Caltrans is improving I80 near the Soda Springs exit. This $65 million dollar project started in May 2007 and will take three years to complete. Improvements include:

• Replacing bridges at Castle Peak
• Widening the outside westbound lane near the Boreal Ski Area Exit and the eastbound shoulder
• New steep reinforced Portalnd Cement Concrete and Asphalt concrete
• Improving roadside drainage and replacing culverts
• Establish a Wet Land & Riparian Area

The project includes some blasting as well. Full details in this Caltrans document.

A beautiful panorama from Devil's Peak courtesy of the Stanford Exploration Project (SEP) sent in by one of our readers.

Jennifer Montgomery, one of the Cleanup Day organizers writes:

Up here on Donner Summit we just completed our annual Summit Clean up Day. It was a rousing success as usual thanks to an amazing sense of community spirit. We cleaned up trash along the roads from Cisco Grove to the bottom of Old 40 at Donner Lake, as well as in Serene Lakes and Soda Springs thanks to the tireless efforts of around 50 community volunteers.

I’d like to specifically mention the following people, businesses and groups who helped:

Nancy Latimer who as always (quite literally) worked tirelessly to organize the event, Jack Schwartz for his maps of the Summit and fantastic organizational skills in assigning areas for cleaning. I’d like to thank the great staff from Truckee Fire who cleaned the on and off ramps in Soda Springs—great job!

Also thanks to the following groups who provided Dumpsters for our use: Sugar Bowl, Royal Gorge, Sierra Lakes County Water District, the Donner Summit PUD and the Serene Lakes Property Owners Association. For water, ice and garbage bags we thank Tony and Cheryl at the Donner Summit General Store.

Special thanks go out to Maria Montano of the Summit Restaurant, Chef Scott and Sugar Bowl for providing the food, location and staffing for our traditional after party.

Last and certainly not least, I’d like to thank the Donner Summit Area Association for publicizing the event and paying for the thank you party.

...and of course, many thanks to Jennifer as well!

Stay tuned for more volunteer events later this summer. We're hoping to organize a trail cleanup on the Summit hiking trails as soon as the snow finishes melting.

Royal Gorge has released information about the water supply and demand requirements for their proposed development. The documents include a brief cover letter sent to the SLCWD along with two reports, one on water supply and another on water demand prepared for Royal Gorge by the CDM consulting agency.

These documents detail how much water the new development will require (~235 acre-feet per year, compared to the 110-120 AFY currently used by Serene Lakes) and how this water could be provisioned by SLCWD. The documents include a quantitative analysis of the water demand, including a breakdown of the number and types of units in the proposed development (286 single family, 724 condos, and additional shared facilities). The analysis attempts a conservative estimate of the water needs based on a 46% occupancy rate.

Royal Gorge proposes that the primary source of water will be surface water from Ice Lakes. The documents confirm that the drilling sites did "not locate groundwater or were drilled into areas considered to be of very low potential productivity" and that, as a result, "groundwater supply identified by the exploratory drilling was deemed infeasible." Royal Gorge proposes building a new water treatment facility for SLCWD and dredging about half of the Ice Lakes perimeter.

The DSAA will be meeting with Royal Gorge on Thursday, May 24th, to hear more details and discuss the proposed water supply and demand requirements for the proposed development project. If you have questions or input for this meeting, please let us know by sending mail to info@donnersummitareaassociation.

Terry Watt, the Royal Gorge project consultant for Sierra Watch and the Sierra Club, will be presenting a seminar on Sunday, May 20th at 10am at Clair Tappaan Lodge. This seminar is open to the public and will cover:

1. What's at stake: Biological and Water resources, Transportation
2. Decision Making Process: CEQA, Regulatory Agencies, USFS
3. How you can engaged

Peter Van Zant, the new Sierra Watch Field Director who will help coordinate activities on Donner Summit, will also be at the meeting. This is a great opportunity to meet and discuss how the community can get involved move forward together on this critical development issue.

The minutes of the May DSAA Working Meeting are now available. The board allocated $500 to cover expenses for the Summit Cleanup party at DSL, heard a report from Nancy Latimer about the SaveDonnerSummit.org activities at Earth Day, settled on two tentative dates for the annual membership meeting, and approved the concept of a series of educational seminars beginning with one by Terry Watt, the consultant for the Sierra Club and Sierra Watch for the Royal Gorge Summit development project.

We are actively looking for experts in the community willing to present an educational seminar on a topic related to development. Please contact the DSAA if you are interested.

We need your help to keep the Summit clean!

The annual all-volunteer Summit Cleanup will be on Saturday, May 19th. Meet at the General Store at 10am to pick up route assignments and help pick up all the trash that has melted out of the snow this year! Join us afterwards at the Summit Lodge for a thank-you party hosted by the DSAA.

Nancy Latimer, Jennifer Montgomery and Jack Schwartz have organized this annual event for over 17 years. Dumpsters, water and rubber gloves have been donated by Sugar Bowl, SLPOA, and Royal Gorge.

Jennifer Montgomery has been collecting a list of names of Serene Lakes residents that are interested in purchasing DSL service. The list will be turned over to ATT and the cable company to help motivate them to provide broadband service to the Summit. After only a short time, the list has over 170 names!

If you live in Serene Lakes, send in your name and address to jenmonten@gbis.com to be added to the list and put "DSL YES" in the subject field.

We need volunteers in the other Summit towns to help put together similar lists. Lists provided by the DSPUD or other regional agencies are a great place to start. Contact the DSAA and Jennifer once you have some names and we can present them to the broadband providers together.

Did you notice the fluorescent paint across the highway overpass that said "ATT Fiber"? Markers run from the fire department across the overpass towards The Summit Lodge and up toward the Soda Springs Ski Resort. ATT also built two new platforms inside of Serene Lakes that will serve as new substations. They plan on running fiber from the CO down in Soda Springs up to these platforms to provide improvements to the telephone service. Hopefully, this new technology can also be used to provide DSL. The cable company also put up new fiber lines along Soda Springs road in late summer. Don't hold your breath, but you never know what might happen!