Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Thursday, October 30, 2014

CHANGE, SHIFT AND PORTENT-A NATIVE DRAMA and THROWBACK CORRESPONDENT

TRANSFORMATIONS
   Change can be proscribed even expected or not! Sometimes nothing is ever the same.
DROUGHT
    A telling face of the California drought is Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. The 11 thousand acre lake sits where the north and south forks of the 
 Kern River meet in Kern County outside Bakersfield.  The reservoir can hold 586 thousand acre feet of water. It is a fraction of that.

   The recreational activity has been devastated. 

  However fishermen find an advantage in their search, as do the
   campers who have the diminished lake to themselves. Those small white spots are RV's
   From the high Sierra, through the central valley and to the coast, Californians need rain and live with the consequence.
DUST UP IN PARADISE
  The amount of water is a concern, but something this seaside mountain village suffers no shortage is opinion.
   We're electing Community Service District board members. The Cambria Community Service District (CCSD) is "government" in this unincorporated village. Roads, public space, water and sewage are under CCSD care. Nominally the board oversees the function of the professional staff who in turn manage utilities and crews.
    Three years of drought now fuel the latest chapter in a decades long battle over water sources, village size and the protection of nature including the rare Monterey Pine forest. The election has prompted a water paranoia but that is not without some value. California's Governor Brown asked everyone to reduce water use by 20%. Cambrians are as ingenious and caring as they are opinionated. The village has reduced use by as much as 30-40%. 
     This new "water sensitivity" reveals how gallons can be saved or recycled. But while they do it, Cambrians grumble. Catching sink or bathwater and carrying buckets to irrigate landscaping or flush toilets is not what people want to do. Nor has this village of gardeners been anything but distressed by the toll of drought and restriction on their hobbies and passion.  
     Enter the "blue shirts" who have upped the ante in the old fight. They remind the village of the 1990's twist in the tale. Cambrians for Water (C4 H20) rally to support two incumbent members of the board by remembering  how a previous board had hooked up funding and the permitting for a desalination operation until a recall election tossed the board members and reversed the desal plans. This new group, an amalgam of residents, lot owners and business people have taken to wearing blue shirts bearing C4 H20. They've begun speaking at CSD meetings, writing letters to the editor, campaigning for the incumbents and working to marginalize and even vilify the opposition. The blue shirts say the challengers are only a vocal minority of "no growthers" or environmentalists who are, in part at least, responsible for the lack of water.
    The challengers and their supporters are an amalgam of another sort. They are activists who have challenged rate hikes, residents upset by the manner in which the CCSD board has functioned, people who believe the advent of a desalination plant would be a green light to development, environmentalists who seek to protect the forest and/or natural habitat, and citizens who put a greater value on the needs of residents than the needs of tourists and the businesses that do the commerce with them.
     The lines are not always clearly drawn and there are those with even conflicting values. No one doubts the need for water and most admit to being worried about it. Saying you are "for" water implies others are not, which is a bit disingenuous. It appears to me the difference is over the means by which to get and/or protect the resource and the length and cost to which to go to do so. But it is a season when people are not inclined to search for agreements, so they've divided and have aligned with candidates who share their view or something close to it. It is the practice of electoral politics, though in a village. And it is a village where everyone is rather convinced of the rightness of their own view.
     People here are, or have been, decision makers, leaders,   successful in careers. Cambrians are literate, studied, individualists, achievers, committed, active, eccentric and thus produce a rich field of opinions. The official population is around 6,000, but fewer year round residents. It is very much like a big high school.
     The incumbents have approved the building and financing of an emergency water system (EWS) utilizing a desalination of brackish water and treated waste water that has been pumped back into the ground and reprocessed. The blue shirts like this and want to return the two to the board of five. Cost of the EWS is estimated between $9-$13 million.
     The challengers question the escalating estimated costs and the delays in the operation date. They criticize the inconsistency of CCSD actions. (The board began by saying they wanted to allow more water hook ups so there could  be more home building, then observed a water emergency and imposed restrictions on use while they allowed a 24/7 pumping from a community well for use on gardens, some of that water was even commercialized, then it declared emergency levels in the wells and stopped the give-away and warned the community could run out of water.) One of the challengers questions the, wisdom, business practices and transparency of decisions. Another says current residents should come first, he opposes much growth and wants to see the approved forest management plan funded and put into effect.
     In a broader context it is also a battle between those who favor growth and building and those who oppose changes that will require more water or impact on the forest and nature. There are some who want to maintain the village pretty much as it is. Others want to sell or develop lots and build up the population. The state has said growth will be limited until a new water source is in place. Is the emergency treatment plant just for droughts and crisis or will it morph into a permanent operation? At what cost? That too is a dividing line. Is the water for residents, or tourists or how do you achieve a balance that is fair and equitable? That is another demarcation. Should the board use emergency water system funds to pay for a hired mouth piece? There's a lot of choosing sides in a village where interaction cuts across social groups, clubs, tennis, lawn-bowling and pickle ball courts, service organizations, coffee shops, supermarket, farmers market, the board walk, hiking trails, dog park, beach and the drug store.
      And there are all of those opinions and expertise. It's been a little loud. It's been a little touchy and we are finally near the home stretch for the November election, ironically a couple of days after the new brackish water desal emergency system is supposed to start delivering water.
     My bias is toward sustainability and affordability.  Several years ago my daughter Katherine launched my conversion to belief in sustainability. It is the only practical way forward. This village needs to determine what sustainability means in this area given to historic droughts. I advocate for a better system of rainwater diversion and capture, implementation of home gray-water conversion systems, long term large scale storage. We should explore systems of fog harvesting as we are blessed with an abundance of marine fog. Those would help, but they alone are not solutions. Figuring it out will take the hard work of determining what vision of Cambria we pursue. How large is big enough, how much water will that require, what will it cost, how do we pay to manage the forest, how important is the forest, what makes Cambria unique, how do we achieve a balance between all of the opinions? And I wonder, is anybody listening in such a process or are we be too busy opining?
      Ebola, ISIL, mid-term elections, the world series, and all of the other news of the day are being trumped here. I guess we have chosen to prioritize that which is closest to us, opinion first and foremost.


THROWBACK
NICARAGUA
   Earlier I posted on Gary Webb's reports on the CIA involvement in importing crack cocaine to fund the Contra War as depicted in the current film, Kill the Messenger. 
   December 1987, Leon Nicaragua the largest anti government rally and demonstration since the Sandinistas took control. This was during the height of the Contra war.
That is not an ammo belt over my shoulder, rather a battery belt that fed a camera and recorder.
    Getting home for Christmas.  Arrival at Andrews Air Force Base after flying with a US Congressional Delegation that had been in Nicaragua trying to get peace talks on track.

      See you down the trail.
     

5 comments:

  1. I remember one trip to California where we were following Morris Udall in his quixotic campaign for president. We got permission to shoot some film of him on a commercial airliner and I was trailing the cameraman with one of those battery belts over my shoulder. We got some very nervous looks from the other passengers.

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  2. We've been tinkering with gray water systems here since we bought and rebuilt this old farmhouse 34 years ago on what used to be Northern California prairie on a road few people ever heard of. Now it's suburbs and they're still building. We've had our well deepened to cope. But unless community leaders quit rubberstamping new developments and start including gray water systems in the building code, we'll suffer hydrologic embarrassment at the confluence of two rivers.

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  3. Your drought is one that will be felt places like mine, which has not drought, yet. I love your area, have many happy memories of time there.

    Your pictures in Nicaragua stirred memories of when I worked with Ortega's government....their health minister was someone I knew, and I helped set up a triage system for their ER's. I learned a lot, and came away with less support for them.

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  4. Ah yes, water, where is it? On the KSBY news the other night they were quoting one source saying that Lake Cachuma could be dry by next year. Imagine that? Recycle that? So try and gray-water system that bed of dirt! At least Santa Barbara does have a desal plant that IS useable if needed. That is despite the false information that is constantly put out by the vocal minority here in Cambria that wants to sabotage any efforts to get an adequate water supply.

    Those that want to "preserve" Cambria are not going to get their wish by restricting the water supply. The town cannot maintain its jewel box image without an adequate water supply. Cambria will not be Cambria without the Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill or the shops that need visitors to keep their doors open. That restaurant is already closing daily from 3 pm to 5 pm due to the water shortage.

    Regarding cost of water, as we use less water the coast per gallon will continue to increase due to fixed costs divided into less gallons used. If commercial usage is reduced further, there will be additional increased costs due to fixed costs that will not go away. If we use half of what we use now - not that that is a possibility, costs per gallon will DOUBLE. Take that information with you to the CCSD if you are newly elected (God forebid.). There is no savings left in conserving water further and besides, we have saved all we can save.

    I am not opposed to gray water systems but regarding gray water systems, in the recent county presentation at the CCSD meeting it was revealed that a substantial system of 500 gallons or more requires permitting. (Permitting these days can run $500 to sky is the limit.) When asked, the county representative stated that there are only FIVE (5) permitted gray water systems in San Luis Obispo County. The permit cost might be one reason why. Further problem with gray water and recycling is that if there is no water, there is no water to recycle or gray water to use. That is even a potential problem with the Cambria EWS. At least the EWS will be helpful until the extreme draught to end all droughts.

    Oh yeah, I have a blue shirt, too. You would be surprised to learn how many people are saying "enough is enough" whether they are wearing a blue shirt or not.. We want water and stop withholding our water as a means of controlling growth to the detriment and serious jeopardy of the well being of mainstream Cambrians. Go fight your growth somewhere else. Go to the planning commission.

    In a matter of days on November 4th we will get an idea what is ahead. It will either be a realistic hope of water in the future or forget about it. We will have no chance if drought conditions worsen. How would you like to be responsible for that? We have a couple of people that would not mind that at all. Two running for office and a half dozen more backing them.

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  5. WHAT'S WITH "ANONYMOUS"? YOU LIVE IN A SMALL TOWN WHERE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW EACH OTHER AND THEIR OPINIONS. PERHAPS IT'S BECAUSE YOU OFFER AS "FACTS" FALSITIES, NEARLY IN EVERY PARAGRAPH. ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY THE PACIFIC INSTITUTE IN OAKLAND, DESALINATED OCEAN WATER WILL COST 4 TO 5 TIMES AS MUCH PER GALLON AS THE CURRENT RATE. THE SANTA BARBARA DESAL PLANT HAS NEVER BEEN USED BECAUSE THEY SOLD THE WORKING MECHANISM YEARS AGO. THE VOCAL MINORITY SUPPORTING THE CHALLENGERS NEARLY ELECTED VALERIE BENTZ A FEW YEARS AGO (IF 39 PEOPLE HAD VOTED DIFFERENTLY. WITH A DESAL PLANT, CAMBRIA WILL NO LONGER BE THAT JEWEL YOU MENTION, BUT THOSE WHO OWN LOTS MIGHT BE RICHER. KEEP CAMBRIA CAMBRIA, NOT SOME VISION OF CARMEL-SOUTH.

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