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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Calling Paul Revere!

The following was sent by Rob Shipe, a Los Osos resident who’s volunteering his time and energy to SAFE to help his fellow Los Osos 45ers prepare for the upcoming April 28 CDO hearing. SAFE is planning on getting this and other information flyers out into the community by tabling at various spots. Or even have volunteers walk their neighborhoods to get the information flyers out to to their neighbors. Since the stated intention of the RWQCB is to target the entire prohibition zone, everyone in the community needs to get educated before the April 28th hearing. Volunteers wishing to help should contact Rob Shipe at LosOsosCDO#Gmail.com or by calling 528-6722.

ISSUES
Cease & Desist Order Information – Wrong Method
Misapplied according to Water Board Enforcement Procedures guidelines not illegally applied.
Strongest enforcement measure the Water Board has. These are not intended to be the first step in non-emergency cases.
Meant for major polluters, not residences with properly working septic tanks
Water Board wrongly believes that measures passed in 1983 constitute fair warning to individuals.
ALL residents, property owners, and businesses in Prohibition Zone will be prosecuted ASAP.

Cease & Desist Order Information – Effects of Pumping
1200-gallon average septic tanks in 5000 homes and businesses pumping six times per year means 36M gallons of water will be removed from our Upper Aquifer. Solids removed will reduce that total, but when tank is cleaned and re-pumped, that will increase water removed.
That water will no longer be available for Ag Exchange Program in new Los Osos Water Plan.
5,000 pumps every other month equal about 100 pumps per day, six days per week.
A conservative $300 per pump X six pumps per year X 5000 homes and businesses equals $9 Million Dollars per year that will be spend in Los Osos BEFORE we have a sewer, septic management plan or water plan. Over 27 million dollars through the end of 2009.
A missed pumping date, for any reason, can result in fines of $1000 per day until pumped.

Cease & Desist Order Information – Unintended Consequences
CDOs are attached to you and your property. They will lower property values and make property loans smaller and more difficult.
If you work within the Prohibition Zone including home based business, your company is subject to the CDO as well. It will make it difficult to do business with government entities.
It may not affect you or your company, but what about your neighbors.

Cease & Desist Order Information – Solutions
Water Board believes Los Osos residents have pulled the rug out of every previous sewer plan and will again. CSD will have their proposal ready for vote by the end of summer. Dissolution will mean Los Osos Residents have effectively stopped yet another sewer plan.
Since 1983, the Water Board mandated a Septic System Management Program, a Waste Water Treatment Facility and a Water Management Plan. NONE have been implemented.
Water Board is trying to wake up community to institute measures called for in 83-12 and 83-13.
Write to the Water Board and all elected officials supporting a Septic System Management Program instead of CDOs and pumping. It is a better alternative and will move us closer to full compliance. The CSD has been told they need state or county authority to implement program. They are currently working on other means of implementation.

We All Must Support Clean Water
Demand/ Support action from CSD board to move forward with a Septic System Management Program, a Waste Water Treatment Facility and a Water Management Plan. Not just a sewer.
Nitrates accumulate. They don’t just go away. They need to be treated or dissipated.
Educate yourself and others with facts. Resist repeating hearsay or rumor.
The community needs to support the end results: Clean Water.

Los Osos Needs To Move Forward
Community needs to stop CDOs and support the entire town.. Support your neighbors
We can control out future, we can not control our past. Forgive past opponents and join as allies.
There is no solution everyone will like, but there is a solution we can all live with. We need to work together and we need to compromise. Los Osos is more important than any of our opinions

EDUCATION INFORMATION
Sources to help you educate yourself

On Line sources of information.
Info on Cease & Desist Order and water documents: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast
Water Board’s Enforcement Policy: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/plnspols/docs/wqep.doc
California Water Code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=wat&codebody=&hits=20
Information on Sea Water Intrusion: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/SWIntrusionFinalGrant.pdf
Information on Basin Plan/ Water Management: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/Julydraft.pdf
Information on LOCSD Wastewater Plan: http://losososcsd.org/wwp/index.html

LOCSD Committee Meetings – Everything Starts Here
Where you can get first hand information and updates on almost every topic.


EMERGENCY SERVICES ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW/Meetings held 3rd Tuesday PARKS AND RECREATION5 PM – CDF Station Meetings held 2nd ThursdayJulie Tacker – Board Liaison 7 PM – CSD Office
Chuck Cesena – Board Liaison
WASTEWATER COMMITTEE
Meeting held 1st & 3rd Tuesdays GRANTS/FUNDING
6:30 PM – CSD Office AD HOC COMMITTEE
John Fouche & Steve Senet– Board Liaisons Meetings held 2nd & 4th Tuesday
6:30pm – CSD OfficeFINANCE COMMITTEE Lisa Schicker – Board LiaisonMeetings held Mondays 5:30 PM – CSD Office OUTREACHSteve Senet – Board Liaison AD HOC COMMITTEE Meetings held TBD
WATER OPS/DRAINAGE Time – Location Meeting held 2nd Wednesday Julie Tacker – Board Liaison
6:30pm – CSD Office John Fouche – Board Liaison

Los Osos CSD Contact List

Lisa Schicker, President Julie Tacker, Director
528-3268 lisaschicker@charter.net 528-7242 windmmailto:windmilljt@sbcglobal.net

CDO Defense Contact List
Prohibition Zone Legal Defense Fund CDO Information Rob Shipe
Help CDO defendants obtain legal assistance 528-6772 LosOsosCDO@Gmail.com
Make donations accepted at Coast National Bank
Or mail to: PZLDF PZLDF President Bill Moylan
PO Box 6095 528-2324 bmoylan@charter.net
Los Osos, CA 93412
PZLDF Legal Liaison Alan Marytn
528-0229 a.r.mailto:a.r.martyn@worldnet.att.net

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Post,

I'm assuming now that the LOCSD will move post-haste to request the County of San Luis Obispo to implement a Septic Tank Management Plan for Los Osos, because SLO County has the authority, not the CSD, and SLO County was the agency to permit all the septics.

Finally, a suggestion in the RIGHT direction.

Let's see if the CSD, Ann, et.al. can screw this one up by diddling around for the next three years trying to make the CSD the agency of authority.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Rob says:
CSD will have their proposal ready for vote by the end of summer. Dissolution will mean Los Osos Residents have effectively stopped yet another sewer plan.

I ask:
What makes you think that SHOULD the CSD have a plan ready for vote by the end of summer, and that we all vote for something without murder and mayhem, which will be boiled down to ONE LOCATION by Biggs "San Francisco embellishment" to Measure B (should there still be a Measure B by then), and we know that THAT something will be out of town SOMEPLACE, that those affected by our sewer in THEIR neck of the woods are just going to roll over and play dead?

Doesn't anyone recall the guy from out of town at the December 2, 2005 water board hearing with his petition of 60 signatures saying, NOT ON OUR TURF. Was he just blowing smoke?

I think it is a little more complicated than dissolve or not dissolve. (Gee, doesn't ANYBODY want our poop?)

Mike Green said...

Dear publickworks, I think Ann would be the first cheerleader in line if the county would step up now and help us.
Of course thats just my opinion based on what she's writen. I may be wrong, I have been before, Ann?
Where the heck is Shirley?????
At least Sam gives a hoot about us.
Shirley, I voted for you, talk about voters remorse.
Dammit! SAY SOMETHING!

Anonymous said...

Give the County an offer they can't refuse!

Churadogs said...

Mike Green said...
Dear publickworks, I think Ann would be the first cheerleader in line if the county would step up now and help us.

Here's what's strange. The county own the library and restrooms at the park, don't they? If so, they're gonna be hit with CDOs along with the rest of us. So, why haventy they stepped up and requested designated status NOW, when they could shape and have early input as to the "alternatives" offered in the CDO?

and Publicworks said: Let's see if the CSD, Ann, et.al. can screw this one up by diddling around for the next three years trying to make the CSD the agency of authority.

Gosh, I had no idea I had the same authority as the CSD. Who knew!

As for just who has authority over the septics, I talked to a personage in the County Public Works Dept.and according to him, RWQCB, within the Basin Plan agreement, has total responsibility for any and all "discharges" by septics. i.e. anyone wishing to install a tank needs a permit from the county which bounces him over to RWQCB to o.k. it & so forth. So, in reality, I think you have a case where NOBODY wants to step up and claim authority. They just bounce the ball around -- Nuh-huh, not me, uh-nuh, not me either, I know, let's get Mikeeeeeee!

Mike Green said...

OH CRAP!!! I just knew this blogging thing would come to no good! Even my wife said it was bad! did I listen? NO! "It's better than downloading porn" I said. Boy! was I stupid!
Now, it's all my fault!!!
Publickworks, what kind of offer is an ultimatum?
We quit, it all your's now?

Mike Green said...

Hmmm, maybe a good time to install a pirate onsite system?
Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirate's life for me!

Mike Green said...

You got admit it beats the heck out of kumbaya

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Or you could install a Pihrana and get bit on the butt!!

Mike Green said...

Quite possibly! Good point, we'll bide our time a while, not to long, mind you, cover our bets so they say.
No true pirate was born yesterday!
Here is a little shanty to help you pass the time (chorus)
Yo Ho Yo Ho A pirates life for me!
We sail our ships upon the sea to see what we can see.
We got no charts we got no maps besides we can not read
And if we happen to find your town
we'll break the doors right down
and stop your toilets and take your home and run you out of town
Yo Ho Yo Ho who's the pirates now?

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Mike, your song is pretty cute, but don't quit your day job...!

Churadogs said:
Here's what's strange. The county own the library and restrooms at the park, don't they? If so, they're gonna be hit with CDOs along with the rest of us. So, why haventy they stepped up and requested designated status NOW, when they could shape and have early input as to the "alternatives" offered in the CDO?

Maybe they don't have any ideas? Maybe it is too political? And they don't have to worry about the CDO's carrying any penalties with the title of the property like we do.

Anonymous said...

sewertoons said....

"Doesn't anyone recall the guy from out of town at the December 2, 2005 water board hearing with his petition of 60 signatures saying, NOT ON OUR TURF. Was he just blowing smoke?"

60 signatures? WOW, 60? Ok, 15000 people live in los osos. 8000 registered signatures. let me think about this for just a second. just one second. are you telling me that the 15000 people of los osos , the 250,000+ people of slo county, the 36,000,000+ people of the state of california who are represented by the SWRCB and the RQWCB, are you telling me all of these people and YOU, sewertoons, are going to let 60 people in a rural open space area outside of our town dictate the possible END/NON-END to a 30 year nightmare? .........with your help sewertoons, we can END THIS NOW. Support your local government. They want to help us. They want to wake us up from this nightmare. Why can't you suppport a interim septic management/water conservation program in prelude to a wastewater project that will be on the ballot in November? Are you telling me that this is something you would vote against? This is an END.
Do you want an "END"?

Shark Inlet said...

Here's the deal with those Clark Valley Road people. Suppose that pretty much all the residents of the place where the LOCSD wants to put the plant argue and fight and hire lawyers to keep the County from zoning the proposed property for a WWTF and suppose they argue and fight and hire lawyers to keep the CCC from approving the plant and suppose ...

A septic management district would not be an end. The RWQCB will not be happy unless we have a WWTF. They claim (rightly or wrongly) that we've got a community with too many septics/acre and that far too many of our septics are too close to groundwater. Even if they were wrong (and I don't believe they are, the nitrate numbers have been rising directly underneath where our septics are but not East of town where the Ag input is), the RWQCB has the law on their side.

If you think that the County and CCC and RWQCB are going to somehow push around some 60 families *outside* the LOCSD because the LOCSD wants them to I think you are mistaken. Thesedays all it takes is money (and they have a fair amount of cash) to hire lawyers to stall things.

And ... if the project is stalled, the LOCSD property owner start paying a ton of money to pump their septics everytime they need to be emptied.

Now, I believe the Andre II site to be a bit more expensive than TriW to construct ... but with the additional costs to design the plant and due to inflation and due to the delay and pumping charges and fines, I do have to say that only the TriW plant makes any sense to me.

However, if *you* want to force other people to pay by having a WWTF in their yard so that *you* can clean up *your* mess, go ahead. I just don't think the courts are going to be too sympathetic.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Shark Inlet, thank you - beautifully put!!

anonymous, you said:
"Why can't you suppport a interim septic management/water conservation program in prelude to a wastewater project that will be on the ballot in November? Are you telling me that this is something you would vote against?"

Who said I was against that? If the board can get this together - great. It just can't be too expensive as whatever it is, it will go off-line when the real sewage solution arrives. In case they are dissolved or voted out - they should leave us with some positive thing that they have done while in office.

Churadogs said...

Shark Inlet said:"Here's the deal with those Clark Valley Road people. Suppose that pretty much all the residents of the place where the LOCSD wants to put the plant argue and fight and hire lawyers to keep the County from zoning the proposed property for a WWTF and suppose they argue and fight and hire lawyers to keep the CCC from approving the plant and suppose ..."

An idle question, with homage to Alex Madonna: If ag land is already zoned to include keeping a piggery, and you're living in ag land zoned for keeping a piggery, would you have much of an arguement with the planning commission and zoning regulations if, instead of a piggery, someone built a "low odor" AWIPS-type sewer ponding system?

Shark Inlet said...

Um ... which "out of town" piggery are you talking about, Ann?

My suggestion was simply that the out of town people aren't going to be happy to have our WWTF in their neighborhood. They've told us they intend to fight it. If you are willing to let Los Osos residents fight a TriW plant, you've got to be willing to let those out of town fight a plant in their neighborhood.

Whether there ultimately will be an "out of town" plant or not, they could stall and delay any plant in their neighborhood, causing a HUGE expense of those in the LOCSD.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

IS there an out-of-town piggery with 15,000 pigs?

Just checked - I didn't think so.

Anonymous said...

Idle questions, with homage to Ann:

Question: Why would you buy a 'pig-n-a-poke'?

Question: Why would you object to a minimal/non-controlled odor facility in your front-yard and then expect to put a higher (or as you say 'low') odor facility in someone else's back yard?

And if the back-yard didn't now have any pigs, why would you expect them to want a permanent 'pig-like' facility?

Didn't you advocate to let people vote, as I recall, Ann? How do you feel about the 'back-yard' people not having a vote? I guess that's ok to you?

Churadogs said...

Didn't you advocate to let people vote, as I recall, Ann? How do you feel about the 'back-yard' people not having a vote? I guess that's ok to you?

One interesting problem with the way the RWQCB divided the community into the Prohibition zone and the urban reserve CSD zone, is that people living outside the Prohibiton Zone can vote for something that will only impact the people living inside the zone. i.e. folks in Cabrillo Estates, for example, may all have voted for Measure B, thereby tipping the close election, the consequences of which they won't feel financially (they don't get CDOs) & etc. Logically, the RWQCB and the County should have kept the prohibiton zone the same as the Basin zone, the urban reserve line and whatever else would have kept the watershed whole and then dealt with the issue, again, as a whole. But the RWQCB made the decision and they've never officially explained the scientific reason for their map drawing.

Anonymous said...

Wrong again, Ann:

Although some nice thoughts. You say the prohibition should be based on the line of a basin or URL - but you provide no scientific basis while complaining about a lack of science. Do tell.

The prohibition zone was based predominately on density and the proximitry to aquifers. That is not totally 'unscientific', as you or others would suggest. A CSD did not exist when it was created.

Perhaps you would feel even better if the whole County or State was in the prohbition zone.

Yes, a consequence of the prohibition zone is political. Are you suggesting that the prohibition zone should have been based on politics instead of determinations of aggregate Nitrate loading??

The realities of the prohibition zone, as well as a proposed definitive plan that was in violation of the discharge prohibiton, was known to the community in 1997. It chose to form a CSD anyway - and alas we will hear the resounding chorus of 'being lied to' yet again.

The realities of the prohibition zone were again known to the community in 2005, namely that discharging was illegal. How come you never highlighted that throughout 2005?? Did you not expect CDOs??, anyone who did not was simply uneducated. I guess your column is not very educational.

Campaign lying is characteristic of Presidential races and CSD races as well whether in 1998, 2004,or 2005, and probably 2006.

An ugly fact of democracy, is that there is simply no remedy for the poor choices of voters, only future change.