Don't Fall In!

Today I heard a cautionary tale which may be useful to pass on as next year we will be decommissioning our septic tanks. I will not reveal names involved or the location, other than to say it happened in this county of San Luis Obispo—recently, to a person who bought an as-is home. It happened at a home using a septic tank, although, apparently, it can happen at homes where a septic tank has been abandoned improperly after a sewer hook-up.

(Note: Many in Los Osos have not pumped their their tanks in 30+ years. We have not pumped ours in 10, and actually don't have much of an idea as to where it is located. We have a suspiciously verdant couple of trees that we have never watered, so.....)

Anyway, this person was digging around in the yard to find the septic tank on this recently purchased house. He/she had an idea where it was and was removing soil over what he/she thought was the concrete lid. Chopping about 6" into a pile of dirt however, down the shovel suddenly shot; he/she caught it, fortunately, in the nick of time. The "lid" to the septic tank it turned out, was made out of corrugated fiberglass panels, the concrete lid—gone. The person quickly exited the lid area, grateful that it had not collapsed.

(I am guessing as to the color of those panels, but see-through was just too ghastly to contemplate.)

SO.....when decommissioning time comes, and you might want to be doing some of the digging yourself, WATCH OUT, unless you already know what is down there. Septic tanks can KILL.

For further reading, follow this link:

http://www.septicprotector.com/deathpage.html

Sewer Tour Successful!

The third tour of our Los Osos Wastewater Treatment Plant on September 24, 5:00-6:00 p.m. was quite a success. Around 60 of the curious showed up to see what was going on out there behind the cemetery. Some of us will go anywhere for free food—cookies and little water bottles were on hand to keep one from fainting from the heat (which was pretty abominable). That was smart on the County's part, and I for one am grateful! 

A snappy color print out was handed around so that one had a map of the tour and what the various buildings and black pits were named. I took photos and will include them after the scan below that I did of the County handout.

John Waddell headed up the tour and we learned some useful bits of information. 75% of the plant is complete. The Septic Tank Reuse program will go before the Board of Supervisors October 20, this year. January 2016 is the most likely date for the next Town Hall. There will be monthly meetings starting next March when we all start connecting. It will take around a year for all of us to hook up and this process will be done in phases. More to come on that. (Click on the image to see a larger size.)

You really couldn't see much of the Secondary Clarifiers or the Oxidation Ditches from the ground.

On our walk in, a drone buzzed around overhead. I waved and smiled. I hope the film will be edited into a video with a score like last time - it was really, really, quite coolski.

Administration Building is on the left above. The Water Quality Lab will be inside. On the right, the roof is on but the Chemical Facility beneath it is not in yet.

Administration Building.

Effluent Pump Station. Note the port-a-pottie. Several of those were scattered around (so you really know that this place is not up and running yet.....).

Ramp at the Effluent Pump Station for trucks to unload septage (only from the Los Osos area).

Shooting into the sun was not the best idea..... This is REW Pond 2 on your aerial view up top.

This is the wall between REW Ponds 1 and 2. I'm not sure how this works or why it is there.

This is REW Pond 1.

This is the front of the Dewatering Facility. Not sure what those gun-like things are....

Stormwater Pond. The ponds, when full of course, will be able to accommodate helicopters that scoop water to fight fires.

This is a view of the fencing around the facility. The Storm Water Pond is to the left in this shot.

Serious piping to the left of the Sludge Storage Tanks. Those sludge tanks look better from the aerial shot, there really isn't much to see from the ground.

Project Manager John Waddell explains the tertiary filter process. There are 20 discs of cloth media inside the tanks. These two small units can process 1 million gallons a day. Hmmmm. Sounds suspiciously like the 2005 sewer technology that got crashed by 19 votes - the membrane bioreactor plant at Tri-W (to be PC, the "Midtown Site"). To the right of this is the area for the UV disinfection, where lots of lights kill the bugs remaining. To the left is the chemical facility as some chlorine must be used to keep stuff from growing in the pipes.

To the east of the tertiary filters is this cheery patriotic hued tanks tableau. This set-up is there for fire suppression, should there be the need. There are a few small wells on the property, but none with enough output to stop a fire, hence the storage of water for instant and ample use.

The green monster is a hefty-sized generator inside the Electrical Building. Work WILL go on if the power goes out.

Then we all walked back to where we parked our cars along the sewer plant's fence and at the cemetery. We passed by two clumps of the stuff in the photo below.

I know Pampas grass is invasive and horrible, but back-lit as this was, it was rather beautiful.

And that was the end of our one hour tour.

Septic System Reuse Options Meeting!

Off the County's wastewater webpage:

September 24, 2015: The project team and Central Coast Green Build will give a presentation at the 7pm LOCAC meeting on septic system reuse options for use when connecting properties to the wastewater project. For more information, review this draft Septic System Reuse brochure and visit the LOCAC webpage for the upcoming meeting agenda.

June & July Updates

Oops. I missed these somehow. Well, take a look - a good idea before our sewer tour next Thursday!

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Jun2015.pdf

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+July2015.pdf

Doing It Right

I was at Noi's Little Thai Takeout in Baywood on Tuesday for lunch and saw something I'd only heard about before—cooking oil recycling. Naturally Noi's would do this right, as she does cooking right (in ten years of Thai food that I have eaten, never any meal was less than perfect).

What I saw was a tank truck and a hose that looked like one from Al's Septic.

Then I noticed this:

A guy with the hose just attaching it to some above ground outlet. I didn't want to be too obvious about this picture taking; I think no one would recognize him here so I won't get sued or anything. Anyway, the name on the truck was "Salinas Tallow" and the picture became clear.

This is what we need to do when our new sewer comes online peeps! NOT put fat, especially fat that will solidify, down our drains! Who know what we are doing now, it is an individual thing, and I suspect that we are all cheap enough to not abuse our septic tanks for our own good. But lest we forget, it will be a whole new era of flushing, one of flushing into into a communal pipe. What someone does downhill with grease could well affect what doesn't go down when we uphill flushers flush! Remember that London Fatburger post from some months back? 

I do sometimes have nightmares about certain sewer obstructionists who claimed a gravity system would fail as they, weeping and tooth gnashing, were forced to live without their beloved STEP/STEG system. I fear sabotage frankly, but it is probably very bad to put those thoughts out there just in case this idea has not yet been crocheted into an actual plot from strands of personal bitterness, rent hair, and bacon grease.

On another note, on the way home from SLO today, this was in front of me! Please click on the image for the larger size. It is always a jolly day when you can see the oversized license plate with "SHT2GO" in big red letters on Al's trucks.....ahhh, Los Osos, what a bubbly zest for life we have here!

From Poop—Concrete!

Selangor, Malaysia: A study was recently published in the Pertanika Journal of Science and Technology on the potential for using sludge as an additive to cement! It may even lessen water permeability, thus increase durability, in certain grades of that most ubiquitous of building materials! 

This came about due to stricter environmental regulations on the disposal of sludge, due to its high, heavy metal content. 

What to do with this stuff? Get creative!! This might have world-wide implications for a lovely recyclement of tainted sludge!

You can access a news report on this here:
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/turning-sewage-sludge-into-concrete-0001?sectionCode=TOC&templateCode=Single&user=2124006&source=nl:43767&utm_source=et_10759433&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WOL_2015-09-03&utm_term=8B6151B5-326C-4D25-A47F-7FA24BE85D17&utm_content=Turning%2bSewage%2bSludge%2bInto%2bConcrete

Read even more here—and see some sludge photos too!
http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JST%20Vol.%2023%20(2)%20Jul.%202015/04%20JST-0464-2013%20Rev1.pdf

September Sewer Tour Sign-Up!

Here is the County info for the upcoming sewer tour!

"September 24, 2015: Upcoming Public Tour of the Water Recycling Facility construction site on Thursday, September 24 from 5pm to 6pm.  For more information and to sign up to attend, please contact Rosalyn Piza at (805) 788-2759.  Sign ups can also be sent via email to (rpiza@co.slo.ca.us). "

Ohio Town Resists Sewer Hook-Up Since 1979

There are some eerie similarities between the Los Osos sewer mess and that of a tiny town of 622 souls called Bay View in Erie County, Ohio. Of course their tiny soon-to-be system costs only a bit over $6 million as there is already an existing treatment plant awaiting delivery of product. But work on the pipes began in 1979 and is just now on the brink of being started. Read about it here:
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/news/environment/9429986

A 2013 report said: "The Ohio section of the report lists the Bay View West beach in Erie County as the fourth-worst in the state."

(Erie County health commissioner Pete) Schade's letter to (Governor John) Kasich outlines the problem.

" 'Over the past several years, I have been working to bring sanitary sewers to a small village of 400 homes on the Sandusky Bay. The Village of Bay View, Ohio, has septic systems that basically dump raw sewage directly into Sandusky Bay,' Schade wrote."

Comments below this article were:

doratheexplorer

SAT, 06/29/2013 - 3:19PM

Gross

Blues

SAT, 06/29/2013 - 4:05PM

There is a beach in Bay View? 

doratheexplorer

SAT, 06/29/2013 - 9:48PM

A crappy beach

Tool Box

MON, 07/01/2013 - 11:47AM

So the poop from my house is going into the bay? Oh my, that's not good! All those people who swim at the sand bar are swimming in my poop then! Ewe!

I can't say that I ever see swimmers in OUR bay, do you? But then, having waded into Lake Erie at (a different spot!) this summer, the water there was a LOT warmer than here. It is nice to know though, that we are not alone in the world of sewer reluctance......although I believe we can rightly claim a far more spectacular reluctance on oh, so many levels.

Sewer Tour Coming Up!!

Announced by Supervisor Bruce Gibson at the Thursday night LOCAC meeting - a new sewer tour of the treatment plant behind the cemetery on Los Osos Valley Road has been scheduled for Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 5:00 p.m.! It will last from between one to one and one-half hours. 

We usually have to E-mail someone from the County to put our names on the list and that announcement as to who that might be, is not up on the County website just yet. I will post the link when it becomes available. Hope to see you there - the last tour in March was quite fascinating!

Food (And Water) For Thought on Diablo

Cape Cod, another oceanside community built on sand, has had some rather bad news from the Silent Spring Institute about its water supply. The institute found a high level of antibiotics and PFOS, a chemical used in stain-resistant and non-stick coatings, and fire-fighting foams.

"Although Cape Cod is particularly vulnerable to contamination due to the prevalence of septic systems and its shallow sandy aquifer, the study has national implications. A quarter of U.S. households use septic systems or small community systems to process wastewater, and about 40% of Americans rely on groundwater for drinking supplies."*

Uhhhhh, that would be us!! 

There are currently no regulations in the U.S. on the contaminants listed above (and so many others) as there is in Europe. The solution put forward to the problem in Cape Cod was to "(divert) treated water from septic systems and centralized plants away from drinking water supplies." Of course, we are doing just the opposite.

Today at the BOS, the first feelers were put forward on using the desalinated water from the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant, piping it both to South County and Los Osos. All five supervisors voted yes, let's pursue this. 

Water fresh out of the ocean has a monumentally higher dilution rate from contaminants than does our confined aquifers into which we are returning our recycled sewer water.** 

The usual naysayers were there at the podium for Public Comment on the issue, railing against even exploring the idea of importing Diablo's desal water to Los Osos. But then, they were key in stoping a sewer project, losing a $134 million low interest loan, delaying water conservation, and making the County come up with a second sewer idea for Los Osos at $29 million MORE than the LOCSD's project that they trashed. 

How long will our drought be? What contaminants are in our drinking water? At what concentration are they? At what rate are they increasing? These are all important questions. 

What solutions do the sewer nuts propose this time? Actually, all I have heard is a mumbled mouthing from the heads planted deep in our fine Baywood sands. It sounds like they think that we can live completely on the water from the aquifers directly beneath us—yet, yet, they complain that the Basin Plan—the plan that will manage this water supply of ours—does NOT take into account any plans for a prolonged drought!

So....who do you want to listen to this time around Los Osians? The sewer nuts of old, or more reasonable minds that know that one El Nino, should it be a water-plentiful one next year, will NOT fix our problem; that no amount of conservation will save us; that there is no possible way to know the timeline on the next drought or even how long the current one will last; that there is no way to predict exactly what global warming will do to both us and the animals and plants in the environment in which we all live. Do we want to be prepared or simply avoid thinking about it until we can't live here at all anymore?


Please read the report generated in 2006 by the LOCSD about the constituents already in our water, some of which are not regulated.
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/Document%20Library/UPPER%20AQUIFER%20CHARACTERIZATION.pdf

* Please read this source article:
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/contaminants-cods-drinking-water-silent-spring-institute-finds-0001

** "The Institute found that treated water from both septic systems and sewage treatment plants contain similar levels of contaminants. The systems effectively remove some chemicals, such as caffeine and acetaminophen (Tylenol); others pass through largely unchanged, including sulfamethoxazole and TCEP, a chlorinated flame retardant."

Michigan's Septic Tank Slip-Up

We are not Michigan here in Los Osos of course, but septic tanks around a body of water bode badly for them too a new study finds.

Check this out:
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/septic-tanks-aren-tkeeping-poo-rivers-lakes-0001?sectionCode=TOC&templateCode=Single&user=2124006&source=nl:43697&utm_source=et_10759433&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WOL_2015-08-25&utm_term=8B6151B5-326C-4D25-A47F-7FA24BE85D17&utm_content=Do%2bSeptic%2bTanks%2bPollute%2bFreshwater%253f

A Look Back In History, 2012

A petition geared to stop the County's sewer (the present one anyway) remains online years later. Take a look back in history from January 2012:

https://www.change.org/p/tell-decision-makers-stop-the-most-expensive-per-capita-sewer-in-the-us-the-los-osos-sewer

It needed 5,000 signatures and garnered only 299. A sad commentary for diehard sewer opposers always looking for that "better" sewer design; a glad commentary on reality and the cleaning up of our water and moving ahead.

Bay News LO Sewer Article

Hot off the press, or in this case, arriving in warmish pixels, the Bay News has a Los Osos sewer story this issue - basically writing about what went on at the Board of Supes yesterday, protested heartily by the usual suspects. Alas, not even a tiny pause in approving the sewer's Consent Calendar items by ALL FIVE SUPES, (Yayyyy, Supes!!) which must have been truly disheartening for the you-know-whos.

Here is the link:
http://tolosapressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BN-08-20-15-web.pdf

You can find the cost breakdowns off this link:
http://tolosapressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/LO-WWTP-costs.pdf

And here is the link to the latest County Sewer Report:
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Jun2015.pdf

Check out the fun photos! Our sewer is moving closer to completion, the naysayers are more and more irrelevant than ever!!

BOS - 8-18-2015 Triple Serving Sewer Stuff!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Consent Agenda - Public Works Items: 

15. Submittal of a resolution authorizing execution of notice of completion and acceptance for the Collection System Pump Stations Contract for the Los Osos Wastewater Project, Los Osos. District 2. 
    

17. Request to approve Amendment No. 4 to the Owner-Engineer Agreement with Carollo Engineers for professional engineering services during construction of the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility, in the amount of $329,303. District 2. 
    

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - PENDING LITIGATION (Government Code section 54956.9.) It is the intention of the Board to meet in closed session concerning the following items: Existing Litigation (Gov. Code, section 54956.9(a)). (Formally initiated.) (3) ARB, Inc. v. County of San Luis Obispo; .............

When relevant documents are posted, I will add the links here.

Two steps closer to flushing, where the goods will take a little journey out of town and return—TRANSFORMED!....... And on the ARB issue—who knows where that will go!

Update—here are the LINKS:
For Item 15 - http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=4996
For Item 17 - http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=4976

Dirty Jobs Found On YouTube!

Septic tank clean-out and inspection! Just the right follow-up to yesterdays post! Just think, sometime in 2016 Al's Septic will be working 24/7! Yeeee-haaaaaa!!!!

Septic Tank Quad System

From the 'burbs of Cleveland, July 2015: 

This is what a septic system looks like on a two acre parcel. I will protect the owner of the property by calling him Mr. X. He very generously gave me a septic tank tour and it was quite different from anything that I had seen before. I suspect out in the 'burbs, on a large chunk of land, you will find different systems from what we, in tiny-lotville, could possibly have. (You may click on any of these images to enlarge them.)

Pictured above are three of the four chambers of this system. The contents flow from the first through fourth chambers, the water becoming progressively cleaner as it advances. I am standing on the first, underground tank, to take this photograph. Pictured below is the unseen underground first chamber which receives the output from the house: sinks, tubs/showers, laundry, toilets.

The lid to the second chamber, above and below.

Mr. X kindly lifter the concrete lid to the second, visible chamber. 
No noxious aromas wafted forth.

Pictured below is the concrete lid to the third chamber.

Mr. X lifted the lid to the third chamber. Again, no fumes.

Below is the concrete lid to the fourth and final chamber.

Below, the lid opened, reveals some sort of attached mechanism. I forgot to ask what it was. A pump perhaps? This final phase water drains out into piping in the woods. Whatever nitrates or other components are left are sucked up by the vegetation to which the water flows.

Below, you are looking back at the one invisible and three visible tank lids. The forest is maybe another 20 feet behind me where the water eventually goes.

The forest into which the reclaimed water is received. It was pretty darn green I'll have to say; but then it actually rains in the Cleveland 'burbs—a lot this past year.

For fun and refreshment, please don't take this as a depressing tease to the parched Californians, what you see is the lake in the front yard, stocked with bass of some sort. Just enjoy a sight that we are longing to see. We could move to the Cleveland 'burbs to escape the drought if we really wanted to.....and have a nice two-acre parcel with a small lake and lots of fluffy, green trees, that you actually don't need to water.....

Thanks to Mr. X for the septic system tour!

Wastewater in Cheery Colors

This doesn't quite look right.......it can't be from humans.....

Septic Hell

Well! An article coming in from a news feed, which in the avalanche of E-mail I get, I oddly chanced to open on my phone days ago (most of these go unopened, depending on the stuff-to-do load), the link to which I almost lost six times, has turned into a delightful discovery! Someone as sewer crazed as I, but unfortunately trapped in that special hell of septic tanks run amok, has written about it, and in a most entertaining way! This person lives in Stinson Beach.

Stinson Beach, a pricy, swanky community north of San Francisco, actually isn't so different from Los Osos. Tidal flats, off the beaten path, some parts beautifully fixed up, others not so much....I just took a Google Earth drive through it. It is greener. But not more beautiful. They built on their sandpit and ours is pristine. And Montaña de Oro is so breathtaking.... I could go on, but all two of you readers already know about that I'd bet.

Take a look at these blog quotes about Stinson Beach and see if you see any similarities to Los Osos:

“……a deliberate decision by the community of Stinson Beach to control population growth by declining to modernise their system of waste disposal.” 

“The simple answer is that through the process of community meetings and a bond vote in a special election, the residents of Stinson Beach rejected over 10 different sewer plans and chose the alternative of onsite systems.” 

"… which also happens to be a place where the sandy soil makes for an operating environment not ideal for septic systems – and increases the likelihood that they will fail?" *** (I know, I know, WE have MAGIC sand, not that ordinary kind! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!)

http://californiacoastdweller.com/a-new-page-that-does-not-move/ 

Do have a look at these particularly entertaining posts!

http://californiacoastdweller.com/2015/04/30/1668/

http://californiacoastdweller.com/2015/03/30/1596/

Catch them all here:

http://californiacoastdweller.com/tag/stinson-beach-septic-problems/

Recent improvements to the public beach part of Stinson are described here:

http://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/golden-gate-hears-concerns-over-stinson-beach-septic-overhaul

A Stanford Study can be found here:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/may/septic-wastewater-sea-052010.html

The colossal question is—why is their Regional Water Quality Control Board AND the Coastal Commission not all over them they way that they were with us? Maybe because they are only polluting the ocean, and we.....wee wee right into our water supply which sits below our septic tanks? But then, they have a population of a mere 632....and we a robust 14,200.

I checked out their water supply and I found that their situation is quite a bit different from ours:

The Stinson Beach water supply is provided by two types of sources: surface water and ground water. Surface water is supplied by the Fitzhenry, Black Rock, and Stinson Gulch Creeks. Ground water is supplied by Steep Ravine, Alder Grove, Ranch, and Highlands Wells, which operate intermittently. The collected raw water is piped to the Laurel Treatment Facility. The water is then processed by our New Pall Membrane Filters which consist of two parallel units, each rated at 100 gallons per minute. Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) is added after filtration for disinfection purposes.

http://stinson-beach-cwd.dst.ca.us/quality.html 

Happy Reading!!

Sex Changing Fish - Old Wastewater Worry - New Solution

Here is a fun topic to mull over - sex changing fish! Anyway, there is a newly proposed antidote - removing the hormonal contaminants in recycled wastewater. You can read about it here:

http://www.wateronline.com/doc/sex-changing-fish-inspire-new-method-of-wastewater-treatment-0001?sectionCode=NewsFeaturedItem&templateCode=Single&user=2124006&source=nl:43369&utm_source=et_10759433&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WOL_2015-07-07&utm_term=8B6151B5-326C-4D25-A47F-7FA24BE85D17&utm_content=Sex-Changing%2bFish%2bInspire%2bNew%2bMethod%2bOf%2bWastewater%2bTreatment

Tribune Article on LWV's Civility Mission

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Trib reporting on the issue of civility brought forth by the SLO County League of Women Voters!  (Go Marilee Hyman! Someone who always had good observations to offer when she was on the WRAC - Water Resources Advisory Committee.) The article was front page, above the fold in the paper issue, appropriate for a pre-July 4 comment on democracy. I'm very glad to see the LWV bring this issue to the forefront and the Trib's respect for this topic; it is much needed. Hopefully, if successful at the highest level, the BOS's chambers, it will filter down to the smaller government venues as well. 

While the high dudgeon days of the anti-sewer nuts are mostly over, the residual stench of poor manners in public will still raise its hideous head, just vocalizing now on other issues. This much anger might be a mental issue, but it is also just a case of these people's feelings of "personal exceptionalism" and entitlement, coupled with rotten manners, that causes the problems, not the ideas put forth. They have shot themselves in the foot more than once, but the lesson seems not to have left the foot to travel to the brain. Yes, altering bad behavior is difficult, but not unheard of or impossible to achieve.

The Trib reporters have been in the Board of Supe's chambers often enough to see how certain members of the public seem to want to obstruct civil discourse when things are not going their way by shouting out from the back of the room or using foul words or topics at the podium. I hope when this happens, that they will report the conditions in the room, not just the general issues spoken about, sweeping the actual dirt under the front row seats and out of sight. That dirt needs exposure for actual cleansing.

The TV audience never quite gets to see or really hear what caused the chairperson to gavel down the unseen, unheard ruckus, often assuming it is some egomaniacal whim of the chairperson to stop proceedings, thereby igniting the assumption that free speech is being thwarted and threatened, when in fact, stopping bad behavior is necessary to allow free speech for everyone, not just those who yell the loudest, and who are intimidating those fearful of being yelled at for speaking up on their ideas. Discourse should not be attenuated by fear; that is the opposite of free speech. Democracy demands free speech.

So, while slightly off the sewer issue, this topic seemed worthy of a posting, especially since the sewer is not yet operational until 2016, and there are unassigned recycled wastewater amounts still to be allotted somewhere. Not to mention the crabbing on the money not yet spent on conservation which still bring out the angry words. There will be fighting over water to come; let's make it a fair and civil fight.

(I wanted to get whisky in the paragraph above, as we are in the middle of an awful drought and the old saw about water's for fightin' and all, but without ice—which IS water, just immobilized—I can't. Happy July 4—plus beer is a better beverage for this occasion anyway.)

Read the Trib article here:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/07/02/3706421_league-of-women-voters-civil-discourse.html?rh=1

BOS July 7, 2015! Civility on Agenda!

Off the Tuesday, July 7 Supes agenda—

(after the lunch recess and the report out of closed session, which does have the ARB lawsuit and the ISJ as topics for Closed Session. Dollars to doldrums we will hear nothing; we never do. Don't get me started on why the ISJ has dragged on so long, could be the delay in getting a sewer had something to do with that you know.......the recall, losing the $134 million SRF loan, the bankruptcy, etc.....meanwhile our water supply dwindles and dwindles, the county being our only savior with the water conservation measures in its sewer project—the LOCSD tries, but hampered with NO money, gets not very far—poor Golden State stymied by needing to get permission from the PUC to even sneeze, ALL of that.....) 

—OK, back to why I started this.........

Presentations

34. Submittal of a resolution supporting the Civility and Civil Discourse Accord resolution. All Districts. 

I can't wait to see what the support documents say for this item. Maybe the Los Osos CSD needs to check this out for their meetings as there is an echo in the room, albeit a tiny one, from the past uncivil insanity that has recently re-sprouted.

UPDATE: Read the relevant documents off of this link:

http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=4779

Below is a particularly pointed quote from the resolution:

"WHEREAS, we commit ourselves to building a civil political community in which each person is respected and spirited public and political debate is aimed at the betterment of San Luis Obispo County and its people and not the disparagement of those with whom we disagree."

I guess that means shouting down a person at the podium from the back of the room is not to be condoned. Yes, some of the audience members at the LOCSD should take note. What they are doing is not aimed at any betterment of the community, but rather the betterment of their personal status among other like-mouthed louts.

County Update! May 2015!

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+May2015.pdf

The photos show a LOT of progress since the last tour - have a look!

Water Report—Complete with Nitrate Concentrations!

Hot off the County's website:

June 22, 2015: May 2015 Baseline Groundwater Quality Report released to the Regional Water Quality Control Board. This was an additional requirement under the WDR R3-2011-0001. This report contains the latest Nitrate concentrations and Groundwater levels.

Quote:

The number of monitoring network wells with water quality in excess
of the NO3-N drinking water standard of 10 mg/l is presently 18 out of 23 wells tested.

Two of the wells were dry, so were not tested. There is 108 pages of fun stuff to read!

Roads and Easements, vis-à-vis the Sewer Project!

Off the Board of Supes agenda for the Tuesday, June 16th meeting:

0. Consent Agenda - Public Works Items: 

20. Submittal of bid opening report for 2014-15 Micro Surfacing, Los Osos, to award thesubject contract to Telfer Highway Technologies, the lowest responsible bidder, in the amount of $1,103,955. District 2.

22. Submittal of a resolution authorizing conveyance of utility easements to Pacific Gas & Electric and to Southern California Gas, by separate easement deeds, for the Los Osos Wastewater Project – Water Recycling Facility, Los Osos. District 2. 
    

Most interesting are the maps on each of these items, check them out! Is your street on the map in Item 20? Mine is!

And, oh yeah, then there is this item in Closed Session:

0. PENDING LITIGATION (Government Code, section 54956.9.) It is the intention of the Board to meet in closed session concerning the following items: Existing Litigation (Gov. Code, section 54956.9(a)). (Formally initiated.) (3) ARB, Inc. v. County of San Luis Obispo; 

Looks like this continues down the path of endless litigation, like so many court cases in Los Osos over the years......