Pagemill Pastures accused of stealing water from fire hydrant

Update: A Palo Alto Utilities investigation, concluded in February 2023, found that Pagemill Pastures’ use of hydrant water was “inadvertent” and occurred on one occasion. While the city suspected in 2022 that the boarding facility could have been taking water out of the hydrant without permission for as long as 20 years, an analysis of Pagemill’s overall water usage did not provide evidence of that. Palo Alto Online, in the original story, below, relied on the city’s communications with Pagemill to detail the city’s suspicions and the facility’s responses. Because these suspicions proved unfounded, Palo Alto Online regrets publicizing this information. Read the full update here.

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A Palo Alto equestrian center has received a demand from the city of Palo Alto to stop siphoning water from a city fire hydrant, according to city documents.

Pagemill Pastures, located at 3450 Deer Creek Road, is a 200-acre horse-boarding facility situated a half-mile from Interstate Highway 280 that leases the property from Stanford University.

A discovery by city Utilities Department staff earlier this year raised questions about whether Pagemill was legally using a fire hydrant on Deer Creek Road to fill its water truck. Now the city wants to know how long Pagemill has been using the hydrant water, which the facility allegedly has no meter for nor record of payment.

Palo Alto allows hydrant water to be used for certain temporary purposes, such as watering down dust for construction projects, but companies must obtain a city permit and attach a city-owned meter to the hydrant. At the end of the water usage or every six months, the company should return the meter and pay for the water it has used, according to city ordinances.

In a March 18 email, city Senior Water Gas Wastewater Operations Engineer Rob Diamond asked Pagemill Ranch Manager Giselle Turchet to have her accountant confirm that Pagemill has been paying for the hydrant water for the last 20 years.

Melissa Smart, utilities Water Gas Wastewater Operations business analyst, in a March 18 email also asked Pagemill to send a photo of the meter number from the truck. She said she didn’t have a hydrant meter issued under Turchet’s name nor under “Page Mill Pastures” and wanted to make sure the city’s records were straight.

Turchet sent Diamond a photograph of a meter purportedly in the water truck that records the hydrant water. Diamond followed up on March 30 and asked her for a picture of the meter number, noting that the city had already asked for that information but not received it. He also asked for a photograph showing the actual amount of water that had been recorded by the meter.

“If your accountant has any records to show (that) you have been paying for hydrant water, please submit those. If in fact you have not been paying for hydrant water, as all available evidence seems to indicate, then this is a serious situation that needs to be resolved promptly. As I’m sure you’re aware, water is a scarce commodity in California and everyone must pay their fair share,” he wrote in the March 30 email.

“Good faith efforts from you to help resolve this situation will reflect well upon you as the city works to determine what is the appropriate response to this issue,” he wrote.

On May 4, Turchet sent the city a photograph of a water meter showing a meter number and the number of gallons used.

On May 31, Diamond sent a pointed email to Turchet that seemed to question the legitimacy of the meter in the photo. Catherine Elvert, city utilities communications manager, confirmed on Wednesday that the photo Pagemill provided was of a meter that was not city-issued.

Diamond’s email demanded Pagemill cease using the hydrant water and cited the specific Special Water Utility Regulations, which lay out requirements for using hydrant water.

“You and your workers at Page Mill Pastures must immediately stop using city of Palo Alto fire hydrants to obtain water for any purpose. You do not have permission to operate any city fire hydrants.

“You do not have a Fire Hydrant Meter permit, nor do you have a hydrant meter rented from the city. There is no record of you renting a hydrant meter from us in the last 20 years. There is also no record of your predecessor Ramos Ranch renting a hydrant meter from us,” Diamond wrote.

He noted that anyone violating the rule requiring a permit and water meter on more than one occasion in a three-year period may be denied any use of fire hydrant water service. Such customers may use reclaimed water if available.

“Since you have violated this rule by improperly operating fire hydrants more than once in the last three years, the city will not be allowing you to rent a hydrant meter at this time. Instead, you can fill your water truck from your metered water service line that serves your property,” Diamond wrote. (Pagemill does pay for a 1-inch water service line to the property, which is attached to two city meters, Diamond confirmed in a March 30 email to Pagemill. But those meters don’t cover water Pagemill has been taking from hydrants to fill the water truck, he said.)

In a separate May email to city staff, Diamond said that the city was still working with the City Attorney’s Office and could send Pagemill a notice of violation.

Turchet has declined to comment on the situation by phone and email when asked by the Weekly.

Elvert, the utilities communications manager, confirmed Wednesday that Pagemill still has not sent any statement from its accountant proving that the facility has paid for fire hydrant water over the years. Nor does the city have any record of a bill or payment for the hydrant water, as Pagemill didn’t have a city-issued meter nor an account with the city.

The Utilities Department investigation is still ongoing, she said last week.

Elvert said this is the first time she has ever heard of such a long-standing situation in which water was alleged to be taken without metering. Any unauthorized use of city water is prohibited, but the situation is of particular concern now when the state is in a serious drought, she said.

It’s unknown how much water over time that Pagemill might have taken to service its facility.

Pagemill’s water truck can hold 3,000 gallons, or 401 cubic feet, Elvert said.

“It’s difficult to estimate how often the trucks may have been filling up at the hydrant. That would determine how much water was used — volume of the trucks and frequency they were filled,” she added.

State law prohibits local utilities from disclosing customers’ usage data, Elvert said.

Other local equestrian facilities declined to estimate how much water a center such as Pagemill Pastures uses monthly. But there are many factors that determine the volume of water a facility uses: how many horses are being boarded, how often horses are washed down, particular practices in each facility, how often dust must be watered and whether there are other natural water sources on the property.

Some clues as to water usage, at least regarding stables and arenas, might be useful as a benchmark. Caring for a horse requires 90 to 149 gallons a day, including drinking water and other uses, according to the book “Horse Stable and Riding Arena Design” by Eileen Fabian Wheeler, professor of agricultural engineering environmental biophysics, animal welfare, and agricultural emissions at The Pennsylvania State University.

For a full stable of 25 horses such as at Pagemill, the monthly gallon usage could be from 67,500 to 111,750 gallons if using these calculations.

Wheeler noted, however, that horse-facility water use is virtually undocumented. Estimates were drawn from similar water use in other agricultural enterprises.

When it comes to the monetary value of the alleged water theft, to use a fire hydrant, the city charges a monthly service charge depending on the size of the meter ranging from $50 to $125. The volumetric and distribution rates are the same at $7.86 for every 100 cubic feet of water, according to the city’s utilities rate schedule.

Permittees using fire hydrant water must also pay a $750 meter deposit, according to the city.

If a horse facility were using 3,000 gallons, or one full water truck, per day (90,000 gallons per month), then it would have to pay $995 and $1,068 per month for water taken from the hydrant, not factoring in the $750 meter deposit.

Ultimately, the city will determine the appropriate course of action, including Pagemill’s potential reimbursement for water used within the statute of limitations. It’s the responsibility of the ratepayer to be aware of codes and follow any laws related to utility usage, metering and payment for services, Elvert said.

“It is a city law in the municipal code. Anyone using water from a hydrant must rent a meter from us so we can measure it and it must be paid for, just like every utility service,” she said.

The city’s allegations over water are just the latest challenges for Pagemill Pastures, which has had other difficulties in the last few years. It lost 75% of the land it was leasing from Stanford in late 2016 when the university drastically cut its lease from 800 acres to 200 acres. The equestrian center sits on land near creeks that support the California red-legged frog and Western pond turtles, and Stanford is required to protect those species under the Endangered Species Act.

A consultant hired by the university found that horse trails cross Matadero and Deer creeks, creating erosion and fouling the area with excrement that might harm the protected animals. The horses could also trample the species, university staff stated at the time.

In a May 9 statement sent to the Weekly regarding the water-use issue, Stanford stated its position on Pagemill’s duty to pay its water bill.

“All utilities — including water — are the responsibility of the individual lessee. Water and other utilities are not included with the land lease,” university staff wrote.