The Urgency Ordinance in Spring Valley, imposed by the Board of Supervisors a year ago, was contrived by the Special Districts, by conducting a “fire flow” test of the water system.
While I was recovering from an angiogram in the hospital, I was reading a water system analysis from CH2MHill, written by Jerry Dehn, Spring Valley”s engineer for the water system, dated Dec. 5, 2006. On page 5 under the “Fire Flow” section, it states, “Although the CSA is NOT required to provide fire flow to its users, expanding the system”s storage capacity to provide fire flow would be of benefit to the community…that would require a fire flow of 1000 gpm for two hours in accordance with CPUC fire protection standards.”
On the day of the alleged water emergency in Spring Valley last year, just such a fire flow test was conducted by the Special Districts, during a power outage that lasted until 1a.m. in the morning, despite the fact that the “fire flow” test was unnecessary, especially during a power outage. 120,000 gallons of water was running down our streets for two hours, which was 49.8% of the 241,000 gal. storage tank”s water, with no electricity to replace that water.
Despite this, there was still water about three-feet deep left in that tank when the power was turned on at 1 in the morning. No mention of any of this was made by the Special Districts administrator at the Urgency Ordinance hearing, and the Board of Supervisors blamed all the water usage on the residents of Spring Valley, and imposed the surcharge of $6 per 100 cu. ft. of water.
There was no real water emergency in Spring Valley on that day, and has not been a water emergency since that day, despite the fact that the Board of Supervisors violated their own building moratorium by allowing 31 more homes to be built, even though the system already had 100 more homes than the water system was supposed to handle.
If the unnecessary “fire flow” test had not been conducted, the water storage tank would have been almost 2/3 full during the so called “water emergency”, during a power outage that lasted all day into the night until 1 am. The Urgency Ordinance is based on a total fraud, and has illegally collected thousands of dollars in surcharges, that were created by a secret, phony, unnecessary test, that is not required in Spring Valley.
Every water customer should be refunded any surcharge they have paid, with interest, and a letter of apology. Mark Dellinger should be held accountable for not disclosing this fact at the Urgency Ordinance hearing, before the Board of Supervisors in 2006. This kind of corruption is inexcusable, and cannot go unanswered. The illegal surcharge caused financial hardship on some of our low income seniors, and is a criminal act, by collecting thousands of dollars, on an illegal fraud.
If the Board of Supervisors does not rescind the Urgency Ordinance, and refund all surcharge money collected, they will be complicit along with the Special Districts, for a criminal fraud, that endangered our lives and homes.
Don Scott
Clearlake Oaks
