Calhouns Can(n)ons

Los Osos CSD Lives To Stagger Forward Another Day! Regional Water Quality Control Board Pulls A Bait & Switchy. It’s A Humpty Dumpty Moment! Again!

I had a prior commitment on the evening of Dec 28, but did manage to poke my head in about 9 pm. to hear some of the public comments concerning discussion of dissolution by the CSD. New Board member Joe Sparks noted that the Board was examining all options before it, including dissolution, because they had a duty to ensure the “maximum protection of the homeowner,” which had me muttering under my breath, “Too bad the recalled Board didn’t exercise that “duty” when they voted to gamble with the homeowners’ money by pounding it into the ground before the recall, thereby losing a bundle and precipitating the present mess. "Oh, well.

I can only hope that the County and the CSD will not all collectively lose their marbles and will realize that an “alive” CSD able to deal with its debts and responsibilities will be better than a Dead Duck and so work out a win-win compromise regarding assets and the apparent muddelments to be found in Blakeslee’s bill.

It should also be apparent, that an “alive” CSD with sufficient assets to defend and challenge and so offer the “maximum protection of the homeowner” mentioned by Mr. Sparks from various lawsuits and claims that may be improper or false, is the ONLY protection those homeowners have. Does anyone think the County would give a foodle about, for example, finding out whether a loan was illegally or improperly written in the first place and hence may well be invalid? Or just who DID pull the plug on the Breach of contract SRF lawsuit and . . . exactly when? You know, fun questions like that.

Speaking of Fun.

In their latest posting, The Regional Water Quality Control Board is following in the tradition of Humpty Dumpty in 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.”

The left-over CDO recipients will be tried and beheaded Jan 22 by a “panel,” instead of the full board, which means their verdicts (Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!) will have to be conveyed up to the full board and voted on . . . later .. . Which makes me wonder if the game now hasn’t changed (again) to “I Know, Let’s Do The Panel Thing As A Way To Drag This Out And Thereby Keep Anyone From Getting Anywhere Near A “Real” Court For As Long As Humanly Possible Because A “Real” Court Might Just Toss This Entire Mess Out On Its Ear Thereby Making Us Look Bad.”

But here’s the real Humpty Dumpty moment. The original CDOs were justified by the responsibility claimed by the RWQCB to protect natural resources and the environment, to prevent “discharge of waste that could affect waters of the state,” and so forth.

Now, on Page 4 of their Notice of Panel Hearing posting, the game has changed utterly. “The Water Board does not have to find that discharges from subsurface disposal systems within the prohibition zone are causing or contributing to conditions of pollution or nuisance in order to issue Cease and Desist orders for discharges of waste that violate the prohibition.”

See? Gone. Zip! Poof! There’s now nothing whatsoever about the waters of the state. You could put in a brand new septic tank and system, run a garden hose of fresh drinking water through it and whatever came out the pipe of this brand new septic tank (fresh drinking water) would render you GUILTY of violating the Prohibition Zone and hence, KaZAM! you’ll get a CDO slapped on your property.

Weirder still, the “Settlement Agreements” already signed still says that if you propose an “alternative method of ceasing all unpermitted discharges,” “If the alternative involves a discharge of waste that COULD AFFECT WATERS OF THE STATE, . . .” you need a report and permit and mitigation & etc.

So, we have an (old, signed) settlement agreement that is based on something affecting the waters of the state, and a NEW! Improved! document that will be used to try and convict the remaining CDO recipients with nary a mention of any waters anywhere. Doesn’t matter if Property X’s discharges are not doing anything whatsoever to the waters of the state. No need for evidence that anybody’s polluting anything anywhere. Nope. Simply change the language and, Poof! Anyone living within the boundries of the prohibition zone is . . . GUILTY! Period. Hang ‘em!

Ah, Humpty Dumpty would have loved it!