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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Free The Los Osos 45



I received the following email & thread between The Moylans (One of The Los Osos 45) and RWQCB's Harvey Packard.  The email is self-explanatory.  Though it may seem like ancient history, there are 45 of your fellow Los Ososians who are still under the gun from Roger Briggs' "Mad Pumping Scheme" and the appalling and pointless "Mad Hatter Tea Party and Torquemada's Auto de Fe" show "Trial" that followed. The world moved on but these 45 got stuck with Mr. Briggs', Mr. Packard's and Mr. Young's massive Folly.

Is it possible that Mr. Packard is finally having second thoughts about his role in this excruciating, hideously embarrassing fiasco? Especially since Mr. Young is no longer Chairman and, mirable dictu, there's some new, competent, better-informed, knowledgeable,Board members who, hopefully, will bring to this Board a desperately needed new perspective. And this Board can finally make this right? Let's hope so.  Mr. Moylan has listed Mr. Packard's email if you wish to give him input on this matter. I have lots of input I could give Mr. Packard, but for now, I'll allow Ms. Moylan's cogent comments (to be posted shortly) speak to the point. But, for now, there's the question:  Should The Los Osos 45 finally be set free?    

Dear Friends,

Below is an email string between Bill Moylan and Harvey Packard of the Water Board Enforcement Division that you may find worth reading (up from the bottom). You will see that Mr. Packard mentions asking members of the community to comment on the CDO’s currently being enforced on 45 families in Los Osos. He is considering asking to have them removed. He expected Bill to get the word out. Bill told him that we don’t know enough people, and that he needs to communicate with the community, himself, using the Water Board’s considerable resources. But he has not done that yet, and so we are forwarding the message string below to help at least a few community members to communicate thoughts on retaining or removing the “Los Osos 45” CDO’s. 

Mr. Packard is looking for community input on a topic that means a lot to those of us with CDO’s in our lives for the past eight years.

Bill and I hope you’ll take some time to send Harvey Packard a message to say what you think the CDO’s are accomplishing, and whether or not they should remain in force or be removed from the 45 properties and all the people they have affected since 2006. His email address is hpackard@waterboards.ca.gov. Your neighbors with CDO’s appreciate your taking the time to speak up briefly to express your opinion on whether the “Los Osos 45” CDO's should be removed.

Please feel free to pass this message along. Anyone who needs to be reminded of the CDO prosecutions can go to www.waterboards.ca.gov and search los osos CDO’s, los osos enforcement actions 2006, or other colorful and imaginative possibilities. There you will find transcripts of the April 28, 2006/December 15, 2006/January 22, 2007 enforcement hearings, among other intriguing documents.

Thank you for taking a look below and for taking the time to communicate with Mr. Packard, if you are so inclined.

Best,
Bev 

From: Subject: Re: Los Osos CDO's

Date: February 24, 2014 7:38:37 PM PST

To: "Packard, Harvey@Waterboards" <Harvey.Packard@waterboards.ca.gov>

Dear Mr. Packard,
Thank you for your prompt reply to my message and for your invitation to provide input for your May proposal to the Water Board.
To let interested parties know about your proposal, however, requires information I do not have. But your agency does have it.. 
As the compliance officer for the CCRWQCB, you are the appropriate party to encourage input for your May 2014 CDO proposal by contacting all individual enforcement recipients and by making a timely public announcement.
  Sincerely,
  William Moylan
On Feb 24, 2014, at 9:26 AM, Packard, Harvey@Waterboards wrote:


Mr. Moylan,

I agree that it is my job to make a recommendation to the Water Board about the CDOs, and I plan on doing so in a written report to the board for the May 2014 meeting.  The board will not take any action at the meeting, but could provide direction to staff.

If you or anyone else interested in the situation would like to provide input toward my recommendation, please provide that information to me by March 31.

Thanks,

Harvey C. Packard, PE
Section Manager and Enforcement Coordinator
Central Coast Water Board
895 Aerovista Place, Suite 101
San Luis Obispo, CA  93401
(805) 542-4639
(805) 543-0397 fax

From: william]
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2014 11:08 PM
To: Packard, Harvey@Waterboards
Subject: Fwd: Los Osos CDO's

 Dear Mr. Packard,

I sent you an e-mail on February 10, 2014 (12 days ago) saying that my wife and I believed that it was your responsibility to submit a proposal to the Water Board to remove the Cease and Desist Orders that were issued to 45 households in Los Osos in 2006 and early 2007.  I still have not received a response from you. I believe that you have had ample time to respond to my e-mail.  I request that you send me a response regarding my first e-mail within the next five days. Below is a copy of that first e-mail.

Sincerely,

William Moylan

Begin forwarded message:

From: william < Subject: Los Osos CDO's
Date: February 10, 2014 8:42:54 PM PST

Dear Mr. Packard,
 Recently you spoke to me at the CCRWQCB office suggesting that my wife and I join forces with other CDO families to ask the Water Board “to remove” the Cease and Desist Orders they imposed on us in 2006 and 2007.
 It is my understanding that the original individual enforcement proposal came from CCRWQCB staff. You were on staff at the time of those hearings that resulted in a 100% successful prosecution rate.
 After carefully considering your suggestion, I concluded that the party who proposed individual enforcement is the appropriate party to request its removal.  As CCRWQCB Enforcement Coordinator and Advisor to the Board you are in the proper position to ask the Board to remove the individual Cease and Desist Orders that resulted from the prosecution of the “Los Osos 45.”
 I request that you submit that proposal as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
 William Moylan




18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you can once again sue the State in this excruciating, hideously embarrassing fiasco?

Perhaps you can lead yet another charge to halt this terrible sewer?

Glad to see the sewer war entering another phase.

Ron said...

[Part I]

Ann writes:

"The world moved on but these 45 got stuck with Mr. Briggs', Mr. Packard's and Mr. Young's massive Folly."

Ya know, there's also another VERY interesting name associated directly with that "massive Folley."

It was the head lawyer dude for the State, whose office conducted that hardcore prosecution on those 45 completely innocent citizens/victims -- the California Attorney General at the time... one Jerry Brown.

I'd love to hear ol' Jer's comments to Harv, these days, concerning those ridiculous CDOs.

And, yes, I WILL be sending ol' Harv some thoughts, primarily based on some of my past blog posts, like my open letter to Rog, where I show how the past 15 years of sewer delay are HIS fault, for just sitting back, and doing nothing, while the 1999 - 2000 LOCSD wasted two PRECIOUS years (and millions of public dollars) chasing a non-project that he already knew was never going to work, and had he not been so lazy, and simply had dropped the CDO hammer back in 1999 (as he clearly should have) the County's project from the 1990s would have been up and running in about the year 2000.

So, from 1999 - 2015, that's about 5 billion gallons of water pollution directly on Roger's shoulders.

And I'll be sending Harv my thoughts from my blog post where I show how Jeffy said:

"I can tell you one thing, that had the community not put the blocks on the current project (the Tri-W disaster) that we would not be here with an ACL hearing."

And then I'll pair that ill-thought-out quote with the gigantic laundry list of, uh, issues, that the County found with the Tri-W disaster, three years after he said that quote.

Things like:

- "All sites are tributary to the Morro Bay National Estuary and pose a potential risk in the event of failure. Tri-W poses a higher risk..."

and;

"NOTE: It was the unanimous opinion of the (National Water Research Institute) that an out of town site is better due to problematic issues with the downtown site."

and, of course:

"The Project team, given the clear social infeasibility issue associated with Mid Town (Tri-W project) and the infeasible status of the LOCSD disposal plan, believes that if either of those options are deemed by decision-makers to be the best solution for Los Osos, then serious consideration should be given by the Board (of Supervisors) to adopt a due diligence resolution and not pursue Project implementation."

So, lemme see if I have this straight, Harv. Your boss, Jeff, gets horribly confused on the feasibility of the Tri-W disaster, and because the voters of Los Osos are forced to do HIS job, and stop that environmental disaster, Jeffy-poo, and his equally-confused buddy, Rog, turn right around and hardcore enforce on a bunch of completely citizens... simply because those citizens put an environmental disaster "on blocks?"

Nice.

Ron said...

[Part II]

Then, of course, OF COURSE, I'm going to have to send Harv my thoughts on how Pandora and her not-so-merry band of followers, immediately after they lost the 2005 recall election, coordinated with Rog, to implement their "strategy" to have Los Osos "fined out of existence."

Absolutely sickening.

I mean, look at this quote, as part Pandora's sickening "strategy," from former LOCSD Wastewater subcommittee member, and co-Tri-W disaster developer, Jerry Gregory, to Roger:

"Nothing in Los Osos Surprises me any more [sic]! If anything stupid can happen in this world it will happen in Los Osos. At Rose Bowker memorial I asked you to fine the Community of Los Osos if the Recall is successful. Well, I am asking you again. Please do this immediately and with the largest fine that is legal for you to do... My honest opinon [sic] is that your fine is large enough to bankrupt the CSD and place all of the services back in the hands of the County. I know they will move forward with this (Tri-W disaster) project."

And, if you're reading this, and haven't already lost your lunch, Jerry Gregory is one of the sponsors of that silly "Celebrate Los Osos" "celebration," coming up next week.

"Funds generously provided by... Jerry Gregory, Baywood Realty"

Hey, nothing says "Celebrate Los Osos," like, "If anything stupid can happen in this world it will happen in Los Osos," and, "I asked you to fine the Community of Los Osos if the Recall is successful. Well, I am asking you again. Please do this immediately and with the largest fine that is legal for you to do."

Then, of course, there's also this:

YIN:

"If you wish to help, send a check, made out to Celebrate Los Osos, to
Celebrate Los Osos
350 Mitchell Dr
Los Osos, CA  93402 "

YANG:

"Pandora Nash-Karner
350 Mitchell Dr.
Los Osos, CA"

"Roger... I'd like to talk to you about potential strategy from the property owners to stop a new board from stopping the project. I'll call you Thursday morning."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, to Roger Briggs, in an effort to implement her "strategy" to have Los Osos "fined out of existence," just one day after the 2005 recall election

Are we sick yet?

So, yeah, THAT's what I'll be sending to Harvey, on why the CDOs should just go away.

Anonymous said...

We are so sick of those who still continue to fight every step of the way to delay or even halt the sewer. Your words are poison in this community! Those are really the ones who have drive the cost so hideously high!

Anonymous said...

Free the 45?

Have any of them actually been fined or paid a fine or gone to jail?

No, No and NO!

Once again, Fox News type reporting by Ann. Just another meaningless stir of the pot.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

A word on the CDOs.

The problem before the RWQCB to remove the CDOs was the PZLDF case, which if successful, left a legal loophole to stop the project. The RWQCB was NOT going to do a thing to remove them until that case was decided. Well, that case finally writhed in its final death throes in being refused a hearing before the State Supreme Court, so was extinguished in January 2013.

Why this fact, that the case was OVER in January 2013, was NOT brought before the RWQCB sooner than now leaves one to wonder if there was still some legal trickery to be tried or at least thought about to cause this delay. That legal issue was the clear impediment to removing the CDOs and once that was over.......well, WHY NOT ASK IN FEBRUARY, 2013—OVER ONE YEAR AGO!

Yes, let's get the ball rolling on the removal of CDOs AND NOVs (which is what is on my house) as the project is well on its way to completion and we will be hooking up in a couple of years.

If this CDO, NOV removal does not happen, we ALL need to ask WHY NOT.

Anonymous said...

Lynette, ask yourself whether you still have a septic system or whether you are connected to a working waste water treatment system?

If you are still on a septic system, then you are technically and legally in violation and must have the NOV still open and could legally be prosecuted. Had the sewer war legal wrangling not delayed the now County construction, the NOV would have been null by now.

However, with some individuals continuing to try to trip up and delay the construction by any means possible, the State has no option but to keep the NOV's ready and available.

All the hand wringing and crying will just fall on deaf ears. You can give thanks to a few local individuals who have created this legal mess as well as the high cost we all will have to pay. Didn't someone once say that the Water Board wouldn't fine us?

Anonymous said...

So pleased to have heard of this article. My wife and I thank you for suggesting the community send letters to Harvey Packard and the Central Coast Water Board.

We intend to recommend the Cease and Desist Orders remain in effect until the WWTF and all hook ups are completed.

We have lived here more than 30 years and do not trust the activists who have caused the extensive delays. We suspect there will be more of their challenges and possibly further delays.

Thank you for recommending this on your grapevine.

Anonymous said...

Yes Ron. If you're so smart and right about everything, how come you're in Santa Margerita and we're stuck with a $184 million sewer?

Think about that one long and hard.

Anonymous said...

Damn Ron, you're right, the Los Osos Waste Water Treatment Plant should be built in San Margarita!

Let's band together and stop the hideous plant that will eventually overflow and spill into the Morro Bay Estuary!

Oh my, the sky is still falling!

Ron said...

An anon writes:

"Yes Ron. If you're so smart and right about everything, how come you're in Santa Margerita and we're stuck with a $184 million sewer?"

Uh, have you ever BEEN to the Santa Margarita outback? It's f-ing beautiful! THAT's how "smart and right" I am : -)

And if Roger didn't get weak and lazy back in 1999 - 2000, when he wasted two PRECIOUS years, by doing nothing and allowing the new CSD to futilely chase a non-project that he already knew was never going to work, you would be stuck with a $71 million sewer, that would have been on-line 5 billion gallons of water pollution ago.

Why Rog allowed that unbelievably HUGE disaster to happen, is one of the GREAT unanswered questions of the Los Osos sewer disaster -- THE largest, (wo)/man-made, 100-percent preventable, water pollution event in history... of the world.

I guess he was out sailing.

But, hey, it's hard to blame him. Sailing's fun.

Anonymous said...

The SM outback sounds perfect for a sewer farm.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
PZ Riff Raff said...

Fortunately these letters to esteemed Mr. Packard will be public record, so maybe we can find out who these miserable, vile anons are, and be able to confront them in person,away from the bravery of their keyboards...

Anonymous said...

..and YOU are?

PZ Riff Raff said...

Not part of the public record. Maybe, though, I'm coming up on your blind side...

Anonymous said...

Viva Bosephus! Long ride the Riff Raff Rangers!

Churadogs said...

PZ Riff Raff: I read a great essay in, I think, the NYT, discussing studies done on the basic psychology of people who would be classified as anonymous internet "trolls." The one overriding quality of their psychological make up was a very real propensity for sadism. And the anonymous internet allowed them to get their sadistic jollies and do it safely, with nobody (their friends, family members, etc.) the wiser.

I have long noted several of the "voices" that keep appearing here repeatedly (and almost always on the topic of the sewer, nothing else) are what I call "bone deep ugly." If you've been following this blog, you'll know what I mean. "Vile" is the word you use. It's apt. And it's a really interesting phenomenon.

The other oddity is again the few anonnymice who've gotten stuck in various false narratives. Like anyone who criticizes the sewer project is a "anti-sewer obstructionist." Or, that anyone who opposed the Tri-W project is both "anti-sewer" and "deserves" punishment. (There's that gleeful sadism creeping in. . . oooo, "punish.") Or the false narrative that, even now, somebody pointing out the absurdity of these CDOs,for example, means that somehow the sewer can be "stopped" by even bringing up the topic.

Amazing.