Rancheria courts district for hotel water
With negotiations falling through between the Trinidad Rancheria and local city officials, the tribe has reached out to a new agency to potentially supply water for a five-story, 100-room hotel above the city’s scenic bay.
In May, the rancheria gave Trinidad’s city manager an ultimatum to either provide the hotel with water or lose the tribe’s cooperation in ongoing infrastructure projects. But at a subsequent meeting, the City Council did not budge, ordering a formal water policy before it enters any further discussion with the tribe.
Now the tribe has reached out to the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, looking to resume plans for a water infrastructure project that have been dormant since 2015. The district’s board will discuss the inquiry at a meeting on Thursday.
“The Tribe must have the ability to develop its lands and resources for the overall well-being of the Trinidad Rancheria Tribal Membership,” tribal chairman Garth Sundberg said in a June 4 letter. “Water is an integral and basic necessity for all peoples and in order to reach our goals and objectives we must find alternative water sources.”
Past discussions between the district and the rancheria included a possible water distribution pipeline that would funnel water to the hotel. But planning came to a “standstill” after the city of Trinidad decided not to pursue the project further, Sundberg wrote.
The district’s board will now discuss whether to re-engage the rancheria on supplying water to the hotel.
“It would be expensive to put
a pipeline in, but none of those discussions have been worked out,” said John Fridenbach, the district’s general manager. “It’s still very early.”
Humboldt County Supervisor Steve Madrone, whose 5th District includes Trinidad, echoed the notion that a pipeline would be costly, adding it would take years to develop.
“The costs are so great to do it that the existing customer rates could go up by… hundreds of dollars a month,” Madrone said. “What happens then is if they build (a pipeline), the community is then going to have to grow in order to keep paying for it.”
Madrone added that an eventual construction of a pipeline would need robust planning to protect the needs of communities along the pipeline’s path.
The rancheria did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Talks between the rancheria and Trinidad officials broke down after a city-ordered engineering study found that local water could run short for the city’s residents alone in drier years.
At a City Council meeting in late May, the city declined to enter an agreement to continue discussions until it created a more clearly defined water policy.
The controversial hotel has won approval from state officials and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Tribal officials are eager to construct the building as soon as possible to create revenue for the Cher-Ae Heights community.
But widespread pushback among Trinidad residents has created obstacles for development at every instance, while the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will delay construction past its target date, the tribe said last month.