Saturday, March 04, 2006
Read it Again and Weep. Hello, all you folks at the Coastal Commission, the State Water Board, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Tribune, the citizens of Los Osos. Please go over to Ron Crawfords www.sewerwatch.blogspot.com for a little refresher course in understanding how many fingers in this Hideous Sewer pie helped create the train wreck you're looking at today. And recall how many times former General Manager Bruce Buel said, under oath at the ACL hearing, that the Time Schedule Orders they were laboring under were "unreasonable." (Answer: Four times) And how many irresponsible little fingers are STILL screwing things up today. Failure to understand history usually results in Mo' Mess, Mo'Mess, Mo' Mess. So, read it and ponder.
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11 comments:
Well I guess in effect this is where people will comment on Ron's blog...
Boy, he makes us out to be a bunch of lucky yahoos.
I sure feel lucky, don't you?
Personaly, I'm tired of being a yahoo.
I want to know how to get out of this mess myself without having to sell my house.
If the new board can deliver yahoo
If the county can deliver yahoo
If I can deliver myself YAHOO!
Who do you trust?
I trust me
Lemmie ask a question that comes to mind. Maybe I've asked the question already, but the question comes to my mind even so.
Suppose you want to drive to San Fransisco and get there as quickly as possible, that any time delay will cost you considerably. You're travelling with a friend who volunteers to drive first.
So, you're cruising up 101 and, for some oddball reason the other driver makes a turn at highway 46 East and you end up in Kettleman City at the interchange of I-5 and 46 before you even noticed. You ask your friend "why did you take 46?" and they tell you they thought it would be best to take I-5 ... that it would save time.
You believe their choice to take highway 46 to have been a mistake. My question is what would be best to do now to get to San Fransico as quickly as possible.
The two choices would seem to be:
take I-5 North and eventually 580 and then across the Bay Bridge and into San Fransico
and
Turn around and take 46 back to 101 and take 101 North all the way into San Fransisco.
Some would say that you should turn around because the I-5 drive is not as pleasant, others say that the Bay Bridge toll of $2 is too expensive and still others would simply say that the shortest route takes the fewest highways and so turning around would be best because I-5, I-580 and I-80 would be three additional highways but turning around would be no additional highways.
On the other hand, if the goal is saving time and money, it would be best to take I-5 even though someone screwed up earlier.
Sometimes the cost of "fixing" a problem is higher than simply dealing with the fallout of the mistake.
Sure, there are valid points for disliking TriW and valid reasons for thinking the decision process back in 2000 was biased. Even so, if the costs to all of us will go up, it seems a mistake to me.
I've argued here and elsewhere that even without fines, pumping charges and lawsuits, the costs of moving the plant make the project more expensive to us. In reality, the costs of fines, pumping and lawsuits should be included in any cost comparrison between TriW and whatever this current board wants to develop. Even though many of these costs have already been incurred and cannot be avoided by simply starting construction at TriW tomorrow, they must be included when attempting to fairly compare the two boards. Even if an out of town WWTF is better in many ways, if the cost of moving the WWTF is high enough it is a mistake.
Yes, but according to Ann:
Anyone that takes 46 should have known better and disclosed it to the public before they took the Fresno turn-off. That's exactly the situation, the SG knowingly took the 46 turn-off, and even though the whole town knew that going to Fresno is the stupidist thing you can do, they still all went along for the ride, because they thought it would save some gas.
Anyway, once your in Kettleman at the I-5 interchange, and stopping at In-and-Out, you'll notice there is NO PARK in Kettleman Hills.
Why? Because, who would do anything so stupid as to put a park at the intersection of I-5 and 41 (BTW, wondering how you got to Kettleman taking 46, means you missed the 41 exit as well, but hey it's Los Osos). Perhaps the best thing at that point is to go to LA, take the 210 to the 134, exit Colorado and get some Dim Sum in Alhambra.
So, got diverted for a minute, at that point (being in Kettleman), the best thing to do is to put in a park at the intersection of I-5 & 41 , and then once you've decided that, get back onto I-5.
However 101 is more environmentally sensitive (not to mention easier to get a ticket. So if you're from anywhere but Los Osos, you should take I-5 to get to SF.
BUT, if you're from Los Osos, you'll probably try 198 and go to King City, then go up 101 until you get to 152, take 152, then take 33 to get a bite to eat, go back to the 152 (west, otherwise you'll have to get on 99, but that's another story), then get on I-5 to the 580, go south on the 880, then take the San Mateo Bridge to the 101 and get to SF from there.
If you go on the Golden Gate Bridge, you'll have gone to far, but remember it's the journey that's important, not the final destination.
The problem is, you know when you get to the 580 you will be out of gas because you spent all your money filling up in Kettleman City.
So instead of continuing, why dont you go the hell home, and figure out another way to get to San Francisco. Maybe you can carpool... or ride the bus thus sharing the cost among a greater number of people.
Maybe you can figure out that what you needed to take care of in SF can be done in Paso Robles instead.
But the most important thing is... I would never, ever let that idiot drive my car again!!! EVER!!!
I love analogies... got any more??
No, much better to set the car on fire in Kettleman City. Just because the passenger has been screaming at the driver since Paso to stop, even finally wrestling control of the car way from from the Dream besotted driver, as he, pedal to the metal,roars onto I5...
Yep, lets get rid of the car, and wait for Greyhound, we'll be better off...
"Maybe you can figure out that what you needed to take care of in SF can be done in Paso Robles instead."
Remember, anon, only our analogies are false, Tri W isn't a car ride, it is beautful goal, a dream, a reluctant, yet relentless truth, that despite elections, laws, & all the other "Founding Father's Crud" must continue. It is our greatest civic duty. It is our honor to serve it faithfully...
oh yeah...
Sure, duck the question entirely. As one of my kids says "I reject your reality and substitute my own."
So, you aren't going to let the idiot drive and you've spent a lot of money filling up the tank. Which route are you going to take?
Oh yeah, you told us, you're going back to Los Osos because ... even though it will cost a ton of money ... you would rather not bother ever having a sewer.
If you want to wait until all the people of Cabrillo and East of town sign on voluntarily you're going to be waiting a long time because those folks who are not doing damage to their environment aren't going to want to pay to ride your bus.
Dogpatch ... the moment you can demonstrate that "out of town" will cost us less money we can have a conversation. Until then let's just say that electing this new board will have cost us a fortune that we'll have to pay whether we build at TriW or choose another, even more expensive plan.
The folks who voted for the recall and for Measure B because they thought it would reduce their bills (like the recall candidates said) were simply lied to by the folks who wanted to move the project out of town even though they knew it would cost more money.
Well, maybe they didn't exactly know, but if they didn't know, they aren't sharp enough to be on the board ... in much the same way that one could say that the Solutions Group should have known in advance that the entire community would need to be sewered.
The problem here is that Los Osos didn't learn from our choice to form a CSD and elect the Solutions Group. We didn't learn that we should carefully check the "facts" of those running to lead us. The fact that we've elected two groups who have both told us they would save us money but both have taken actions to raise our bills just shows you how easily fooled we are.
Maybe I'm wrong about this new group. Maybe my silly calculations are all in error. The problem here is that no one who seems to support the "out of town" side has ever point out anything I may have overlooked or any real problem with my calculations.
But ... you get what you ask for. As a community we asked for the construction to be stopped, to lose the SRF, to be fined and for CDOs.
Rant On ... please ignore the following
Am I angry with my neighbors who sheepishly took down their "move the sewer" and "Recall Now!" signs in November? Hell yes ... they're raising my bills because they're either too stupid to see that costs are going up or they're too selfish to care that costs are going up.
Rant Off
Now I feel better.
If you fit either of the above descriptions (stupid or selfish) I apologize for my tone ... please forgive me.
From Inlet, above:
" . . .in much the same way that one could say that the Solutions Group should have known in advance that the entire community would need to be sewered."
"should have known?" As Ron has pointed out, THE SOLUTIONS GROUP DID KNOW -- IN ADVANCE OF THE CSD ELECTION/FORMATION-- ACCORDING TO THE CC & RWQCB'S REPORT & EVALUATION OF THE PONDS OF AVALON. It was the voters who remained in the dark, near as I can tell.
Ann,
You say the voters remained in the dark. Why, they had a plan in front of them? It was CLEAR the proposal was to violate the discharge prohibition.
Why do you keep insisting that voters never bear any responsibility? For all the talk of democracy, it seems Los Osos has no trouble blaming others when it suits them, then crying about 'rights' when they screw up.
You complain about a flawed plan in the past, but you have no complaints when NO plan was 'sold' to the community as a plan. OK, so it was a plan to make a plan.
Do you honestly think whatever plan emerges is not going to have flaws that are going to create agency conflicts?
Playing dumb, just when it suits you, doesn't suit you.
Ann,
Julie and Lisa had both been told ... face to face ... by SWRCB boardmembers and by SWRCB staffers that they would lose the SRF if they attempted to move the project. There were also documents that verified the same
Even so, they allowed people to campaign for the recall saying that we wouldn't lose the SRF. Even so, at least some of our community didn't bother finding those documents or didn't care that we would be forced into paying more because of the lack of SRF.
Please do not suggest this new board is doing anything other than what you've admonished the previous board for doing. This new group was elected on the hope of our residents that we could have a better and cheaper solution, even if not faster.
spectator,
It's time for you to stop spectating and get involved in your community. People who sit back and "watch" can and will only have their minds polluted by missinformation and spin like you apparently have. I invite you and anybody else to attend the wastewater committee meeting(made up of two members who supported TRI-W) tonight and every first and third tuesday of every month to actually SEE what your local government IS doning to advance our community to a wastewater project. To say your local Government is against a wastewater project is just a FLAT OUT LIE. It was your Community that was against a center of town sludge factory. If you support the dissolution then it is YOU who is working agaianst a wastewater project for Los Osos.....It is YOU, who is supporting higher costs for fire service and water service and the county will tack on administrative fees in addition to service fees. All of these service will cost you friends and neighbors MORE. So, please don't come in here with all these lies, missinformation and spin.....I will follow you right back in here and dissolve your deceptions with the truth. See you all at the wastewater committee meeting tonight.......It's the wastewater committee that the former "recalled board" dissolved because they didn't want the community to have a say in our wastewater project....they don't want the community to have a voice at all. The solutions group formed the CSD in 1998. After 8 years in ofice, they failed and failed miserably to provide this community of Los Osos with a project we could support. This community removed them from office. So, now what do they want to do? They want to take down our Government and our local control because the community didn't support their God aweful middle of town energy guzzling sludge factory...they want to take their ball and go home.....they want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.....how sick twisted and un-American is that. Our new Government welcomes you, the citizen of Los Osos, to the process. Please attend a wastewater committee meeting or CSD meeting to inform yourself on the wastewater project that the CSD is in the process of delivering to our community before making outrageous and flat out false statements.
To all the blog-posters: Excellent idea. Why don't all of you attend the Wastewater Committee meetings. They're open to the public, take public comment and suggestions, can sit there and listen to everything being said, etc. Sure beats ranting on and on on this blog. Your ideas and opinions might be helpful, instead of mere amusement.
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