Calhouns Can(n)ons

UPDATES

Los Osos Sewerish Stuff

Email from Mike in Los Osos states: "The emergency Services Committee voted to not give the [CSD] Board a 218 vote recommendation. The Committee will report that the Fire Department assessment will be around $170 per month and will come from reserves. The vote was 3-2.

It was reported taht the Water Ops voted for the Board to abstain from voting on the 218. The Finance Committee also recommends abstention. . . . . "

UPDATE ON KVEC

Supervisor Gibson and Paavo Ogren have requested to bump up the time they'll be on Dave's show from 5:30 to 5 - 6. So, to hear the latest from them and get your calls and questions in, tune into The Dave Congalton Show, KVEC, 920 am from 5 - 6 pm this evening.

OR

Trot down to the community center for pre-closed session public comment at tonight's LOCSD meeting regarding the 218 vote scheduled for this evening. The bankruptcy issues will be affected one way or the other, so you can sick in your nickle's worth of comment then and again at the 7:30 regular meeting.

And now, the "Yup, I figgered As Much" Department

Tribune announces this morning that "Paavo Ogren is likely to be tapped to succeed Noel King as director of county Public Works."

First off, congratulations to Noel King, who will be retiring. And a warning: Get some rest now because after you retire you're likely to find yourself busier than you ever were in "real life" and will start longing for the "easy" 18 hour days of being back at work. Rocking Chair Retirements are sooo over.

As for Paavo, when this Sewer Trainwreck was bifurcated and the county was given a shot at solving the Gordian Knot, I knew then that whoever is involved in any way with this project, if it fails, it will be a career-buster and everyone involved will end up with "mud on their face." But, if anyone involved manages to pull this off successfully, they will end up with a ginormous "feather in the cap."

Reason? The Hideous Los Osos Sewer has been watched by many, many eyes over the years, most on faces with mouths hanging open, the jaw dropping to the floor and the sound, "Whaaa, whaaaaaaa?" coming out of the gaping maw. With this specacular train wreck (totally predictable, and totally unnecessary, alas) now the whole world is watching -- literally -- the engineering world, the financial world, the legal world, the sewer world. Agog. Curious. Checking the numbers. Eyeballing the page. Emails flying fast and furious. Say What? Say Whaaaatt? From Dr. T. & the Water Resources Institute, the Ripley Team, , Orenco, Lombardo, you name it. They're watching this extraordinary Saga, the tightrope walker over the chasm, while little Sewer Jihadi-mices of various stripes jump up and down on the wire -- boing-boing-boing.

All these eyes know the perils, the complexities, the promises. They're watching. Dooo-deee--doooo-dooo. And whoever is involved with a "success" will find feathers in their caps and job offers on the table.

Failure will bring coffee-blown-through-the-nose contempt and calumny. Mass mud on face all 'round. No promotions for you! Nuh-huh.

The stakes couldn't be higher for everyone involved.

Who Is That Masked Man?

This morning's headlines from Sona's story: "Sewer competitor's ads called misleading." Story concerns AES and Mr. Murphy and Mr. Low's "Reclamator," of course.

Now the powers that be are going after the ads that are flooding the airwaves and appearing in print. As I posted previously, at the BOS meeting Tuesday, it looked like a case now of Humpty Dumpty, meet Humpty Dumpty, as Mr. Murphy claims he'll be going head to head with Roger Briggs of the RWQCB. Good luck to 'em both.

When I met Mr. Murphy at a public information meeting months ago, I told him I had two words for him: Roger Briggs. He maintained that he didn't need no stinkin' Roger Briggs, that federal laws trumped Roger Briggs and a federal court would settle that hash right quick.

When I noted that few people in this town can afford to hire a lawyer and go into federal court, Mr. Murphy pointed out that you don't need an attorney in federal court. You can go pro per. I didn't bother to point out to him that very few people in this town can afford to go into federal court representing themselves because they can't afford the hotel bills to go and stay in L.A. weeks or months or years on end, including meals, gas, & etc, not to mention loss of time from work, all of which time can be strung out FOR YEARS by the RWQCB (who are being paid by the taxpayers so they have all the paid time in the world to drag out cases until everyone dies of old age and a whole new generation comes along in some Dickensian Bleak House scenario), not to mention the gazillions required for court reporters during discovery and depositions, the gazillions required to pay for a court record, pay for subpoenas (like the case of the Los Osos 45, the subpoenas can be quashed by the Board as the subject of the subpoenas, Mr. Briggs, sails off to sea, out of reach, for a long vacation, & etc.), and pay for the gazaillion things needed to successfully get a case in court. Not to mention, one misfililed document, one missed deadline and, ka-poof! your case is out the door along with all the money you've spent so far.

And that's just the start up case. If you survive all that you may still end up in appeals court for CENTURIES.

As noted in the Tribune story, and noted in yesterday's BOS meeting, the Reclamator will be evaluated along with other alternative systems during the CEQA process. But, in order to evaluate a system, the engineers (and the RWQCB) will need to see complete data. So far, that data hasn't been made available, to my knowledge. Simply asserting you don't need no stinkin' data puts you in league with the RWQCB that asserts they don't need "proof" of pollution to torture people for nearly two years then hang them anyway. In these parts, it's all "Chinatown, Jake. Chinatown."

As I noted: Humpty Dumpty? Meet Humpty Dumpty.