Here Come Da Judge, Now Shut Up & Sit Down & Go Away Thank You

"When Did the Microphone Go Dead," at www.rockofthecoast.com

WORLD ENDS!

Well, we all knew it would come to this. And we knew it would be awful, but few had any idea just how hideous it would be.

No, not the Swine Flu. Yesterday, in Iowa (It had to be the God-fearing American heartland, now didn’t it?) same-sex couples lined up to get married.

The beautiful blue Iowa sky didn’t fall. All over the state farmers were revving up their John Deers, fixing to be ready for the spring plowing. In Normal Rockwell farmhouses, and huge agri-business factory farms, it was business as usual. The swine rooting around in their pens, those with no flu, were rooting happily, totally unaware that the world had just ended, while chickens scratched in farmyards as they’ve scratched for hundreds of years.

There were no riots in the streets, no sturdy Salt Of The Earth Iowans lined up outside county courthouses with pitchforks and fire brands to call down the wrath of the Almighty as gay Iowans trooped inside to get their marriage licenses. In short, the republic didn’t fall, the state didn’t dissolve in a rage of fire and brimstone. In fact, nobody gave a foodle.

Yes, indeed, it was the end of the world, alright.

WORLD ENDS, PART II

While everyone’s running around in a swivet over the latest Crisis du Jour – the Swine Flu outbreak – here’s a modest proposal: If we want to avoid these cross-transmissions of mutating viruses from animal to human, we need to stop living with, raising, factory farming and eating pigs. Ditto chickens, ducks and other domestic fowl, which would eliminate one of the biggest vectors for avian flu.

I know all this cross mutating is a kind of delicious karmic justice at work: we eat the animals, they kill us with cross-species pandemic mutated viruses. But, if we want to eliminate a HUGE, living, mutating virus stew-pot, that’s the way to go. I mean, who’s heard of a lethal pandemic of mutating . . .Walnut Flu? (Salmonella from mishandling of food products is another story).

Plus, by reducing cow consumption per capita to the more realitic and healthier smaller amounts the body may actually need versus the GINORMOUS amounts we Americans regularly shovel down our gullets (Quarter Pounders for lunch! for Din-Din! for Snacks!) we could eliminate a HUGE amount of greenhouse gas (flatulent cows), thereby solving another enormous danger threatening our planet.

And for those pork lovers who just can’t live without their bacon, heck, here’s the beauty part. Americans love their guns as much as they love their bacon. So, get the pigs out of their hideously cruel, disease-ridden, factory-farmed concentration camps and back into the woods where they were originally meant to be. In a short time, they’ll return to their tough, feral ways, then all the gun-loving, shoot-‘em up Americans can strap on their bandoliers, grab their assault rifles and go out in the woods and bring home the bacon. Two guilty pleasures with one shot!

Planning commission Thursday, April 30

If you have any public comment on the Sewer Project and upcoming PC meeting, you can make it at addresses below. Comment now or forever hold your peace. Also listed are some notes sent to me in an email of some of the comments and concerns expressed by the Commissioners at the close of their April 23 meeting that they might be considering or addressing at Thursday’s meeting. The notes aren’t complete, just a general idea. If you have any other issues, you can email them to the PC.

pc email address:planningcommission@co.slo.ca.us the hearing and the online comments are here: http://slocounty.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=3&event_id=47the eir link http://www.lowwp-eir.net/lowwpeir/These are the topics the PC said they would discuss in order, this Thursday:
1. secondary vs. tertiary
2. gravity or step or vacuum or a combo
3. technology of pipes
4. plant location and type
5. disposal, spray fields, leach fields, etc
6. storage options, size, type, design
7. conservation of water
8. mitigation for bio and ag
9. fed legislation, los osos grants
10. catch all category
These are the topics individual commissioners brought up - - these are rough notes that I took, name first, topics to be discussed next week listed second - add to it if you think i missed something......

white: spray fields - are there other alts
white: possible alts not mentioned - threshold not met
white: re the coastal commission letter - re a combo of 4 alts and that this current option is not acceptable to them
wyatt - further analysis of tertiary treatment and how if changes the project in many ways
wyatt - ag nitrates reuse option
christianson - wants more info and evaluation of ponds and tertiary treatment
christianson - liquefaction - at tonini and broderson
christianson - recreation
christianson - ag -urban reuse of water - options and more info
christianson - wind conditions and their influence on spray field days of use
christianson - more info on direct injection wells - major issues, what about orange cnty
christianson - effluent, influent, pipe installation and type -wants more info on this
christianson - sludge - septage issue -more analysis required
christianson - dumping station at treatment plant = wants more info
christianson - broderson as mitigation - previous and present history, usfws letter recvd today
christianson - broderson, max soil infiltration rate why 180g/d/sqft - to 3.1 g/d/sq ft why such reduction?
christianson - water conservation measures re lawson's letter p33-4 re states 20% reduction
christianson - archaeological resources not mentioned and why - which impact trumps which - is it bio, ag, archaeo, what?
christianson - methane gas questions what about sealed system - she is confused wants more info
christianson - trucks to landfill? sludge disposal
christianson wyatt - piping, hybrid system, pressure vacuum,?? wants more info
wyatt - sea rise, pump stations pumping by the bay?? wants more info
wyatt - midtown site, vs out of town?
wyatt - biolac vs ponds - what choices do we have now that we are going tertiary pros cons
mehlschem - ag land impacts are ceqa class 1 - at tonini but not other sites, why have class 1 impact when you don't have to?
mehlschem - his overriding concern and what he hear today was, why spray fields - we want the water back in los osos - why spray
mehlschem - what about gorby - want to see a plan and study of gorby and creek compartment for disposal into lower aquifer
Christie - short list but no step steg, why its in the fed
Christie - what is role of pc - is the cart leading the horse, did the bos just preempt our role?
Christie - procedurally question to staff -is step on or off?
Christie - on field trip of sites, she asked for a refresher on deep wells at broderson
Christie - vertical leach fields at broderson or other sites been considered?
Christie - gordon hensley called her up and asked why did bos approve the last cdp if mid town is not viable
Christie - can we consider leach fields in the right of way?
Christie - what is the rcd interest for partnering - want more details from staff
Christie - Q for rwqcb - county can treat whole community per 2710
Christie - Q for rwqcb - more info on green growers agreement
Christie - Q for rwqcb - is there any economic value to using tertiary reclaimed water, do these resources have an economic benefit as well as an ecological benefit that might offset cost to citizens
Christie - Q for rwqcb - ask darla inglis of your staff to tell us more about low impact development stuff
Christie - Q for dept env health - new condition for sanitary seals on the wells - more info please
Christie - Q on sea water intrusion - can it be reversed or not, she has read both, what is the reality of this?

Your Sunday Poem
From Ted Kooser's collected poems, "Delights & Shadows

Screech Owl

All night each reedy whinny
from a bird no bigger than a heart
flies out of a tall black pine
and, in a breath, is taken away
by the stars. Yet, with small hope
from the center of darkness
it calls out again and again.

A Stitch in Time . . .
And if you're footloose this Sunday, get over to the Madonna Convention Center, the one behind the motel, for the GINORMOUS, AMAZING quilt show, from 9 - 4. It's about $7 at the door and worth every penny to see the extraordinary work the quilters do. Eye goggling, mind bogglint. It'll part your hair!

KapBLUMP, UMP, UMP. . . .

Uh-oh, methinks it’s the sound of Dan Blackburn dropping more shoes on the floor over at www.calcoastnews.com/news.php?viewStory=172160 titled “Los Osos Sewer Project Tainted by “Expired” Crime.”

He’s posted more information that started with former CDS Director, Lisa Schicker’s letter of complaint given to the BOS concerning issues with Montgomery Watson Harza, a company that was short-listed on the new sewer project. Dan’s story expands to include alleged illegality when former CSD’s District Manager, Bruce Buell’s was told by then-former interim district manger Paavo Orgren to “backdate” the CSD’s contract with Montgomery Watson Harza. Continues the story, “Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Brown, in a response to citizen complaints, acknowledged in 2006 that “falsification of a public record by a public employee is a felony,” and that a criminal act relating to the backdating apparently had occurred. But Brown declined further investigation by determining that a three-year statute of limitation had expired.”

The story notes that Supervisor Frank Meacham is asking for further information and a ruling from the county counsel.

Here’s Mother Calhoun’s take on what the outcome of all this will be: 1.) “C’mon Jake, it’s Chinatown. 2.) Something is illegal ONLY if a District Attorney somewhere declares it to be illegal and decides to prosecute. If he/she declines to prosecute, for whatever reason, it’s not a “crime.” Plus, if you commit a “crime” and hide it until the clock runs out, then whatever you did also isn’t a crime and everyone can pretend it didn’t happen.

What’s weird about the MWH contract backdating is this: If a contract has been illegally backdated, is the contract still valid, or is it considered a fraudulent contract and so is void? And if a company knows a contract is or has been or knows is about to be backdated and ignores that falsity, is that the kind of company that should be on the favored short-list for a humongous County project? Maybe the county counsel will tell us.

Planning Commission Starts To Work

On Thursday morning, the County Planning Commission started the long process of weighing in on the Hideous Sewer Project. Chairperson Sarah Christie runs a tight ship and organized the presentation and public comment into coherent blocks in order to encourage various citizens and groups to keep their comments focused so that their comments and concerns can remain clear to the Commissioners. Good idea, since this project is so complex and the community and others involved groups did their homework and had plenty of thoughtful questions and concerns. The Commission will meet again Thursday, April 30 to continue the process.

Some highlights that the Commission may be looking at further :

1. Clearly, everyone is pushing towards tertiary treatment. Think that’ll be a done deal.

2. However, since the original project didn’t include tertiary, this clear new direction raised some key questions: a) why throw tertiary treated water away on trans-evaporative spray fields when tertiary water has a lot more uses available than simply being “disposed of.” b) if ag use and urban reuse are planned, don’t need to meet the RWQCB’s nitrate levels by expensive removal processes, since nitrogen is a valuable resource for ag exchange or reuse on urban parks, golf-courses, which could both save money and could result in a different treatment method, i.e. ponds versus energy intensive BioLAC & etc.

3. If spay fields aren’t now necessary or prudent or the only solution for “disposal,” then may not need to use all the Tonini property, could locate the treatment plant on Giacomezzi, run pipes to smaller spray fields, and/or holding ponds, or be ready for ag exchange, even on parts of the Tonini land, thereby increasing ag use rather than decreasing ag use, thereby reducing necessity for mitigation costs & etc.

4. Clearly expressed majority of folks don’t want to dump water out of the basin. The rep for Golden State Water asked that ALL the water be re-imported back to the basin and made available to the water purveyors, but how that would work wasn’t explained. Sell it? Give it to them so they can resell to the taxpayers who paid to clean it up for reuse in the first place? Put it . . . where?

5. Look again at the Gorby Property and the alleged Creek Basin Alluvial area that supposedly can cache water underground for recharge, could use that for summer storage and Broderson for winter recharge with the water also there for ag exchange.

6. Repeated questions as to why the county shorted The Process by taking STEP off the plate before design-build bids would be allowed. (This raised an interesting point. Chairman Christie noted that the Planning Commission is working from a document and a Process that includes STEP through to the end, so she had to ask if the BOS had pre-empted the Commission’s responsibility and authority in this “process” and/or whether the document they were working from is still valid and “legal,” since that short-listing suddenly changed what they are, under law, supposed to be doing. It was also noted by one speaker that shorting the Process could lead to a lawsuit for violating CEQA rules & etc. And noted by another speaker that she had called the (utterly Green) Rocky Mountain Institute about this project and was told that SLO County is “too hostile” to anything “green/design-build/anything NOT traditional gravity sewers & etc) and they wouldn’t set foot here. And since there was a recent Design/Build conference here, followed by the very interesting shorting of the Process that would cut out genuine Design/Build (in which all options are on the table, let the best technology determining the final project, versus shorting requirements to such a degree that the project is, in reality, already “designed” and really only needs a “bid,” – heh-heh -- not true design/build.) Additional claims that this project favors certain contractors, is a “rigged process” bordering on “public corruption” (reference to the MWH story posted above?) and a Process that was purposely narrowed, & etc.

All of which then raises more questions that the Planning Commission is stuck with: Are they playing with a full deck or have they been preempted and handed only certain cards and patted on the head and told to “decide” whether they’d pick the four of clubs or the duce of diamonds and when they ask,”Hey, where’s the full deck?” they’re patted on the head and told, “Sorry, no can do, shut up and give us our permit and stop asking annoying questions already.” Sigh.)

7. Sludge was a timely question since the County still doesn’t have a county-wide sludge plan in place and, according to both the Tribune and New Times, likely won’t have that figured out for another year or more. What was once considered a useful “biosolid” for ag use, is now being shunned as a hazardous waste that needs to be secured in sealed landfills & etc. (STEP tanks and pond systems “digest” most biosolids thereby leaving way less sludge to be disposed of than other treatment systems, but since STEP and ponds are off the table, the Planning commission will likely have to go whistle if they want to get clear answers regarding sludge at this point.)

8. Interesting issue raised concerning undeveloped lots within the PZ. Fear that waiting for the basin wide/PZ mitigation plans with Fish and Wildlife could take YEARS to do collectively, (for the project as a whole) hence property owners with vacant lots waiting to build their dream homes and their heirs and their heirs, yea unto the tenth generation, a la Bleak House, will all be dead of old age before that will happen. One speaker suggested letting vacant lot owners pay a bundle for the sewer assessment now, and then also pay a bundle directly to F&W to mitigate their lot only and then go guild build, thereby putting more money into the project right now. Another speaker, representing vacant lot-folks, made it clear that building in the basin/PZ will depend on the availability of water so it’s critical that the basin’s water NOT be taken out and dumped, thereby making build out all but impossible for everyone with an undeveloped lot. & etc.

9. Julie Tacker, former CSD Director, stressed that water is the #1 issue, not nitrates or sewage, so shouldn’t remove water outside the basin. Said not to issue a permit until we get a co-equal analysis for alternate disposal ideas, since right now, the county’s only plan is spray fields, perhaps it would help to take a look at alternate disposal plans, especially since tertiary now seems a given.

10. Scott Kimura, resident of the Los Osos Valley, who has publicly opposed moving the sewer plant out of town, nonethess supports the Tonini project and it’s tie in with future ag water use, which makes me wonder if, with tertiary water now all but a given, if farmers out in the valley, including one organic farmer, are re-thinking what a lot of farmers in Monterrey County and Watsonville have re-thought when they voluntarily signed on to get all the treated wastewater they could get their hands on (likely with all those nice nitrates?) for their fields?

11. And finally Alon Pearlman asked the One Huge Question: Who is steward of the aquifer? Now THAT’S a can of worms that very few are brave enough to open, but it is a critical question to keep in mind since It’s The Water, Stupid, and if agencies keep get sidetracked to their own narrowed focus (nitrates, ag use, Williamson Acts, development planning & etc) it’s easy to lose track of the Big Picture. Is it possible that if everyone keeps focused on total full cycle --aquifer to tap to toilet to ground to aquifer to tap again and/or sky to roof to green driveways to green streets to flood basins to ocean/aquifer to sky again – in other words full cycle use and reuse – then the proper solutions will arrive?

Sure will. Question is, will we be open to seeing the answers instead of only seeing our presupposed, pre-determined, short-listed, pre-selected plans? We’ll see.

Planning Commission will continue, April 30, Thursday, starting a 8:45 a.m.