Certificates of Compliance - Santa Barbara County

In Case Number 1265213 (Plaintiff- Kevin Frost v. Defendant- County of Santa Barbara), Judge James W. Brown entered a ruling in favor of the plaintiff on the matter of Certificates of Compliance. The ruling was filed on 30-April-2008. The four page ruling has a detailed summary of the history of certificates of compliance and the policies and practices of the county's surveyor and staff counsel.

Using reclaimed water in California- continued

More information about using reclaimed water can be found in the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission's staff report for the hearing on 09-Aug-2006 in Case No. 06TEX-00000-00009 and in the Environmental Document CEQA Section 15162/04NGD-00000-00021.

The tertiary treated waste water from the local sanitation district would be used for steam injection to recover oil from wells located north of Casmalia, CA.

Regional Water Quality Control Board -RWQCB

Information regarding the "Agricultural Regulatory Renewal" can be found at the website for the the regional office in San Luis Obispo, CA. Extensive material presented by staff and members of the public can be found at the Board’s website.

In addition to the draft policies and supporting material provided by RWQCB staff, the responses from the agricultural community add considerable depth and insight in the scope of the regulatory change. The public responses are labeled as "Group 1" through "Group 14". The only apparent way to figure out what is contained in each group is to scan through the letters, which range from one page to several pages. The response from the Grower-Shipper Association in Guadalupe can be found in Group 4 on pages 67-70.

Droid by Motorola

I went off the Apple reservation and got a Motorola Droid. I now have an HP-12c and a GPS locator installed. More coming soon...

There! Now, I have confessed and I can move on shamelessly.

Using reclaimed water in California

If a person would like to become more informed about the regulations covering the use of reclaimed water in California, it would be reasonable to try Google using the following search topics:

"Title 22", California code

At the RWQCB office, there are waste discharge requirements (WDRs) for effluent disposal by irrigation that are filed by the sanitation district.  The RWQCB has a compliance officer for each sanitation district in the Board's jurisdiction.  It is most likely going to be enlightening to learn more about the definition of "fresh water" under the California Code of Regulations.

RWQCB - Regional Water Quality Control Board - hearing 12-May-2010

The venue for the hearing was the Elk's Club in San Luis Obispo, California. The meeting was packed with standing room-only around the edges of the room. The parking lot looked like a herd of 4WD white pickups had been drawn to the site by a giant magnet.

The meeting included testimony from several public interest groups like Surfrider Foundation and others.  The rural community of San Jerardo Cooperative summarized their situation with a water well that is contaminated with nitrates. The San Jerardo Coop has received a grant to install a new well using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Some obvious questions were not asked by the sitting board members, like the size of the cooperative's property (33 acres) and the distance between their septic system and the existing (contaminated) wells. The speaker seemed to focus on the neighboring farm operations without addressing the cooperative's share of the responsibility for environmental quality.

Several farming groups and individual farmers presented testimony regarding the proposed changes to the agricultural waiver program.  One of the most compelling statements was presented by David Costa of Costa Family Farms based on Monterey County.  Mr.  Costa's presentation was just the plain simple facts about the costs and time needed to comply with the changes proposed by the RWQCB's staff.

Vacation in Kentucky

April 20-28, 2010-- Wonderful trip to the mid-south starting and stopping in St. Louis, MO.   The journey started with a refreshing Italian meal in The Hill district of St. Louis and wrapped up with a "concrete" frozen custard at Ted Drew's.

Entomology -the bug guide

BugGuide is an interesting online publication showing very good photos of insects and other crawling critters.

Santa Barbara County's Measure A Road Tax

Sometimes I wonder where the Measure A road tax funds went.  The streets are failing in Orcutt.   Now, my street is developing a series of sink holes along the course of the sewer line. Not being an engineer, I just wonder if someone can explain why the street is collapsing along this one line.

Just curious, you know.

Video LINK

Water Quality Conference

Rotary's Water Conference was held on 13-Feb-2010 at Cal Lutheran College. More to follow...

Snow Blast

Can you visualize 30 inches of snow (white, wet, cold) in Washington, D.C.? Wow! Sure is a good thing that global warming will ramp up and melt this stuff!
----Date line 2010-Jan-06

Moving the website

Ah, moving the website. What a hassle for the newbie. It is like dealing with muscle-man/desk clerk NameWithheld at the gym or the postal delivery person...very inflexible. Thinking and focus is strictly inside the box.

Snow on the upper Sisquoc Mountains

At 3:45 p.m., the sun light was just right to see the snow covered peaks on the upper Sisquoc Mountains. What a view! I was driving on Highway 101 and peaks just appeared south of Nipomo. In 25 years, I have never had that view! Just north of the race track from the south-bound lane of Hwy 101.... What a beautiful view of the snow!

Training

Today included seven hours of excellent training and the price per hour was good. Got the latest and greatest in nationwide policy.