By Don Scott ? letters to the editor
One year ago I was told I would no longer be allowed to speak at the Spring Valley Advisory Board meetings, by the Chairman of the Advisory Board, Jim Hershey. Recently, I spoke to Mr. Benoit, at the LAFCO Board, and he told me that is a violation of the Brown Act. Only the time allowed by those that speak can be subject to limits, every citizen is allowed to speak.
At the previous March, 2008 meeting, I read an e-mail from Supervisor Rushing admitting that the county”s claim to ownership of the Spring Valley roads and water system from Oct. 17, 2006, was totally without any merit whatsoever. In fact, it is owned by the Spring Valley property owners, just as I had been saying for 15 months. Since then, Supervisor Rushing has refused to allow any consideration of a plan to complete the water system at no cost to the Spring Valley property owners. That plan has already been installed for $1,000,000 at the Seven Feathers Casino in Oregon by a certified water engineer, James Bray. At that same meeting I proposed the plan by James Bray be considered, since it would cost the property owners not one red cent. The entire cost would be paid by a $1,000,000 grant from the state and I got a full round of applause.
I also spoke to Mark Dellinger a few days ago and I asked him if the $1,000,000 grant money was still available. He replied that it is. I also asked him if the engineer for CH2MHill”s $3,700,000 plan, which would not bring the water system up to full capacity, is a certified water engineer. He replied, “No, he is an electrical engineer, but he has people that work for him that know a lot about water.”
Since the water system and roads in Spring Valley belong to the property owners, we have the absolute right to choose how we want the water system and roads to be developed. Supervisor Rushing has usurped that right, just as her appointees have usurped my right to freedom of speech at the advisory board meetings, making those meetings unsafe for me to attend.
There is also the fact that the CH2MHill plan does not bring the water system to full capacity. That will cost another $3,700,000 or more. Not only that, but the plan Supervisor Rushing wants to install has no guarantee that it will even work. The principle that it is dependent upon is that slow sand filters, 18th century technology, from the days of George Washington, can somehow be made SCADA compatible. The state of the art water system uses rapid sand filters that regularly back-flush the particulates out of the filters into a sedimentation tank or pond.
If the Spring Valley property owners were allowed to choose, as is their right. The modern, state of the art, rapid sand filter system, that will cost them nothing, would definitely be installed. So, what is it that Supervisor Rushing, Mark Dellinger and the other supervisors are really up to?
Their plan will cost each property owner $12,000, every penny of which will be added to their water bills. It will eliminate the protection of the Homestead Act and cause many of the low income families with children, and low-income seniors, to lose their homes because of the predatory water rates imposed to pay for the system.
That is the only thing that this plan can actually accomplish; stealing the homes of the low-income residents. It certainly doesn”t fix the water system and that is all due to Supervisor Rushing, the other supervisors, Mark Dellinger and their appointees.
Don Scott
Clearlake Oaks
