that while there may be enough funding from just two of those agencies, “We're covering all our bases just to make sure we don't come up short.”
Work behind the scenes
In Anderson Springs, 179 homes burned and 19 survived, said Coppinger.
There are estimated to be about another 117 lots where homes were never built, according to McGuire.
McGuire said 119 homes were not going to be able to be rebuilt due to not being connected to a wastewater system.
Since Sept. 12, 2015, the day the Valley fire broke out, “We knew we were going to have to be aggressive and innovative in our approach to be able to rebuild and recover,” McGuire said.
About eight months ago, there was a large meeting in Gov. Jerry Brown's office with numerous state agencies – Housing and Community Development, the State Water Board, the Office of Emergency Services, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Cal Fire and the governor's executive staff – to determine which funds would go where, according to McGuire.
He said that was the basis of the effort that led to securing money for Anderson Springs. Since then, there have been weekly conference calls, and collaboration with county officials.
“It has been an incredible effort and it makes me emotional thinking about it,” he said. “The county and the state have been working so hard to secure these dollars. We couldn't be more excited.”
For McGuire, the project will allow not just for rebuilding but for new construction on lots where previously there were not homes.
“When communities are connected to public utilities, the value of the land starts to go up,” he said, adding that it also will mean additional property tax revenue for the county.
“That McGuire, he's something else. He's right on everything,” said Joan Clay, a longtime Anderson Springs resident and a member of the “old guard” of residents.
Her home burned in the fire, and she's not yet sure that her lot is even big enough to support new construction under current building rules.
Still, she greeted with enthusiasm this summer the news of the funds to support the wastewater system and the community's reconstruction, noting that a lot of her neighbors want to rebuild.
“I'm in utter awe that McGuire got that,” she said of the funding.
Both Clay and Gospe acknowledge that there are unknowns for some of their neighbors, who still aren't sure if they'll be able to rebuild because, like Clay, their lot size doesn't allow for the required setback from the creek or other factors.
Gospe estimated that about 110 lots are next to the creek, and because of modern building codes the future of rebuilds on many of those lots remains up in the air.
That leaves some property owners with a decision to make – stay and try to rebuild or simply buy elsewhere. Gospe pointed out that, for the average person, the latter option is the easiest.
Besides those concerns, Clay said the community's water system is “100-percent OK,” and survived the fire, which will be a plus for community members wanting to return there to live.
Gospe added that the water company has 200 hookups but the number of paying accounts currently is less than 10 percent of that number. However, he said they have enough money in reserve to cover them for several years, even without more paying customers.
He said the Anderson Springs community itself is continuing to offer what support it can – including financial – to the rebuilding process.
On Aug. 2, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution to allow Lake County Special Districts to accept donated funds for the Anderson Springs Sewer Project in the amount of $12,500 from the Anderson Springs Community Alliance and $50,000 from Lake County Rising.
The money will go into a fund that the county created especially to handle the money for Anderson Springs' sewer project.
At that meeting, Anderson Springs Community Alliance President Voris Brumfield, accompanied by Clay, thanked the board, local staff, state and federal representatives and their staff.
“It is our desire to assist and participate to the greatest degree we can at this point to move this project forward,” said Brumfield.
After the board approved the resolution, Brumfield presented the alliance's check to Coppinger and Supervisor Jim Comstock.
Gospe said the goal was to help expedite the sewer project. “There are certain things that are hard for the county to pay for,” he said.
He said the alliance's donation was composed of $10,000 in mitigation funds received from the AltaRock geothermal project several years ago, plus $2,500 from Walmart.
The steps ahead
Last week, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $480,000 engineering services agreement with Brelje & Race for the Anderson Springs sewer project. That will be funded by the $500,000 planning grant from the State Water Resources Control Board.
Even though that engineering work is still to be done, rebuilding is moving forward in Anderson Springs, with several new homes currently being built, as a recent drive through the community revealed.
Lake County Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski said his agency has granted 30 permits – formally called “provisional on-site wastewater operating permits” – that allow property owners to restart the building process ahead of the completion of the sewer project's engineering work.
Those permits give people 30 months in which they can use a septic tank before hooking into the permanent wastewater system, Coppinger said.
“This will allow building to begin before the project is complete,” she said, explaining that the county and state want to let people start the rebuilding process as soon as possible.
“This is a complicated project that doesn't fit into the normal template,” Coppinger said.
Ruminski cautioned that his permits are a separate approval process, and that property owners must still clear their projects with the Community Development Department.
Community Development Department Robert Massarelli said that, as of Friday, permits for six single family homes and two mobile homes have been issued in Anderson Springs, plus another eight temporary dwelling permits have been issued.
“There are seven single family permits applications that are currently being processed,” he said.
Coppinger said the goal is to have sewer project's final design, with bid-ready documents, completed by Dec. 30, with the project ready to go to bid early in 2017. That could mean that a bid could be awarded in March or April, at the start of the construction season.
Already, the county is getting interest from firms wanting to bid on the project, she said.
The project will install a “step system,” in which every home will have an actual septic tank but the liquid will go into a collection tank and then follow the collection line down to the Middletown sewer treatment plant.
In the short term, if people want to build before the system is complete, Coppinger said they will need to have solids pumped by septic haulers. Once all of the homes are linked into the system, Special Districts will be responsible for the system's pumping, which is recommended to take place every three to five years.
Coppinger cautioned that not every home will qualify to rebuild on the system, as there will still need to be a case-by-case determination of whether homes can be rebuilt to current standards on the lots. Some of the factors will include where on the lots the septic tanks need to be placed and the proximity to the creek. “It has to be coordinated.”
There are many pieces to the project and many more details to be worked out. Coppinger stressed that the county intends to share more details with the community through a series of public meetings.
She said as soon as the project's design is more advanced, and they have definite timelines and more firm figures, Special Districts will begin hosting the meetings to share with the community specific details, timelines and projected costs.
“It's kind of a moving target, it changes daily. Stay tuned,” she said.
Coppinger said the system will require a Proposition 218 vote to establish sewer rates.
“We will be holding many meetings with the community prior to and during the 218 process,” she said.
Outside of the rebuilding efforts, the close-knit community is still working to heal itself.
The Anderson Springs Community Alliance invited property owners to “return home” for events marking the first anniversary of the fire.
Brumfield reported that on Sept. 10, there was an update from community members that included reports from Coppinger as well as District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock. At that time they heard about other changes, including the fact that the dam is coming down in mid-October.
On Sept. 11, Brumfield, who also is a lay Methodist minister, led a service to honor the two community members who died as well as the lives that were changed and the homes destroyed. As a gesture of remembrance, flowers were released into the creek.
Brumfield said residents “recalled the wonderful things they experienced in the Springs with the overwhelming majority vowing to rebuild.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.