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05.
Caladesi Island State Park (FL) ------------------------------------------------- The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) voted to end reliance on an embarrassing "waiver" that allowed OC to be the largest dumper of live bacteria-laden fecal sewage solids in the USA. Thanks to public scrutiny of the secretive District. The habit of secrecy, fostered by public neglect and lack of adequate supervision, is said to have bred complacency and arrogance into an ugly mix with deferred maintenance and steadfast refusal to provide for upgrading the plant in tune with the increasingly urban character of once-farmed O.C. Some OCSD Directors, and the primordial Orange County Register, are fiercely opposed to any environmental cleanup that is not directly visible from their lofty perches. SEWAGE SCOFFLAWS STRIKE BACK
Yorba Linda Director Mike Duvall, one of those who fought bitterly against
cleaning up the discharges, inserted a potential monkey-wrench into OCSD
plant modernization. Instead of gradually raising rates, as had been planned,
to about $200 per year (from This dramatic, sudden increase is being exploited by the OCRegister to raise popular outrage at the decision to upgrade. Confusingly, secondary only accounts for 20% of the proposed increase, yet it is being blamed for all of it. WHY NOT USE THE "RESERVES"?
The problem might be that the plant cannot really be upgraded to secondary
without first completing about $1.8 BILLION in other deferred repairs.
Perhaps some really basic fixes must be done before the possibility of
upgrading to secondary standards is
Otherwise, the public might ask, WHY jack up rates to raise $450 million,
if OCSD really HAS $554,000,000 in "reserves"? Instead of bumping
up rates, spend the "reserves", that would divert public anger.
If they really have the cash. The question arises, DOES OCSD HAVE THE
MONEY? Perhaps a crusading newspaper would call for a full audit of OCSD,
which seems overdue. There are claims that OCSD may not have Blaming the relatively small portion of the increase on the move to secondary seems unfair. Perhaps this makes big headlines and raises some opposition. Please attend the dual meetings ("steering committee" at 5PM, Board at 7PM) and support the move to full secondary standards. Taking care of our own waste materials seems inescapeable, and everyone should be willing to pay what is necessary. Even more important, we need new waste treatment ideas. We are using the basic old Roman plumbing method -- flush out the vomitorium with water floating in via aqueduct, and dump it in the sea -- that worked 2500 years ago. Each person requires 200 gallons per day of potable water, and generates 100 gallons per day of waste water. Doing the math, this cannot go on forever. San Diego is in the situation of not having adequate supplies of fresh water, and not having made adequate provision for wastewater reclamation. OCSD: BAD CASE OF CONSTIPATED MAINTENANCE AUDIT OCSD: WHERE'S THE $554,000,000 RESERVES $554 MILLION CASH RESERVES: WHERE'S THE MONEY USE 500 MILLION RESERVES, DON'T RAISE OUR RATES $554 MILLION RESERVES: USE IT, IF YOU HAVE IT $554 MILLION "RESERVES": DO THEY HAVE THE MONEY? THE WORST, THE MOST, THEY'RE DUMPING ON THE COAST Also, please OPPOSE item 13m, Shea Homes (Near Los Patos and Bolsa Chica) annexed to OCSD. This bails them out, and NO new sewer connections should be allowed until we treat existing sewage to the minimum secondary treatment level. -------------------------------------------------- DIRECTIONS: PCH south past Dana Point, turn left on Del Obispo (just before 5 FWY), proceed to Camino Del Avion, turn right, make a left into the Community Center. US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Fish and Game (DFG), US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), and OCPlanning (BARF) are holding a PUBLIC WORKSHOP to allow opponents of the Rancho Mission Viejo (RMV) mega-development to rant and rave. After hundreds oppose development, the "buros" will move closer to approving the Special Area [mis-]Management Plan (SAMP) and Natural Communities Conservation Plan/Habitat Conservation Plan (NCCP/HCP) that allows them to evade strict compliance with the National Environment Protection Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA). This is the time to bring a new perspective to bear on stopping this -- and dozens of other -- proposed housing tracts on top of virgin land and critical habitat. New regulations require that housing tracts show where the huge new quantities of fresh water will come from (everyone just seems to assume that there is no limit to how much sewage OCSD can agree to handle). For each 10,000 new residents, 2,000,000 gpd of fresh water are needed. Municipal Water District (MWD) and other primary water distributors cannot show where this water is coming from. ENTER DESALINATION Despite the bad economics that led to the idling of the Catalina and Santa Barbara desal plants, the rap is that unlimited supplies of fresh water could be provided by desal plants. The important point to remember is that the cost is high. Only the concept of "blended cost" of higher-priced (ultra-pure) desal water mixed in with cheaper, mineral-laden groundwater allows even mild plausibility. The other important point to remember is that actual delivery of the new water is not necessarily guaranteed. There seems no bar to full permitting of the desal plant, since at this point there is no actual agreement to increase population density. There is a vague intent to supply new tracts, but not enough evidence to derail desal based on fostering growth. Should the desal plant agree to supply water to MWD, or Rancho Santa Margarita Water District, that might close the door to arguments that they don't have the water. The desal water, it can be argued, is not "paper" water, the plant is on the way. If it should prove uneconomical, and close, well, that would just be another challenge! The hillsides would be graded, the Oaks destroyed, the new houses built and sold. Picking up the pieces is a job for the ever-suffering Taxpayer. Hence, NOT stopping the desal plant might be a big mistake for RMV opponents (and also Saddlecreek/crest, Saddleback Meadows, RMV, Bolsa Chica Mesa upper bench [having trouble getting well water from Cypress]). Conversely, STOPPING DESAL plant might require a lot of marginally viable projects to reconsider their mandate. This might even give pause to the powerful forces ramming Rancho Mission Viejo through the permit process. ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- BLM opened all but a small portion of the Imperial Sand Dunes to "recreational" vehicle use, despite fears that it will impact fragile desert habitat, life systems and endangered species such as the Desert Tortoise. If you know anything about how these people operate, there is not much to be said for this BLM action. Driving over the desert, dead drunk, playing "chicken" with other bigwheels, shooting at anything that moves, flinging beer bottles at paintballers...a fantasy? Perhaps. ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8.
In plan to speed logging in Northwest, sensitive species seen losing "Under proposed changes...forest managers would no longer have to survey for dozens of sensitive plant and animal species before logging. "The changes, prompted by a timber industry lawsuit..." The technique here was for industry to sue, and the "Justice" department to "settle" in an agreement that would otherwise violate ESA and other laws. Perhaps embarrassment was the real reason EPA snake Whitman resigned. The only thing left is for them to call it the "forest protection and habitat saving act of 2003". Freedom is slavery! Truth is falsity! The crazy immorality and perverse infamy of the Bush administration goes on and on. Clinton, they said, stole $200k on Whitewater; repubs spent $40 million investigating him. In the end, they got him on sexual flavors, which would, if truth be told, hang nearly every one of them (Nixon excepted) including Bush (whose dadddy, it is said, paid for the abortion for one of his jilted girlfriends, among other things). Meanwhile,
no one seems to object as we shoot over 1000 tons of low-level radioactive
waste at Iraqi tanks, which, when incinerated as planned, creates clouds
of radioactive dust, contaminating civilian kids. No one seems to notice
that we unilaterally abrogated and denounced several treaties, as well
as the authority of the U.N., and that we have taken over, apparently,
two new satrapies for the unforseeable future. No one exclaims in wonder
at the sleaze of it all, how California was punished by the electric deregulation
scam, how they STOLE $30 BILLION OF OUR MONEY, and the connections to
Cheney, Bush and Rove -- not peripheral connections, either. Cheney is
still stonewalling release of his conferences with the The sleaze is getting deep around Washington, D.C. The killing of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act...Well, maybe only weakening them, but Bush still has 5 years to go, if repub "dirty trix" operatives succeed, as now appears certain, to maneuver the weak Lieberman, pencil-neck geek, and the inept Kerry as the demo candidates. Things will get progressively worse, in the next by and by. /Doug Back to T.O.C. 3
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