The Massachusetts area called Orleans was first settled in 1693 by Pilgrims from the Plymouth colony. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo first encountered the Chumash Indians living in the Los Osos area in 1542. But Los Osos was not on a real map until 1769 when Gaspar de Portolà led a Spanish group of explorers and found bears and named the area Los Osos. But that both settlements are pretty old, is the point. Different Native Americans were decimated by white guys, Wampanoag for Orleans and Chumash for Los Osos. The Wampanoag were famous in white history for bring food for the settlers on the first Thanksgiving, but things went downhill after that. The Spaniards wiped out the bears, one source of food for the Chumash, so maybe I am thinking there is conflict in the very air of these towns. But the level of conflict doesn't belong on the same scale. Different they are by leagues altogether!
For similarities: In 1898, the French cable company brought a 3200 mile long transatlantic cable to Orleans. Los Osos has the Los Osos Cable Landing Station with three major lines coming in that cover Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Guam and the first one landed in 1995 with upgrades since. Lynn, Massachusetts seems to be the new spot for cable landings of the modern sort, but you get the similarity drift, good cable landing points!
Famous people lived in these two towns as well, Victor A. Vyssotsky, mathematician and computer scientist for Orleans, and Gumby creator Art Clokey for Los Osos. (Hmmmm, the suspicious might already see a portend as to how town problems might be tackled. But that would not be me, I'm just the reporter here.)
There are some differences of course. In 2010, Orleans had only 5,890 year around residents while Los Osos had 14,276. There is a summer seasonal population in Orleans estimated to be 20,000+ however. Orleans has a total area of 22.7 square miles, of which 14.1 square miles is land and 8.5 square miles or 37.59%, is water. Los Osos has 12.8 square miles, 99.84% of it land, and 0.16% of it water. Orleans median income of $42,594. Los Osos has a median income of $57,683.
One huge difference though, was not having a Regional Quality Water Board demanding water clean-up on a schedule. Bigger still, they figured this out by themselves, that they HAD to clean up the water! And another difference, a very telling one as to meeting demeanor, at their sewer meetings, the sheriff did not have to be called.... Here is a news article on a sewer meeting held in 2012: http://www.wickedlocal.com/x928642180/New-path-for-Orleans-wastewater/?Start=1 Of course there was some dissension, and it sounds suspiciously plucked out of the Los Osos playbook, you can read about it here: http://www.orleanswateralliance.org/planning/. But again, no sheriff had to be called. Is it simply the cultural differences between the two states that dictates the tenor of the meetings? A sense of entitlement that Californians might have to yell their opinions over and over and over? Or does California just house more sewer nuts with bad manners?
OK, now for the real sewery part! They have done a side-by-side technology study for their sewer issues and the whole report seems to have been done without thousands of pages of "citizen input!" Unimaginable in Los Osos! The side-by-side study can be found here: http://www.town.orleans.ma.us/sites/orleansma/files/file/file/selectmenpp-6-20-12.pdf Unlike the Step/Steg on-lot costs NOT outlined in the Los Osos' commissioned Ripley Report, Dana Ripley being the Step/Steg "guru"according to the Recall Board, the on-lot costs have been painted in realistic numbers and it is not a pretty picture.
Here is a quote from a respected journal,
WEF Manual of Practice No. FD-12 (1)
The use of existing septic tanks has seldom been successful. Because of age, poor construction, poor installation, or homeowner abuse, existing septic tanks have proven to be one of the most significant sources of infiltration and inflow in effluent sewer systems. Unless a particular tank is known to be well-designed and manufactured, installed by a reputable installer, and effectively tested for water-tightness, it is better to replace the tank than risk it becoming a significant source of infiltration and inflow.
(1) Source: Water Environment Federation, Alternative Sewer Systems, 2nd Edition, 2008This is what was missing from our Step/Steg report. The expected life of a Step tank is 25 years, making almost all of the tanks in Los Osos in need of replacement. The last 1100 homes in the Prohibition Zone were built before 1987, so only tanks that had been replaced recently were likely to pass an inspection. And the homeowner, NOT the project, would pay the on-lot costs! That is how the community was fooled into thinking that Step/Steg was cheaper. Orleans has no such deception, so they are seeing what really is cost effective for their town. Of course, the County gave us costs for Step/Steg, but they were not believed by Step/Steg supporters.
(If you want to read the 30-year history of Orleans water issues up to 2012, click here. They had municipal water problems starting in the 60s due to pollution, ours got recognized in the 70s when we could no longer use the upper aquifer for drinking water anymore, due to nitrate contamination.)
Anyway, they are chugging along but not done yet, much like us. They are years behind where we are now, but somehow, reading about this town and how they operate, we might all be getting our sewers at the same time. I couldn't find a history of lawsuits for Orleans like the one that has caused our projects so much lost time and extra money and made our issues so painfully ugly. The environmental activists in the area have threatened lawsuits against the EPA for not protecting the environment which is 180º away from the Los Osos "environmental activist's" actual lawsuits, arguing that we aren't polluting. You can read about those here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/us/18nitrogen.html
http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20110128/News/301289384
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/11/26/pollution_in_cape_cod_waters_sparks_debate/
You can read about Orlean's latest meeting here: http://www.town.orleans.ma.us/sites/orleansma/files/wqap_10_22_draft_summary.pdf
Orleans may have been one of the Cape Cod towns that refused federal money to build a sewer in the 60s and 70s; many of them did, fearing growth. What they got was growth anyway, and we followed that same pathway to pollution. It is interesting to find a town much like ours, facing many of the water quality issues that we have. What's really interesting though, is their mild and civilized response to those issues, so different from the fireworks-spouting Los Osos. Why that is remains a mystery.
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