Calhouns Can(n)ons

Time Travel Hits Sewerville, Again.

First we had former General Manager Bruce Buel getting into his Waaaay Back Time Machine and zipping back to a nice day on the First of November a few years ago to sign a contract with Montgomery Watson Harza for millions of dollars worh of services even though he wouldn’t be hired by the CSD and legally authorized to sign those contract until November 14th.

For time travel fans, it was an exciting breakthrough. And now, it’s happened again. The Los Osos Forty-Five have received letters from Regional Water Quality Control Board CEO, Roger Briggs, dated April 28th describing the April 28th CDO Hearing and outlining the findings of the Board. Considering that the Los Osos 45 got these letters in the mail on April 11th – 13th, indicates that once again we've achieved . . . . TIME TRAVEL.

Miracles never cease here in Sewerville. Previous official letters from the RWQCB have stated that at the upcoming hearing on April 28, the Los Osos 45 will have a RIGHT to testify, call witnesses, present evidence, etc., so many of the 45 had been preparing their case, and were ready to do exactly that come April 28th. Now, they don’t need to. With the arrival of the official letter, they now know that, unbeknownst to them, they already had their “day in court.” Of course, it was a court that insists upon a Verdict First, with Evidence irrelevant, which, you must admit, saves so much more time than the other way around.

Of course, doing things this way opens one up to charges of being a Kangaroo Court, with cries of Sham! Sham! ringing thorough the air. Phooey. It’s not sham, it’s TIME TRAVEL . . . again!

On a happier note, for the first time in 30 years, remediation via a "pilot" onsite enhanced septic system in the form of the Piranha system was installed at the CSD’s fire house. (Another bype of onsite technology is being proposed for use at the LOCSD Water Yard) Lysimeters were installed under the firehouse leach field and testing can commence. Even the RWQCB, which has disallowed any onsite systems within the prohibition zone, some time ago gave permission to the “old CSD Board” if they wanted to install a “test” unit outside the Prohibition Zone (apparently the letter wasn’t made public until recently “discovered” by the new staff and board.) Why that becomes interesting is because it’s clear that should they have wished to do so, the county, the original CSD Board and the Regional Water Quality Control Board (which in resolution 83-12, gave the authority to both the county and CSD) could have been doing a variety of enhanced onsite remediations with their septic systems all the years and years that the various sewer projects were being considered and rejected and the Sewer Wars raged on. Indeed, various factions within the community have begged for years for the creation of a Septic Maintenance District that would have allowed for such improvements to the groundwater. Everyone, including the Regional Water Quality Control Board, refused to do zip, which makes their present hang-wringing declaration that Los Osos is in some sort of septic crisis requiring this mad CDO pumping scheme even more hypocritical than usual.

Now, with the installation of the Piranha system, even the RWQCB is expressing an interest in the test data that will be forthcoming. (I know, why don’t they just get in their time machine and zip forwards a few months for a look-see?)

Dr. Daniel Wickham, developer of the Pirana system, owner of “SludgeHammer” systems, spoke at the CSD April 13th meeting and noted a curious fact: Every single industry has developed and uses bio-remediation in controlling and dealing with its various “wastes,” except sanitation entities. A county’s multi-gazillion dollar a year wine industry, for example, will be a leader in developing and using onsite bio-remediation for its waste, while the same county’s sanitation district will still be limping along with old systems, with no attempt to deliberately control and manipulate the “product” using 21st century technologies. This results in out-dated sewage systems that are breaking and leaking and polluting and sludge-generating and costing taxpayers a bundle, aided and abetted and made worse by a lazy regulatory mind-set that’s still willfully stuck in the 19th century.

More Sewerville Notes: It was noted in last night’s CSD meeting that thanks to the disclosure laws on campaign donations, it’s now known that during the recall campaign, Montgomery Watson Harza and Barnard Construction donated $10,000 each to the “Save the Dream Coalition” to oppose the recall. Those were folks who designed and were starting to build the Tri-W sewer plant, which plans were directly threatened by the recall.

Twenty-thousand smackaroonies to be repaid from the citizens’ sewer rates, all just a part of doing business in Sewerville. God bless the child... . .