CDO Info
The following was written by Rob Shipe, who also wrote the piece I posted on 3/10, “Law of Unintended Consequences.” He is working with the SAFE group of targeted Los Osos 45 residents to prepare for the upcoming CDO hearings in April. I find his comments in the second paragraph under ‘Where We Are Now” particularly telling. Old, untrue tapes playing in the heads of the Regional Water Board members was what I witnessed during the Dec. ACL hearings. Old, untrue information being presented by the staff. That alone should get the attention of everyone in town since we’re ALL targeted by this same Board and Staff. GIGO can have profound implications to a community.
Where We Are And How We Got Here
Like most of our community, many of us have not paid a whole lot of attention to the “sewer” issues in Los Osos over the years. Our feeling was that we specifically elected individuals to handle this situation for us. Let them do their jobs. That however, is no longer our position. We are all recipients of the Water Boards attempt to issue Cease and Desist Orders to our community. Over the past month we have spent incredible hours studying ground water issues in Los Osos. We have read countless files from the Water Board, many reports from Cleath & Associates, as well as individual conversations with many who have lived on the front lines of this issue over the past twenty plus years, on all sides.
History
On September 16, 1983, The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CC-RWQCB) adopted resolution 83-13 requiring the County of San Luis Obispo to build a sewer and a water management plan in Los Osos no later than November 1, 1988. The county moved very slowly towards these goals. By the late 90’s they had finally developed a plan to implement a sewer when and organization called “The Solutions Group” proposed local control of the sewer with a promise of “Better, Cheaper, Faster”. They envisioned a small facility; treating only the worst areas and this would allow them to accomplish their three stated goals. Unfortunately they were not able to meet those goals.
After many project changes, the community voted in a close decision to abandon the plan. A new group gained control of the CSD last year. Unlike their predecessors, they do not claim, better, cheaper, faster. They only claim better. In short, 22 year after the passage of 83-13, Los Osos still does not have a sewer or an adequate water management plan.
After the change in leadership, members and supporters of the previous CSD Board, wrote en mass to the Regional Water Board, asking them to punish our town; to punish us swiftly, forcefully and individually. The Water Board acted on this request on January 27th of this year by issuing Cease and Desist Orders to all of us. Whether by coincidence or intent, within a week of the Water Board’s actions, Taxpayers’ Watch began collecting signatures to dissolve the CSD. This group is founded and financed by the same people who pleaded for you and I to be punished.
Where We Are Now
Our CSD is working to address all the water needs in Los Osos. The “Sewer Plan” the CSD is embarking on, addresses sea water intrusion in our lower aquifer as well as the nitrate and high groundwater problems of our upper aquifer. This CSD is utilizing consulting engineers to determine the best solutions, appropriate location, and cost effective methods for addressing wastewater and managing water resources for the future. This is not about a specific location.
The Regional Water Board believes our town does not want a sewer. They believe the current CSD Board is simply trying to delay the issue. They believe, as our neighbors have claimed, that we need to be severely punished as individuals and as a community. They believe what people from this town have told them. They believe they are doing what is right.
We need to show the town does want a sewer. We need to ensure the current CSD is working diligently towards a new sewer. We need to demonstrate severe punishment is counter productive. We need to explain a moderate point of view. We need them to do what is right.
What You Can Do
First: Get Off The Bench. Many of us have been sitting on the sidelines. Right or wrong, the water board has placed us on the front lines in this issue. While we have been “cursed” with this task, we can turn it into a blessing for our community. We have now been given a voice above others in our town simply because our issue now is everyone’s issue eventually. We need to use this voice to bring our town together and to move this issue forward.
Second, Educate Yourself. Our voice will be most effective if we are able to have a solid understanding of the situation and come to a consensus amongst ourselves. Understand the water issues within the community. Some sources of information available on-line are:
General over view information including the Cease & Desist Order and a search engine for water documents: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast
Specific information regarding the following subjects:
Sea Water Intrusion: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/SWIntrusionFinalGrant.pdf
Basin Plan/ Water Management: http://losososcsd.org/pdf/Julydraft.pdf
LOCSD Waste water plan: http://losososcsd.org/wwp/index.html
Water Board’s Water Quality 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
Third, Build Your Own Defense. We are all in this together, but we are all punished individually. All documentation for your defense must be submitted by April 5th at 5:00 to the Regional Water Board. While the hearing itself my not be a fair hearing, the evidence you submit or attempt to submit now is what you will have if this case goes before a judge. Fill out the Individual Defense form. And use the items that best suit your own personal situation to build a personal defense. We are here to help you, but you have to help carry your own load.
Fourth, Help Bring the Community Together. There is a portion of our community, on both sides, that will never come to an agreement. We need to work with those, on both sides, that can and will work to bring unity. There are good people that love our town on both sides of the issues. We need to bring them together and create a unified community. In the end, our best defense will comprise three items. A Sewer for the Prohibition Zone, a Septic Management Program for the entire town, and a Water Management Program that effectively addresses nitrates, sea water intrusion, conservation and the economic concerns of our citizens. We need to build bridges within our community, the CSD and the various government entities (RWQCB, SLO County, SWRB…) that have jurisdiction over our town.
To quote Benjamin Franklin:
“We must all hang together,
or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
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8 comments:
There is a grossly incorrect statement here that is both devisive and unsubstantiated.
"..The Water Board acted on this request on January 27th of this year by issuing Cease and Desist Orders to all of us."
The continuing deflection of blame for CDOs on anyone but the community electorate is both wrong and stupid, just like begging for fines is not phi beta capa. (If a cop pulls you over for speeding, insisting that he write you up ain't too bright - but then I've never tried that one, and knowing traffic cops, it might actually work by making them laugh).
The RWQCB, long before any election, had set forth enforcement actions if the LOCSD deliberately failed to comply with a TSO.
The idea that the RWQCB listens to members of this community in terms of enforcement (or almost anything) is ridiculous. They fined CMC without a few inmates asking for fines, or anyone else for that matter. They fined Pismo without residents asking for fines. Similary, all you lunkheads out there, they didn't fine Los Osos because a few people asked to be fined.
If Mr. Shipe's reasoning were valid, then the SWRQB would have just let the new board use all the SRF money for whatever the new board wanted - because the overwhelming number of letters to the SWRCB asked to keep the loan for a new project!
Mr. Shipe suggests the RWQCB acts upon letters, and only a minority of them at that. The truth is, the RWQCB doesn't do much of anything with the letters other than acknowledge their arrival.
If the former board possessed such commanding powers of influence with the RWQCB, then the RWQCB would have long ago
1) gone along with the partial sewering proposal by the former board, and
2) they would have granted the former board more time that Rose Bowker had pleaded for.
Mr. Shipe, on one hand, correctly asks for a community to come together, then on the other hand gives out incorrect information that will only pull the community apart. It is this politicizing of an issue that has made the problem worse over the years.
Namely, there is still political resistance and objection to the legally adjudicated discharge prohibition that festers on to this day.
The RWQCB fined the CSD because the project progress was deliberately halted, and the electorate did it deliberately. It's that simple.
The CDOs were issued AFTER the ACL hearing, in which the CSD offered NO CONRETE PROGRESS to ANY PROJECT. Meetings, workshops, and litigation are NOT considered progress (only action) - and that's all they offered at that time.
At the ACL, the CSD President gave unsupported statements, such as the Tri-W plant being prone to spills. Now, that would have been great except she offered absolutely NO professionally credible evidence to support her claim. THAT is the type of representation of your community at the ACL that killed the CSD at the ACL, which the RWQCB then followed up with (as requested by the RWQCB chair) with CDOs. And it is a representative government, NOT a democracy.
If Mr. Shipe wants to put blame, put it where it lies - with the decision to deliberately halt progress, and the absence of any real quantifiable reviewable alternate plan by the CSD.
It's one thing to want to change a project - it's another to do it and expect no consequence.
The best thing the community can do is to show progress on completion of a wastewater treatment facility. It's that simple.
So Ann & Mr. Shipe should stop creating devisive perceptions.
It is not productive to fight a political battel with incorrect information, regardless of which side.
Mr. Shipe is correct about the community working to show PROGRESS on a wastewater system, because only a wastewater system will cure the problem of CDOs.
Excellent post.
Intelligent people in Los Osos wish to abide by the law, and understand the discharge laws are for their own
protection. These people, property owners, dissatisfied with the slowness of the county, and fully aware of
individual legal consequences for continuing polution, formed the LOCSD. They then assessed themselves to develop
plans for a system. The vote for the assessment, one vote per parcel (APN#), was passed by a large margin. This was
solely a property owners vote. It was criticized widely, because non property owners were left out of the loop.
The property owners did not sit on the fence. They pledged their money to build a solution so they could abide by
the law. There was a step/steg system in plan. Drawings and models were available. This plan was found not
sufficient by RWQCB staff. In order for it to work, the staff demanded that all septic tanks be replaced, and that
documentation for a ten year period of nitrate removal be submitted for the system. This documentation did not
exist. The other problem was a constitutional question as to mandatory inspections of septic tanks on private
property by a government entity. Those who developed the plan realized that it was not acceptable and the plan was
abandoned for a conventional gravity fed sewer plant, acceptable to the water boards. The property owners understood
this and went back to the drawing board. Thier LOCSD hired the best consultants in the field to examine sites, buy a
site, develop plans, and permit all. This was done with assesment money and grants. A fully permitted site, with a
fully permitted plant, was developed to the satisfaction of the water boards, and a low interest loan was issued for
the construction of same. Construction was started. There were no fines or other enforcement because the community
was working in the right direction, and obstructionist suits were beyond the control of the LOCSD.
From the very beginning of developing a system, criticizm emerged. Obstructionist legal suits were raised, and the
long time to get these suits through the courts, contributed to increased costs. Many of these suits were raised by
current LOCSD members and their allies. Unsuccessful in the courts and before water board hearings, a recall
election was petitioned. All members of the district voted, not just the property owners. People who owned property
within the district, but lived out of the district could not vote on the recall. The recall became a reality and the
majority of the board, who had contributed to a viable, permitted solution were replaced by the opposition.
The campaign was sucessfull because the principle tenents were: 1. We have a better site out of town ( the Andre
site was promoted. No mention was made of easements owned by PG&E, and the restrictions on the use of the site ) A
letter was issued by PG&E that the powerlines would have to be moved for use of the site. Ron Crawford went to great
detail on the uses of this site as being a cheaper and better location, but I saw no mention of the easement
problem. 2. We have a cheaper and better solution: A ponding system developed by Nelson Environmental was promoted.
( This is a step/steg system. There is also no documentation of nitrate removal over a ten year period ) If the
RWCQB is consistent, this would also not be acceptable. The problem with septic tank replacement and private
property rights would remain. 3. An intown sewer system would stink. 4. Many other reasons: who needs a park, close
to the library, etc.
Cheaper was the principle component, better (hard to define) was another. Absolutely no sewer plant in town was the
clincher. We will never lose our low income loan, the RWCQB has no enforcement teeth, we can not be individually
fined. Proposition B will prevent this.These were all components of the vote.
The new LOCSD board stopped construction, and we all know what is now on the table. Nobody saw the pumping problem
coming, which was always a viable option for the RWCQB. To date we have NO pumping, have no individual fines, and
the LOCSD is fighting it's fines in court. Whether the courts will absolve polluters from consequences of their
pollution remains to be seen, but unlikely. A polluter is breaking the law.
The taxpayers watch is composed of property owners, wanting a sewer, and has suffered the same loss of property
value as everyone else, same fines, same pumping. True, some members individually suggested fines to wake up fence
sitting property owners to the seriousness of the situation, but the damage had already been done. Nobody saw
pumping coming. But everybody realized the loss of their assessments, and the increased costs from both delay and
the development of another facility sited elsewhere. The taxpayers watch is incapable of causing the water board to
take action. The boards actions have been developed through the years to make things happen and bring a halt to
pollution. The first mention of pumping was discussed by our own LOCSD in November, in our proposed septic
management plan. To blame the taxpayers watch for this is misguided and wrong. Not to blame the current LOCSD for
mismanagement, burning fences with the boards, and attempted outright obstruction of the law, is not rational.
BUT BLAME will not get the district into compliance. It will not produce the grants and other funds to stop
pollution (at this time we have none, and none on the horizon). It will not restore real estate values. It is not
pragmatic. It certainly does not build political will, and realization by the uninformed that polution is against
the law. Blame will not get us MONEY.
Education will help to a great degree. Pragmatic reality will eventially prevail. Within your own group you will
find great difference in opinion as how to proceed, and you will find justifiable anger.
I have spent many sleepless nights searching for a solution to our problem. It always came to either fight the
illegal mandate and continue to polute, or conform to the law in working for a viable solution, any viable solution
acceptable to the water boards. I am a pragmatist, informed, and deaply involved with politics, and thusly supported
our viable solution, worked on through many years, and obstructed for many years. We had a bird in the hand. This
bird has been replaced by perceived birds in a bush that cannot be heard or seen.
I support everything that you wish to do, but realize that our problem will not go away, and the future is very
uncertain. I am prepared to pay for my pumping, I AM a polluter. I will not throw my money at lawyers to defend
pollution. I will not support this LOCSD or home rule for this district, because I realize that they will never be
trusted with money again, and there is no overall political will to solve our problems as long as all property
owners are not in the loop, and those without property are in the loop. I also do not blame the water boards for
taking action, we were warned. But I will watch them like a hawk to make sure they conform to the law. I long for
the bird in the hand, but realize it has flown away, and will be very difficult to catch again.
I can see no viable option but to dissolve the district, and let the county renegotiate loans and grants in good
faith for the property owners. I feel that we do not have the tax base, trust, or pollitical will to handle this
ourselves. I speculate that if we get back on track, the requirement for pumping will be lifted. My mind is
completely open to any viable solution, but am adamantly opposed to obstruction. I am a pragmatist and realize that
the rights of individuals have been lost a long time ago when they oppose "the greater good". I also feel that there
can be no "greater good" unless the rights of individuals are protected, but this is not current political reality.
Once again, you're mangling history. For example, the "Andre" site often cited wasn't the only suitable property "out of town." but it and its PG&E restrictions are the only ones cited. That's totally misleading. Ron Crawford has repeatedly documented that the key driving force behind the in-town sewer was the phony "public amenities" issue. The CSD and even the CC did not seriously consider any out of town site.
As for Specttor being a "pragmatist," and saying he won't spend a penny on "lawyers," Does he really think the CDO's mad pumping scheme actually accomplishes nitrate reduction in an effective, cost effective, more bang for the buck manner? Does he really think that pumping and driving 24 - 36 million gallons of wasteWATER to Santa Maria to dump it is going to help matters or simply creat an ever bigger mess?
Ifk his pragmatism says No, then he needs to join with many of the Los Osos 45 who are working to force the RWQCB to get serious and come up with a better solution than this mad scheme. The CDO hearings in April are a kangaroo court (8 hours, minus lunch and potty breaks to give 45 citizens the right to call witnesses, present evidence & etc. A joke.), so the ONLY way to froce the RWQCB to smarter "pragmatism" is by jumping through the kangaroo "administrative" hoops THEN taken the entire case(s) to court.
What many of the Los Osos 45 are doing will result in benefit to YOU when your number comes up, they are paving the way for YOU, they are working on requiring (via lawyers) the RWQCB come up with a smarter interim solution while the sewer moves ahead. And if YOY do nothing,then don't whine if someone refers to YOU as a freeloader riding on their coattails.
So, that's the question. What are YOU going to do to help these people between now and April 28, and thereafter?
Jeez, stop speculating.
You say, 'What many of the Los Osos 45 are doing will result in benefit to YOU when your number comes up'
You have absolutely NO idea if what they are doing will benefit themselves or anyone else, or will pave a road in the right direction or a wrong direction for themselves.
How can you say that, when you have no idea if they're even getting good advice??
Good for them that they're trying to doing something about it. But you should stop propagating speculative information and misinformation about things you know nothing about.
You have NO idea if agreeing to paying for pumping, as opposed to lawyers, would be smarter. How exactly do you KNOW these things.
There is one irrefutable fact. All the money that has been paid for lawyers over the last 30 years has NOT resulted in a sewer being built. I guess it depends on one's perspective if that's good or bad.
Suggest you come to a SAFE meeting, 7 pm at Sunnyside School, and talk to the folks there. What you are looking at with the CDOs is a CIVIL administrative proceeding that carries with it legal penalties and consequences, including fines and leins on property & etc. What the Los Osos 45 are doing is making sure that they are creating the documents and exhibits they will need (and everyone else in town will also need) if and when this ends up in a court of law.(extremely likely unless the RWQC BOARD votes to come to its senses and consider other options other than this insane pumping scheme)
Without preparing this NOW, the RWQCB can legally close the doors at the end of the April 28th hearing to members of the public who do nothing NOW, and so they will be forevermore shut up and shut out. It's the old "speak now or forever hold your peace."
That's why I asked, What are YOU doing to help your neighbors and/or yourself?
Well, one thing that would be good to do is to not spread misinformation Ann.
Your last post had more misinformation. That's something you should figure out before you provide bad advice to someone or the wrong type of 'help'.
Another thing Ann, why weren't you writing about the damage these CDOs could cause a couple of years ago??
Per publicworks: "Your last post had more misinformation. That's something you should figure out before you provide bad advice to someone or the wrong type of 'help'."
I Suggest you come to tonight's SAFE meeting and set everyone straight on all the "misinformation"
Dogs: Spectator agrees that pumping septic tanks is just another form of a "smart pill" as defined by a smart doctor below, who examined the problem of anonymous sneezing "bullshit". A pill to be swallowed only once, which is fully able to bring intellectual enlightenment and a sense of reality to the "non pragmatic" i.e. believers in sophistry, or perhaps "smart pills". One only learns by mistakes, some do not, they blame others, and usually mistakes are made by individual emotion and ignorance.
Rational and informed people do not need even ONE "smart pill". They recognise crap as crap. But there are a bundle of people in Los Osos who really do not, yourself included, but only at times.
The bitter and foul taste of "rabbit shit" clears the mind immediately. You can sugar coat it all you want, but when you chomp down, there it is. Usually this brings intraspection on one's ability to be duped. Otherwise one uses sophistry to protect the ego.
So speculate about the RWQCB and the speculative kangaroo court, the same way you speculated as to their power in the past. Nothing wrong with this, speculation is speculation. You can also speculate as to the ability of the LOCSD to go forward. Facts will come with reality as facts are revealed.
When the time comes for members of this group of a few polluters to put their money on the line to defend the consiquences of their own pollution, and they receive good legal advice, we shall see where this goes. I am in the same boat, and may drown with them, but AT THIS TIME have no standing. Go to meetings? I have no dog in their fight, yet! Next time perhaps, when I have standing. However, any meeting would be very intertaining. The ignorant will be at the throats of the knowedgeable, and vice versa.
Ask the LOCSD members and their duped obstructionist supporters to spend their money, to support pollution. They can spend their private funds. Where are the funds from them to support this group?
They have used and mislead many of the property owners in Los Osos with false promises. There were to be no consequences. All was illegal, and now they have abandoned ALL. Let members of the LOCSD put their private fortunes behind their mouths. Fat chance! Money talks, bullcrap walks! We will see how many from this group contributes money.
And I am accused of abandoning the community? I am supposed to support the effort to defend against sanctions against pollution? The community, by a small majority of duped, and the LOCSD has abandoned me! And here we are! The only answer to this problem is dissolution, and it will only come from admitting mistakes of judgement and the fact that one was dupped. Are you so sure you were not dupped? Change your socks. White on both feet. White is a combination of ALL colors.
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