Letters, We get Letters
The following was sent to the Tribune from a CDO recipient who spent 12 hours at the April 28 hearing and took issue with how the Tribune covered the story the next day. Printed with permission from the author
Chip Visci, Sandra Duerr, Matt Lazier, Antonio A. Prado, Nathan Welton
The Tribune
3825 S. Higuera
P.O. Box 112
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
For the past several months I have looked in vain for articles in your newspaper dealing with recipients of Proposed Cease and Desist Orders (CDOs) from the RWQCB. This topic seemed extremely newsworthy from many angles, yet week after week, month after month, you contacted neither my husband and me, nor any Proposed CDO recipient with whom I am familiar. After a showy struggle with the RWQCB to get names of Proposed CDO recipients, you did nothing with the information.
Finally, last week, you printed a story about two retired couples and how they thought a CDO would affect them, were one to be issued. What you have completely missed is the story about what has already happened to those of us who have received Proposed CDOs, the months of work, the personal hardship and expense, the health consequences, the difficulty of fitting research on a site specific prosecution defense around a schedule of work, family, and community responsibilities, and the uncertainties surrounding how much time from these responsibilities will be taken by a hearing, already twelve hours old, which has now been extended for two more days, and could easily go on longer.
On Friday, April 28, 2006, the hearing date, nowhere in your paper did I find any mention whatsoever of the RWQCB hearing. This lack of coverage was surprising given that the random prosecution of 45 Prohibition Zone families, the Designated Parties, was the biggest news in Los Osos that day.
The President and Vice President of the Prohibition Zone Legal Defense Fund (PZLDF) have appeared on local public information outlets. The president called your newspaper to request coverage. No one interviewed either of these gentlemen for an article on this story.
The most egregious of all your omissions occurred on the front page of Saturday’s issue of The Tribune in which Nathan Welton reported his version of the RWQCB hearing. Essentially, you omitted the Truth. The headline, “Los Osos raises a ruckus at hearing with water officials,” along with the first sentence, “Tempers flared for 12 hours Friday,” conveys the impression that throughout the hearing citizens were disorderly, noisy, angry, and unruly. Mr. Welton mentions that, “an armed…officer patrolled the room, ostensibly to control the often rowdy crowd.” While it is true that an armed officer was present, as I would hope to be the case in any public gathering where a large crowd was expected, he did not “patrol.” Since the crowd was so well-behaved, he had very little to do, and for the most part stood or sat in one place for a period of time and then moved to another location, just as many in the crowd did to keep from solidifying as the hours passed. As someone who participated in every minute of the hearing from the center of the room in the second row from 10am to 10:30pm, I can tell you that such hyperbole does not do justice to the reporter, to your newspaper, to the citizens of both Los Osos in particular and of San Luis Obispo County in general, or to the Truth. While at times individuals became emotional, clapped, murmured their dissent, or called out a comment, at no time was the group unruly.
When concerns about crowding in the room emerged early on, citizens left cooperatively, quietly, and respectfully for seats in an overflow room where they could watch the proceedings on television. A group staging a silent demonstration by holding signs in the back of the hall was admonished that they could not carry signs and stay in the room. They left promptly and peacefully. Anyone examining the record would be able to note that the majority of the chairman’s admonitions referred to applause that occurred in response to specific comments. This applause was not loud, raucous, nor prolonged. Citizens maintained remarkable decorum despite the daunting challenges of the months already invested in this struggle and the challenge of waiting all day in vain to present their entire case in the fifteen minutes allotted each household to defend itself. It would have been worth noting for the public at large that these fifteen minutes were the total time we had to present testimony and call witnesses on our behalf.
Mr. Welton had the challenge of reporting the essence of what happened on Friday, yet he chose to use his precious copy space to cover innocuous details, such as the disorganized first part of the hearing and an admonition by the chairman to CSD Director, Julie Tacker, regarding his incorrect belief that she had clapped in response to a specific comment. Though Ms. Tacker denied having clapped, the reporter failed to note that detail, creating the impression that Ms. Tacker’s behavior was, indeed, disorderly.
It is true that inadequate planning by water board staff and its consequent confusion over procedures wasted everyone’s time, but it certainly was not the story. The woman whom the chairman asked be removed by the officer for speaking up vehemently about the disorganization left the microphone as ordered, under her own power, and sat down. Her compliance with the chairman’s directive went unreported. It also went unreported that this was the only instance in over twelve hours when the officer was called upon.
At times, we were treated like school children, but those details also were not the story. In reporting insignificant, irrelevant, half-true, and patently untrue details in order to reinforce a broadly held stereotype of Los Osos citizens, created by the media, Mr. Welton, failed to fulfill his mission as a legitimate news reporter.
Mr. Welton failed to report that the Honorable Sam Blakeslee, our Assemblyman, attended the hearing and addressed the water board about his continuing plans to work on the state level to help find a solution to the Los Osos wastewater issue. Citizens greeted him warmly and respectfully. His face appears in the very large photo accompanying the story on the front page, yet nowhere in the story was Mr. Blakeslee mentioned. His assistant was present with him, and she was present at the end of the hearing, yet she was not mentioned.
Mr. Welton failed to report that District 2 Supervisor Shirley Bianchi also appeared at the hearing, announcing that she would answer questions from the water board only. She refused to take questions from her own constituents. He did not report that Ms. Bianchi had received a subpoena to attend the hearing. He failed to report that the chairman of the water board quashed her subpoena, even though Ms. Bianchi’s testimony would have been critical to the cases of many Designated Parties, and given that she had already indicated that she would not voluntarily cooperate in answering questions from Designated Parties.
Mr. Welton failed to report that Designated Parties had issued at least two other subpoenas, which were also quashed by the chairman of the water board, though the testimony of those witnesses would have been very important to their defense. He did not report that the recipients of these subpoenas had failed to appear that morning, which raised the question of improper prior communications between the board and these subpoena recipients. The chairman addressed this question, himself denying any improper communication with the subpoena recipients, yet that fact went unreported.
Mr. Welton failed to report that the RWQCB chairman addressed the Designated Parties directly, as a group, to determine if we believed that those being prosecuted had not been chosen at random. Receiving a strong affirmative, the chairman stated that the point had been established, and he refused to permit further questions or comments on that issue.
Mr. Welton failed to report that in cross-examination, Dr. Dan Wickam, a wastewater expert witness for the Los Osos CSD, stated that frequent pumping of septic tanks may be in violation of EPA standards and could, therefore, be illegal. This information seems highly newsworthy, at least as newsworthy as the Air Pollution Control District concern that frequent pumping may have an adverse impact on air quality, which the Tribune did report a few days ago. He referred to Dr. Wickam as simply, “Dan Wickam, president of engineering firm AGB,” neglecting to mention Dr. Wickam’s extensive credentials.
Mr. Welton failed to report that Dr. Wickam testified that no definitive, scientific studies have ever been conducted to determine the source of nitrates in the groundwater in Los Osos, that such studies could easily be accomplished at reasonable expense, and that they would show scientifically the source of the nitrates. Mr. Welton did not report that the RWQCB’s contention that septic systems as the source of the nitrates in Los Osos groundwater is essentially speculation based on correlation and not on scientific data, since the water board has conducted no studies. Dr. Wickam cited several possible sources for nitrates, including septic systems, but would not speculate without data provided by scientific tests.
Mr. Welton failed to report that at least three member of the Los Osos CSD addressed the water board. He failed to note that Lisa Schicker, President of the Los Osos CSD, spoke about the CSD’s current efforts in regard to wastewater management to an impassive water board.
To anyone present for the full twelve hours, Mr. Welton’s story gives the impression that he was only briefly in attendance and missed the bulk of the RWQCB hearing. If he did attend the entire hearing, and if his mission was to waste his day finding and inventing innocuous details to support and enliven a stereotype of Los Osos, then he can say, “Mission Accomplished.” If fair and balanced reporting on an extremely significant event in the history of wastewater treatment in Los Osos with its enormous toll on thousands of families in the Prohibition Zone was his goal, then his failure as a competent news reporter is complete.
His supervisors, whose job it is to look at the stories for content, bias, and newsworthiness have failed to protect the public from gossip disguised as journalism. It does not take a journalism major to look at this story and see its flaws. Surely someone who edited the story had to suspect that something was missing. Surely someone asked this reporter what actually HAPPENED at the hearing. If not, then standards for editing at the Tribune are at least as low as its standards for reporting.
These have not been easy months for those of us who have received Proposed CDOs. We are exhausted beyond your understanding. This prosecution has invaded our lives. We take it to work and home again. We eat our meals with it. We sleep with it. We wake up in the night with it. It is there when we help our children with their homework and when we play with our pets. It is there when we talk to our grandchildren on the phone. It is there when we spend time with friends, attend church, or work in our gardens. It sends us to the hospital for emergency treatment for high blood pressure, heart conditions, and stress. It dominates our thoughts.
We are ordinary citizens who have been singled out extraordinarily for prosecution by a government agency for something over which we have no control. Those who have never faced prosecution by an omnipotent government agency have no idea what it is like to try to keep from drowning in the voluminous, necessary research, paperwork, and meetings it takes to mount a defense of our property while conducting the business of everyday life at the same time.
This group of courageous, hard-working, smart, warm, and compassionate people have done this almost alone, ignored by the media, unless we have made the contacts and they have responded. From the uninformed public we have received reactions ranging from, “It’s your own fault,” to “Keep us posted,” to “We feel for you.” We have received none of the attention we are entitled to as your neighbors who are besieged and defenseless. Many of our neighbors had no idea that prosecution awaits them, as well.
It was too much to hope that our county newspaper would afford us the dignity of reporting the RWQCB hearing as it happened. It is discouraging to discover that our own newspaper would use its power for good once again to marginalize and demean Los Osos and its citizens by misrepresentation, by selective reporting, and by false statements and gossip depicted as news.
Sincerely,
Beverley A. De Witt-Moylan
Los Osos Proposed CDO Recipient
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Oh, and while sticking an ice pick in my eyes for 12 hours, did I forget to mention . . .
So, when Dr. Wickham, B.S, M.S., PhD, was testifying about all things onsite and septic during the April 28th CDO hearing, (see blog posting below) Lori Okun, the RWQCB’s attorney, piped up to ask Dr. Wickham if there were any onsite systems that could be used for the same kind of mitigation that was supposed to be the result of this mad pumping scheme and Dr. Wickham said, Yes, many systems being used all over the country, so Lori asked, are they less expensive, and Dr. Wickham said, yes, and went on to mention several, some ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 and said most systems will pay for themselves in two years, so then I got dizzy and creeped out when I had to ask myself, Why in hell is Lori asking that question now?
And then it dawned on me, Is it possible the RWQCB staff had to ask that question now, because they never asked it BEFORE terrorizing a town, before wasting gazillions of hours of taxpayer’s time and money, before wasting their Board’s time (twelve hours so far, seventeen years to go), never asked, Is there a similar-or-less costly interim onsite equivalent to this mad pumping scheme that will give the same benefit without ruining the air quality and removing the dumping millions of gallons of water out of an already impaired watershed?
Instead, did they just run with the stupidest, most destructive, most ill-considered, wasteful cockamamie scheme they could think of, and only afterwards, when it was far too late, after all the damage was done, did they even bring the question up?
Not our responsibility to do research before offering options or proposals. Nope, not our job. Talk to the hand.
Are you afraid now? You’d better be. Really afraid.
So, when Dr. Wickham, B.S, M.S., PhD, was testifying about all things onsite and septic during the April 28th CDO hearing, (see blog posting below) Lori Okun, the RWQCB’s attorney, piped up to ask Dr. Wickham if there were any onsite systems that could be used for the same kind of mitigation that was supposed to be the result of this mad pumping scheme and Dr. Wickham said, Yes, many systems being used all over the country, so Lori asked, are they less expensive, and Dr. Wickham said, yes, and went on to mention several, some ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 and said most systems will pay for themselves in two years, so then I got dizzy and creeped out when I had to ask myself, Why in hell is Lori asking that question now?
And then it dawned on me, Is it possible the RWQCB staff had to ask that question now, because they never asked it BEFORE terrorizing a town, before wasting gazillions of hours of taxpayer’s time and money, before wasting their Board’s time (twelve hours so far, seventeen years to go), never asked, Is there a similar-or-less costly interim onsite equivalent to this mad pumping scheme that will give the same benefit without ruining the air quality and removing the dumping millions of gallons of water out of an already impaired watershed?
Instead, did they just run with the stupidest, most destructive, most ill-considered, wasteful cockamamie scheme they could think of, and only afterwards, when it was far too late, after all the damage was done, did they even bring the question up?
Not our responsibility to do research before offering options or proposals. Nope, not our job. Talk to the hand.
Are you afraid now? You’d better be. Really afraid.
Oh, Dear God, hand me that ice pick. I’m going to stab it in my eyes for 12 hours.
If you want to know how we got into the mess in Iraq and why we’re STILL there, waist deep in the big Muddy and the old fool says push on, tune in channel 20 and watch the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s April 28th CDO hearing.
If you want to watch a 10-hour film titled,”The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Meets The Bataaan Death March in Slo Mo,” tune in channel 20 and watch the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s April 28th CDO hearing.
If you want to understand how a scientifically challenged STAFF of a government agency can paralyze then destroy a whole community with a scheme so ill-thought out, so scientifically unsound and so poorly planned – logistically speaking -- that their Board has to spend fifteen minutes deciding how best to deal with public comment slips, and you have to wonder how, if it takes that long to figure out that simple a procedure, how in living hell they’re going to be able to process and hear from 5,000 people at 15 minutes each, plus cross examination and you do the math in your head or on a little scrap of paper and it comes out to something like 6,250 10-hour days and you say Sweet Jesus didn’t RWQCB CEO Roger Briggs think about all this when he cooked up this insane scheme and figure he’ll realize somewhere in along 9:30 p.m. that he’s screwed up major big time and will tell his Board he’s decided to recommend they postpone this insane scheme so he can rethink it all and when he’s asked if he intends to continue processing the whole town of Los Osos his lips go all thin and his eyes squint down and he says Yes he intends to continue onward thereby proving he is incapable of dealing with either reality checks or informational feed-back loops and so you pray his Board will have more sense, but they sit there yawning, or deer-in-headlights, blank-faced wondering how in hell they ever got themselves into this ridiculous situation, and you’re hoping even one of them would burst out laughing, but they don’t and none of them has the sense God gave a goose to jump up and say THIS IS INSANE, STOP IT RIGHT NOW, WHO THOUGHT UP THIS LOONEY TUNE ANYWAY? but nobody does so they sit there, Prisoners of Folly while the clock ticks on and on and on, then tune in Channel 20 and watch the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s April 28th CDO hearing.
Tune in to see the RWQCB’s own Mr. Staff Science Guy tells the Board that pumping septic tanks 6 x a year won’t cause a problem, but under cross examination has to fess up that he’s had very little college training in on-site technologies. Amaze yourself to hear how poorly Mr. Science Guy understands the aquifer systems in Los Osos and how clear it is he has no clue as to where the drinking water of Los Osos, a community he’s working on destroying, comes from. His remarks make it clear he thinks we’re all rolling around out here with pigs, like Moonbeam McShine, while swilling down nitrate-laden water. When asked if Los Osos water violates any drinking water standards, he’s has no idea. (I’m not mentioning his name because he’s a nice young man and his bad preparation, (lazy, really. He wanted to know what kind of leach systems are in Los Osos so apparently he called ONE GUY and asked for his “guestimate.”) clear lack of training and experience (certainly compared to the credentials of Dr. Wickham, (see below) for example), shaky grasp on facts were cringe-making and I kept wondering if he were being used as a Scott McClellan-like stooge or fall guy – you know, Let’s let Mr. Science Guy stand up there and look the perfect fool so everybody can blame HIM for this mad scheme and allow us to skulk away from this train wreck saying, No, Nope, not me, I don’t know nothing about any of that, No, No, it’s all Mr. Science Guy’s doing. You know, take one for the team?)
Watch in amazement when RWQCB’s CEO Roger Briggs is asked if he has any direct, empirical evidence from the individual Los Osos 45 that their homes are actually polluting the aquifers and he has to fess up that no, he has no actual evidence. Seems that the staff and Board have been acting for years on “presumption” and “common knowledge,” as in, there’s a presumption that wastewater gets to groundwater and the common knowledge that no denitrification takes place in the soil and, as Mr. Science Guy had it, that nitrates just go straight down the soil column to groundwater with no denitrification taking place & etc. (Incorrect, by the way. Denitrification takes place in the soil. The trick is to have enough depth to groundwater to do it sufficiently.)
Then, just when you think it can’t get any more hideous, pay particular attention when Dr. Wickham, Bs, MS, PhD, owner of ABG Wastewater Solutions, the outfit that’s developed the Prana System of bio-remediation (his device has been installed at the Firehouse and is being tested now via lysimeters to see what kind of nitrate reduction is occurring in the leach field) and blam-blam-blam, the Board and audience gets a non-stop, detailed and informative lecture on How Septic Systems Function and learns, among other things that pumping tanks 6 times a year ends up destroying the mature biological colonies that make the system work properly, that pumping tanks 6 times a year will end up in discharges that are worse, that pumping tanks 6 times a year will result, in Dr. Wickham’s expert opinion, with leach field failures occurring within 2 years of such a regimen and that NOT pumping would result in less pollution than pumping.
When asked if there were cost effective measure for onsite mitigation, his reply was, yes, there are many and they’re in use all over the country. He also noted that in his expert opinion, there are other sources of nitrates in Los Osos and the only way to be sure what amount were coming from septics is to do a isotope tracking test. (It’s a relatively a simple test, fundable by grants, eagerly run by university PhD candidates, a test that drops isotopes down a toilet and tracks the discharge plume to see where it goes. That test has never been done, though residents have asked the county and RWQCB and old CSD to do exactly that. The isotope study is an important test because, as Dr. Wickham noted, it’s possible to spend $200 million dollars on a wastewater system and STILL end up with high nitrates in the water. This test was never done because “common knowledge” and “presumptions” trumped science.)
Well, of course common knowledge and presumptions would trump science. This is the RWQCB we’re talking about here. The same folks who apparently plan on spending 17.12 years prosecuting hapless citizens in The Great Nitrate Trial of the Century. Call Clarence Darrow and bring on the dancing monkeys.
The next installment of this Regulatory Gong Show will start again on May 11 & 12 sometime, with the beleaguered Los Osos 45 getting their 15 minutes of playing Perry Mason squeezed in among other Board Business.
Meantime, please watch this 10 hour proceeding and be afraid. Be very afraid.
If you want to know how we got into the mess in Iraq and why we’re STILL there, waist deep in the big Muddy and the old fool says push on, tune in channel 20 and watch the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s April 28th CDO hearing.
If you want to watch a 10-hour film titled,”The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Meets The Bataaan Death March in Slo Mo,” tune in channel 20 and watch the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s April 28th CDO hearing.
If you want to understand how a scientifically challenged STAFF of a government agency can paralyze then destroy a whole community with a scheme so ill-thought out, so scientifically unsound and so poorly planned – logistically speaking -- that their Board has to spend fifteen minutes deciding how best to deal with public comment slips, and you have to wonder how, if it takes that long to figure out that simple a procedure, how in living hell they’re going to be able to process and hear from 5,000 people at 15 minutes each, plus cross examination and you do the math in your head or on a little scrap of paper and it comes out to something like 6,250 10-hour days and you say Sweet Jesus didn’t RWQCB CEO Roger Briggs think about all this when he cooked up this insane scheme and figure he’ll realize somewhere in along 9:30 p.m. that he’s screwed up major big time and will tell his Board he’s decided to recommend they postpone this insane scheme so he can rethink it all and when he’s asked if he intends to continue processing the whole town of Los Osos his lips go all thin and his eyes squint down and he says Yes he intends to continue onward thereby proving he is incapable of dealing with either reality checks or informational feed-back loops and so you pray his Board will have more sense, but they sit there yawning, or deer-in-headlights, blank-faced wondering how in hell they ever got themselves into this ridiculous situation, and you’re hoping even one of them would burst out laughing, but they don’t and none of them has the sense God gave a goose to jump up and say THIS IS INSANE, STOP IT RIGHT NOW, WHO THOUGHT UP THIS LOONEY TUNE ANYWAY? but nobody does so they sit there, Prisoners of Folly while the clock ticks on and on and on, then tune in Channel 20 and watch the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s April 28th CDO hearing.
Tune in to see the RWQCB’s own Mr. Staff Science Guy tells the Board that pumping septic tanks 6 x a year won’t cause a problem, but under cross examination has to fess up that he’s had very little college training in on-site technologies. Amaze yourself to hear how poorly Mr. Science Guy understands the aquifer systems in Los Osos and how clear it is he has no clue as to where the drinking water of Los Osos, a community he’s working on destroying, comes from. His remarks make it clear he thinks we’re all rolling around out here with pigs, like Moonbeam McShine, while swilling down nitrate-laden water. When asked if Los Osos water violates any drinking water standards, he’s has no idea. (I’m not mentioning his name because he’s a nice young man and his bad preparation, (lazy, really. He wanted to know what kind of leach systems are in Los Osos so apparently he called ONE GUY and asked for his “guestimate.”) clear lack of training and experience (certainly compared to the credentials of Dr. Wickham, (see below) for example), shaky grasp on facts were cringe-making and I kept wondering if he were being used as a Scott McClellan-like stooge or fall guy – you know, Let’s let Mr. Science Guy stand up there and look the perfect fool so everybody can blame HIM for this mad scheme and allow us to skulk away from this train wreck saying, No, Nope, not me, I don’t know nothing about any of that, No, No, it’s all Mr. Science Guy’s doing. You know, take one for the team?)
Watch in amazement when RWQCB’s CEO Roger Briggs is asked if he has any direct, empirical evidence from the individual Los Osos 45 that their homes are actually polluting the aquifers and he has to fess up that no, he has no actual evidence. Seems that the staff and Board have been acting for years on “presumption” and “common knowledge,” as in, there’s a presumption that wastewater gets to groundwater and the common knowledge that no denitrification takes place in the soil and, as Mr. Science Guy had it, that nitrates just go straight down the soil column to groundwater with no denitrification taking place & etc. (Incorrect, by the way. Denitrification takes place in the soil. The trick is to have enough depth to groundwater to do it sufficiently.)
Then, just when you think it can’t get any more hideous, pay particular attention when Dr. Wickham, Bs, MS, PhD, owner of ABG Wastewater Solutions, the outfit that’s developed the Prana System of bio-remediation (his device has been installed at the Firehouse and is being tested now via lysimeters to see what kind of nitrate reduction is occurring in the leach field) and blam-blam-blam, the Board and audience gets a non-stop, detailed and informative lecture on How Septic Systems Function and learns, among other things that pumping tanks 6 times a year ends up destroying the mature biological colonies that make the system work properly, that pumping tanks 6 times a year will end up in discharges that are worse, that pumping tanks 6 times a year will result, in Dr. Wickham’s expert opinion, with leach field failures occurring within 2 years of such a regimen and that NOT pumping would result in less pollution than pumping.
When asked if there were cost effective measure for onsite mitigation, his reply was, yes, there are many and they’re in use all over the country. He also noted that in his expert opinion, there are other sources of nitrates in Los Osos and the only way to be sure what amount were coming from septics is to do a isotope tracking test. (It’s a relatively a simple test, fundable by grants, eagerly run by university PhD candidates, a test that drops isotopes down a toilet and tracks the discharge plume to see where it goes. That test has never been done, though residents have asked the county and RWQCB and old CSD to do exactly that. The isotope study is an important test because, as Dr. Wickham noted, it’s possible to spend $200 million dollars on a wastewater system and STILL end up with high nitrates in the water. This test was never done because “common knowledge” and “presumptions” trumped science.)
Well, of course common knowledge and presumptions would trump science. This is the RWQCB we’re talking about here. The same folks who apparently plan on spending 17.12 years prosecuting hapless citizens in The Great Nitrate Trial of the Century. Call Clarence Darrow and bring on the dancing monkeys.
The next installment of this Regulatory Gong Show will start again on May 11 & 12 sometime, with the beleaguered Los Osos 45 getting their 15 minutes of playing Perry Mason squeezed in among other Board Business.
Meantime, please watch this 10 hour proceeding and be afraid. Be very afraid.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Notice From RWQCB re April 28 hearings.
Note the date on the following email regarding the CDO hearings on April 28. I also received a 5 page document (which should be posted on the waterboard site as “Prosecution Staff objections Regarding Designated Parties Evidence …”) from Lori Okun, Senoir Staff Counsel, objecting to all kinds of things the CSD as “Designated Party” was planning on submitting in their evidence list as well as a note that “incorporating by reference” would also be objected to.
Which means that individual citizens will have to have the legal know-how to figure out, in less than 24 hours, which bits of their evidence may be tossed out even though they don’t have the documents in hand, just a coded numbers list and they’re expected to have that straightened out before the hearing or else their fifteen minutes to present their case will be spent trying to figure out which coded bit of documents won’t be allowed and so forth. This is known as a fair hearing.
Furthermore, the Prosecution Staff Evidence Objections is full of claims that all kinds of things are now irrelevant, just because the RWQCB’s prosecution team claims they’re irrelevant. Which means individual citizens will have less than 24 hours to figure out what part of their defense is now “irrelevant,” on the mere say-so of Lori Okun. Which puts me in mind of Alice in Wonderland’s Through the Looking Glass: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”
And then, on page five, the howler: Prosecution Staff objects to all documents that are newspaper articles, press releases, blogs or letters to the editor submitted by any party. This is not the type of evidence on which responsible persons are accustomed to rely in the conduct of serious affairs. There, all such documents should be stricken.
Do you hear that Tribune, the RWQCB does not believe that responsible persons are accustomed to getting information from their newspapers, not even when the Staff of the RWQCB regularly uses the Tribune to publicly threaten, announce, convey, comment and inform on all sorts of matters of concern to the community.
Even better, see the press release below, sent out by K.Blackshear @ waterboards.ca.gov addressed to . . . MEDIA, and note in her press release, she even cites a Telegram Tribune article, WHICH NO RESPONSIBLE PERSON WOULD EVER RELY ON WHILE CONDUCTING SERIOUS AFFAIRS, right?
April 27, 2006 Designated Parties, Interested Parties, and Media: [emphasis mine, this email is a press release] CEASE AND DESIST ORDERS AGAINST INDIVIDUALS IN THE LOS OSOS PROHIBITION ZONE: THE SCOPE OF THE APRIL 28 HEARING HAS NOT CHANGED A Telegram Tribune article from Tuesday, April 25, correctly states that the prosecution team of the Regional Water Board has dropped its intention to recommend that Los Osos residents be required to pump their septic tanks periodically at this time. See the article here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/14422087.htm However, everyone should understand that the prosecution team is not deferring its recommendation for enforcement action on this matter. The April 28 hearing regarding the Cease and Desist Orders will occur as scheduled, and the Water Board may still consider periodic pumping requirements. The prosecution team simply makes a recommendation. The Water Board itself decides what action to take after considering all evidence and comments. The prosecution team's revised recommendation does not change the scope of the April 28 hearing. Any inference that there have been any "conclusions" in this case would be a disservice to the residents of Los Osos who may be subject to proposed enforcement actions at the hearing. The Regional Water Board may still order Los Osos residents to stop prohibited discharges from septic tanks; the Regional Water Board may still order residents to stop discharging from septic tanks within a relatively short period of time; the Regional Water Board may still, in disregard of the prosecuting staff's latest recommendation, order periodic pumping as originally proposed. In other words* no doors have been shut. As stated in the prosecution staff's notice posted on Monday, April 24, the scope of the hearing has not changed. Also, as a reminder, Water Board staff is divided into two teams for this case: the prosecution team and the advisory team. The Water Board must separate itself and its legal and policy advisors (advisory team) from inappropriate contact with the prosecution team in order to preserve its adjudicatory objectivity.
Sincerely, Michael ThomasAssistant Executive Officer (advisory team)
Note the date on the following email regarding the CDO hearings on April 28. I also received a 5 page document (which should be posted on the waterboard site as “Prosecution Staff objections Regarding Designated Parties Evidence …”) from Lori Okun, Senoir Staff Counsel, objecting to all kinds of things the CSD as “Designated Party” was planning on submitting in their evidence list as well as a note that “incorporating by reference” would also be objected to.
Which means that individual citizens will have to have the legal know-how to figure out, in less than 24 hours, which bits of their evidence may be tossed out even though they don’t have the documents in hand, just a coded numbers list and they’re expected to have that straightened out before the hearing or else their fifteen minutes to present their case will be spent trying to figure out which coded bit of documents won’t be allowed and so forth. This is known as a fair hearing.
Furthermore, the Prosecution Staff Evidence Objections is full of claims that all kinds of things are now irrelevant, just because the RWQCB’s prosecution team claims they’re irrelevant. Which means individual citizens will have less than 24 hours to figure out what part of their defense is now “irrelevant,” on the mere say-so of Lori Okun. Which puts me in mind of Alice in Wonderland’s Through the Looking Glass: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”
And then, on page five, the howler: Prosecution Staff objects to all documents that are newspaper articles, press releases, blogs or letters to the editor submitted by any party. This is not the type of evidence on which responsible persons are accustomed to rely in the conduct of serious affairs. There, all such documents should be stricken.
Do you hear that Tribune, the RWQCB does not believe that responsible persons are accustomed to getting information from their newspapers, not even when the Staff of the RWQCB regularly uses the Tribune to publicly threaten, announce, convey, comment and inform on all sorts of matters of concern to the community.
Even better, see the press release below, sent out by K.Blackshear @ waterboards.ca.gov addressed to . . . MEDIA, and note in her press release, she even cites a Telegram Tribune article, WHICH NO RESPONSIBLE PERSON WOULD EVER RELY ON WHILE CONDUCTING SERIOUS AFFAIRS, right?
April 27, 2006 Designated Parties, Interested Parties, and Media: [emphasis mine, this email is a press release] CEASE AND DESIST ORDERS AGAINST INDIVIDUALS IN THE LOS OSOS PROHIBITION ZONE: THE SCOPE OF THE APRIL 28 HEARING HAS NOT CHANGED A Telegram Tribune article from Tuesday, April 25, correctly states that the prosecution team of the Regional Water Board has dropped its intention to recommend that Los Osos residents be required to pump their septic tanks periodically at this time. See the article here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/14422087.htm However, everyone should understand that the prosecution team is not deferring its recommendation for enforcement action on this matter. The April 28 hearing regarding the Cease and Desist Orders will occur as scheduled, and the Water Board may still consider periodic pumping requirements. The prosecution team simply makes a recommendation. The Water Board itself decides what action to take after considering all evidence and comments. The prosecution team's revised recommendation does not change the scope of the April 28 hearing. Any inference that there have been any "conclusions" in this case would be a disservice to the residents of Los Osos who may be subject to proposed enforcement actions at the hearing. The Regional Water Board may still order Los Osos residents to stop prohibited discharges from septic tanks; the Regional Water Board may still order residents to stop discharging from septic tanks within a relatively short period of time; the Regional Water Board may still, in disregard of the prosecuting staff's latest recommendation, order periodic pumping as originally proposed. In other words* no doors have been shut. As stated in the prosecution staff's notice posted on Monday, April 24, the scope of the hearing has not changed. Also, as a reminder, Water Board staff is divided into two teams for this case: the prosecution team and the advisory team. The Water Board must separate itself and its legal and policy advisors (advisory team) from inappropriate contact with the prosecution team in order to preserve its adjudicatory objectivity.
Sincerely, Michael ThomasAssistant Executive Officer (advisory team)
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Calhoun’s Can(n)ons, the Bay News, Morro Bay, CA, for April 26, 06
Mother Calhoun Explains It All
Dear Regional Water Quality Control Board,
You will be entering a mine field with this upcoming April 28th Cease & Desist Order hearing, so Mother Calhoun hopes you’ll think hard about the advice she’s about to share with you:
GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Elected and appointed boards are utterly and critically dependent on their staff to give them correct information. Be warned. Most of what you’ve been told about Los Osos and the preconceived information you appear to have rattling around in your heads is just plain wrong. Los Osos is not “anti-sewer.” It’s anti -unaffordable ginormous sewer plant in the middle of town. Big difference.
Don Corleone was right. The Godfather knew it’s not personal, it’s business. When you or your staff slip out of neutral and start ramping up into nose-out-of-joint, steam-coming-out-of-the-ears, old-tapes-running-in-the-head mode, it’s stopped being business. Bruised egos, bad information, incompetent bungling, CYA scrambling, too-cozy-by-far collusion always results in really bad blowback. Ethically superior, scientifically sound regulatory agencies play a vital and much needed role in protecting the public. Run amok, badly informed, ego-driven, scientifically unsound, politically compromised, bungling regulators are worse than useless; they are a danger to the whole delicate system of checks and balance. Don’t go there.
Since most of you are from “out of town” and only breeze through for a few days at a time, it’s understandable that what you know about a region you are dealing with may be limited and therefore your dependence on the local “staff” is doubly critical. But you really have a responsibility to keep your eyes open. When it becomes clear to you that during an “under oath” factual presentation one of your key “scientific” staff members gave you out of date data, pay attention! If your staff isn’t up to speed, your decisions will also be embarrassingly, woefully out of date.
Beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences. If you’re contemplating some action, failure to think it through can result in disaster. For example, at the official CDO informational meeting, your key “Mr. Official Go-To Water Engineer Science Guy” stated that he was “unaware that Los Osos is in [water] overdraft.” Your staff is asking you to vote to remove from the Los Osos watershed some 36 million gallons of wasteWATER every year and your lead Science Guy is “unaware that Los Osos is in [water] overdraft?” This is not good. Bridge out, slow to 60.
Since everyone assumes this whole mess will end up in court, do you really want to give anyone a shot at revisiting Resolution 83-13, in court, under oath, under penalty of perjury? Can that resolution or your board and staff withstand the questions that surely will be raised by experts in best-use water management practices, sustainability, wastewater reuse, basin plan management, updated water studies and/or the newest septic/bioremediation methods?
And, finally, TV’s Dr. Phil is fond of asking squabbling couples if they’re “rights fighters,” – my way or the highway – and if their go-nowhere, solve-nothing rights fighting is “working for them.” Have the ACL’s and CDO’s moved a wastewater treatment plan one step closer to completion or not? You’re in the business of Water Quality, so please tell Mother Calhoun, How’s all this working for ya?
Months ago, Regional Water Board member Mr. Shallcross expressed a hope that one day Los Osos would come together and sit around and sing “Kumbaya.” Weirdly, against enormous odds and in spite of active attempts to target and financially harm them with the Regional Board’s pointless pumping scheme, the community and the CSD are actually moving ahead on a wastewater project. There may not be actual singing going on, but the results of the updated sewer project report are due to go before the community in about 17 weeks. If Mr. Shallcross bothers to listen carefully that day, he might actually be able to hear this town humming a few bars of his song.
In the meantime, there it is: The critical question that the RWQCB will answer on April 28th: Do you want to be a rock in the road, useful only for time-and-money-wasting delay, delay, delay? Or do you want a sustainable, water-smart, community supported wastewater project to get up and running as fast as possible? The community and the CSD is moving forward. So, what are you going to do? Block the road? Or move forward, too? The choice is yours alone to make.
Mother Calhoun Explains It All
Dear Regional Water Quality Control Board,
You will be entering a mine field with this upcoming April 28th Cease & Desist Order hearing, so Mother Calhoun hopes you’ll think hard about the advice she’s about to share with you:
GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Elected and appointed boards are utterly and critically dependent on their staff to give them correct information. Be warned. Most of what you’ve been told about Los Osos and the preconceived information you appear to have rattling around in your heads is just plain wrong. Los Osos is not “anti-sewer.” It’s anti -unaffordable ginormous sewer plant in the middle of town. Big difference.
Don Corleone was right. The Godfather knew it’s not personal, it’s business. When you or your staff slip out of neutral and start ramping up into nose-out-of-joint, steam-coming-out-of-the-ears, old-tapes-running-in-the-head mode, it’s stopped being business. Bruised egos, bad information, incompetent bungling, CYA scrambling, too-cozy-by-far collusion always results in really bad blowback. Ethically superior, scientifically sound regulatory agencies play a vital and much needed role in protecting the public. Run amok, badly informed, ego-driven, scientifically unsound, politically compromised, bungling regulators are worse than useless; they are a danger to the whole delicate system of checks and balance. Don’t go there.
Since most of you are from “out of town” and only breeze through for a few days at a time, it’s understandable that what you know about a region you are dealing with may be limited and therefore your dependence on the local “staff” is doubly critical. But you really have a responsibility to keep your eyes open. When it becomes clear to you that during an “under oath” factual presentation one of your key “scientific” staff members gave you out of date data, pay attention! If your staff isn’t up to speed, your decisions will also be embarrassingly, woefully out of date.
Beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences. If you’re contemplating some action, failure to think it through can result in disaster. For example, at the official CDO informational meeting, your key “Mr. Official Go-To Water Engineer Science Guy” stated that he was “unaware that Los Osos is in [water] overdraft.” Your staff is asking you to vote to remove from the Los Osos watershed some 36 million gallons of wasteWATER every year and your lead Science Guy is “unaware that Los Osos is in [water] overdraft?” This is not good. Bridge out, slow to 60.
Since everyone assumes this whole mess will end up in court, do you really want to give anyone a shot at revisiting Resolution 83-13, in court, under oath, under penalty of perjury? Can that resolution or your board and staff withstand the questions that surely will be raised by experts in best-use water management practices, sustainability, wastewater reuse, basin plan management, updated water studies and/or the newest septic/bioremediation methods?
And, finally, TV’s Dr. Phil is fond of asking squabbling couples if they’re “rights fighters,” – my way or the highway – and if their go-nowhere, solve-nothing rights fighting is “working for them.” Have the ACL’s and CDO’s moved a wastewater treatment plan one step closer to completion or not? You’re in the business of Water Quality, so please tell Mother Calhoun, How’s all this working for ya?
Months ago, Regional Water Board member Mr. Shallcross expressed a hope that one day Los Osos would come together and sit around and sing “Kumbaya.” Weirdly, against enormous odds and in spite of active attempts to target and financially harm them with the Regional Board’s pointless pumping scheme, the community and the CSD are actually moving ahead on a wastewater project. There may not be actual singing going on, but the results of the updated sewer project report are due to go before the community in about 17 weeks. If Mr. Shallcross bothers to listen carefully that day, he might actually be able to hear this town humming a few bars of his song.
In the meantime, there it is: The critical question that the RWQCB will answer on April 28th: Do you want to be a rock in the road, useful only for time-and-money-wasting delay, delay, delay? Or do you want a sustainable, water-smart, community supported wastewater project to get up and running as fast as possible? The community and the CSD is moving forward. So, what are you going to do? Block the road? Or move forward, too? The choice is yours alone to make.
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