Calhouns Can(n)ons

Facts R Not Us

Last month, in my 9/13 blog entry, (“Yes, It’s a Pop Quiz!”), I presented a sample of how the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s staff misstated and misrepresented what I had written in their “Responses to Technical Evidence and Comments Submitted in Regards to Cease and Desist Orders, Los Osos,” dated April 19, 2006.

I also noted that I had written to the staff (and the Board and Everyone involved) to point out the error and ask it be fixed. I presumed it had been or would be, especially when the CDO case went ker-flooey and had to be started all over again and this particular document had to be amended and re-written.

Silly me. Instead of correcting their misrepresentation, they simply cut and pasted it back in, so what they were claiming in their official document was . . . wrong . . . AGAIN.

So, . . . again . . . I wrote to ask it be corrected. Here’s Harvey Packard’s reply. Mr. Packard is the Division Chief and Enforcement Coordinator. He’s part of “Staff” that prepares documents used by the Regional Board to fine you out of existence and/or allows them to take your homes away from you. That’s serious business, indeed. So if you had that kind of responsibility in preparing a civil liability proceeding complete with documents that form a legal record that can lead to lives being destroyed and homes lost, you would think making sure that the official record remains accurate would be important to you. You would think that, but you’d be wrong. .

10/5006

Dear Ms. Calhoun,

Matt Thompson and I have reviewed the documents (our original staff report, your first comment letter, our resubmitted staff report, and your recent emails) regarding this issue. We agree that our staff report misrepresented your comments. We apologize for that error.

We do not plan on revising or reissuing the staff report. However, as you note, we are no longer recommending that the cease and desist orders require bimonthly septic tank pumping or an equivalent alternative, so it appears that your comments regarding alternative treatment systems and our response are no longer pertinent to the current discussion.

If for some reason the topic does come up at a future hearing or in a future report, we will take the opportunity to correct the staff report.

Thank you for your interest,

Harvey Packard, Division Chief and Enforcement Coordinator
Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Did you note that Mr. Packard said they had reviewed my first comment letter and their resubmitted staff report? Thereby clearly refreshing their memory that there had indeed been a request to correct the document in question and a clear opportunity to have done so, an opportunity they had missed once and now chose not to take again.

Which brings us to the most important question of all: In this official record, WHAT ELSE HAVE THEY GOTTEN WRONG AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, KNOWINGLY LEFT WRONG?


The CDO hearings for The Los Osos 45 will be help November 2 & 9th at the Regional Water Quality Board offices in SLO. If you think you’re not going to be on the next CDO list, think again. If you think you won’t be on that list because the Staff has made some kind of error in your case, you’d really, reeeeeeely better think again: When it comes to facts and accuracy and the Regional Board, Facts R Not Them.