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Revised 8-13-96
By Howard Carlip © 8-13-96
Note this was delivered in part at the May 8 Town Council meeting with The Water Quality Board. 100 copies were passed out to the community. Lillian Smith refused to print it.
Good Evening, I'm Howard Carlip - a member of the Town Council Water Committee, speaking tonight as an individual. There seems to be a number of unanswered questions concerning the UC Riverside report.
The most glaring omissions seem to pop up in Chapter 3. As every one learned in beginning science class in Junior High School (not the school in this town) the only way to prove your data was to compare your test results with non-contaminated or "control" samples. For this study you need "pristine" water.
Although the data is complex and the UC Researchers made a good effort to analyze it through different types of tests, they have not proved their contentions. In Chapter 3-8, they state, under the heading "pristine site, that this final site proved to be most elusive. This site was to planned to represent "pristine" natural conditions in the Sierra Pelona Valley. Because of the long history of agricultural, animal use, and residential uses in the alluvial portions of the valley, they said it was difficult to find an accessible site with sufficient alluvium to make drilling worthwhile." The UC researchers go on to explain that the Air Park was suggested by their Project Manager, and that the area met the requirements as the only pristine site in town".
What chaps my hide is that in the previous paragraph (Drill Site 4) they explain that the "pig farm" site was located "somewhat northeast of the Air Park in an unpopulated valley." Try the phrase: "butting right up to the Air Park property", not somewhere unknown to the North in some mysterious "fog-shrouded" glen.
What is also "fungusing my dock" is the fact that there were members of the Technical Committee from this community who did not disclose to the Riverside group their previous knowledge of the Pig Farm and other animal dump sites upstream from their test areas. These sites were well documented in other past studies in the last 15 years. These advisors concluded that this information about the animal dump sites was not important and that the Air Park area was clean and this would have proved their data, if only they could get permission from the owner of the property. He declined.
Wait! The Tick ain't full yet! Even after the group, using their own tests, discovered the Pig Site, they did not choose to look elsewhere for a pristine site. They chose another approach, namely rock and soil tests. Of course, they still took rock and soil samples from the area near the Air Park property.
If you look at their charts of the area, you can see that even though they worked in this area for over two years, they could not find one area of land that was uninhabited. Now you must understand, I have only lived in Agua Dulce for a year but by reading their maps I would conclude that the extreme north-east area of the basin would be a good place to start looking. They, however, picked a spot in the North, the Fire station and below a number of residences (DS 2). They could have looked in the south-west near Saddle Peak with the Indian Maiden or in the Davenport area with the other Indian Maiden for a pristine area. No one appears to have checked there. Let's go west, young men and women. We also have an area to the West of the Quail Trail development on Darling Road that is uninhabited except for one guy living in a trailer with his dog. Could he be the one causing all this trouble? A Posse will be formed after the meeting. Please take the womenfolk and children home.
From this I would conclude that the water committee and the UC researchers were misdirected by some members of the community, or else the data was written to fit a preconceived conclusion that only sewers and a water system would fix the problem. Oh, by the way, the state and LA County won't quote us any figures, but looking up estimates in other community projects, we're looking at from $30,000 to $100,000 per parcel for sewers. Remember, you have to also add in the costs of the pipes in the side streets and up the driveways on your 2 and a half acres. Plus, you will have higher property tax bills and you'll have a water bill and sewer bill every month.
Paranoia? I think not! After you get the bills and they have put a 30-year lien on your house, try selling it. Look what's happened to Sierra Colony. All of us who own property know how interest adds to your total mortgage. Add a $100,000 lien on your house and then amortize it. It adds about a $1,000 a month to the bill.
So what happens? After half the town freaks out, defaults and leaves, our good old neighborhood group - "The Friends of the Coal Miner's Daughter" - will come into town and offer to the remaining residents that if they scrap the Community Standards District, and re-zone to less than 1 acre, everyone left will be able to keep their homes. Here comes Condo's, bye bye horseys. Remember, the San Fernando Valley used to have lots of horses, but not any more. That's why we moved here to Agua Dulce.
Wait! That's nothing! Here comes the really scary part! The Sand and Gravel interests, who by their own admission have spent $250,000 on lobbyists in Agua Dulce, have their own plans for this town of ours. The Town Council has received a copy of the CalMat Surface Mining project application where CalMat proposes to process rock and gravel from 1,950 acres the straddles Agua Dulce Canyon Road north of Soledad Canyon. They need from 800 to 1,000 gallons of water per minute, 24 hours a day for 30 years, for their operation. They admit that they have insufficient water on their site and can only pump about 350-400 gals/min from the site. They can't get a water extraction permit from the State to pump from the Santa Clara River. So, where else can they make up the water? Their application provides the answer: the proposed Agua Dulce Regional Sewer Disposal Plant.
Also they will be blasting up to 16 hours a day for 30 years. Then (330 trucks X 2 trips - in and out) 600 trucks will run up the newly widened Agua Dulce Canyon Road 24 hours a day, and there will be lights all night long. Top this off by noting that this occurring in a Significant Ecological Area(SEA) as designated by LA county. If you think Agua Dulce is dusty now, try breathing all the dust later. The 4th of July will be very boring 365 days a year. Look it up if you want, I didn't make it up. After 184 million tons of mountain are removed, this will leave 78.5 million tons of "fines" left at the site. (Visualize a sheet of Drywall-solid calcium carbonate- and Talcum powder - powdered calcium carbonate! Which do you think will dissolve faster in water?)
Where's the Beef? What CalMat has failed to mention in their application is that when they water this sand and gravel to keep the dust down, they will be releasing all of the nitrates trapped in the rock into the Santa Clara river. Then they intend to take these 78.5 million tons of fines and compact it into a development site for low-cost housing. Then I guess we'll get that new high school we keep hearing about. Now wait! What do I tell my little girls. Are Red Bandana's for the crips or for the bloods? Or are the Skin heads racist this week or do they just want to see what they'll look like in 50 years?
By the way, the Chamber of Commerce (Dick Lang) had chosen for the new high school site, the old SOS dump site, which is now recognized as a toxic waste site by the Federal EPA. Even if he got it for us free he would have overpaid
Back to the UC Report. The researchers tried a new test - isotopes - as a means of identifying different types of nitrates. Then they use this test to prove what nitrate types are in the water. Sounds good to me! They base most of their case on these isotopes in order to prove that septic tanks cause the water contamination. But if you read further (5-15) you see that something is starting to smell funny. QUOTE: "Because of the complex array of chemical and physical processes in which nitrogen participates, isotope "fingerprints" are rarely well defined, instead appearing as a range of composites described best by a statistical probability." Now you know where the expression "I'll bet the house on it" comes from. I bet that new fangled isotope reading machine weren't cheap, by doggie!
Back to the Pig Farm. I hope you liked the Slide Show! OK! I see them coming around the mountain - here they come. It's the Riverside students and they finally discovered the pig farm. Here's what they have to say about their tests there: "these values fall clearly within the range of sewage/manure nitrate concentrations at this site appear high at the surface, decrease markedly with increasing depth to about 17 feet, below which it again increases markedly."
Boy, you city folks slay me. Only you could stand in a pig farm 10 acres wide, up to your elbows, and say it smells like human waste. Ah, that country air!
The congregation will now turn in your prayer books to chapter 5-25 and join with me in song. Oh my god, the tax payers spent $230,009.00 that should have gone to schools and hospitals on this study - they overpaid by $230,000.00. Can I get an amen! Lord, have mercy!
Since I am a professional farmer with a decent grasp of soil chemistry and science, I had my well tested before I moved here. The lab found that there was a super high concentration of chlorine naturally occurring in the water. In LA City they have to add chlorine to their water to get their water to 40 parts per million, mine came in at 80 parts per million. These chorines keep our water tanks clean and the water tasty. This might also explain why no one gets sick in Agua Dulce from drinking the nasty, dirty water.
I heard a rumor that you guys on the water board thought we were drinking bottled water so we wouldn't be poisoned? True?
My lab also reported my water had a high level of calcium "which my body needs anyway."
A side note: it would be preferable if in the future half of all the water tests are taken from pristine sites, not from rock and soil tests that contain clay and other junk in the adobe cement that we call topsoil. Then we would be dealing with science fact, not science fiction.
I want to mention that a lot of people contributed to my talk tonight, too many to mention. Well, OK, I will! Thanks to Linda Kirk who kept saying "We don't have a problem." It's that damned report." Thanks to Peg Spry and Tana Lampton, my favorite Gal-Pal - the keeper of the Vasquez Rocks. By the way, the Vasquez Rocks wells are at the legal top levels of nitrates. So I don't think they'll be adding that museum, equestrian center, library and basketball courts and plenty of parking and free Rock Art for the Kiddies at the Park. These are all good projects, but they're going to have to put them somewhere else. I have always thought that the runway made a totally bitchin' skate board ramp, dude. Hey, I just solved another problem. Now they can sell the Airpark to the Chamber of Commerce. Dick Lang, are you listening? Finder's fee! Thanks also to Jack and Mary Wyle who are our couple of the year. Thanks also to the man you love to pick on - Charles Brink. Say what you want about his personal antics, but when he sticks to the facts, there is none sharper or more dedicated to preserving our rural lifestyle. He's undoubtedly one of the smartest people I have ever met, "and I've been with the professors, and they all liked my looks" - Bob Dylan. Oh, and by the way, I wrote this report myself; I'm not someone's puppet or a paid lobbyist.
When I moved to Agua Dulce, I heard a lot of stories about almost everyone in this room, and I didn't know what to believe. But believe this, the people you're hearing tonight are the people who do all of the work to preserve this town from the outsiders and the greedy. Thanks to the Water Committee and to the Town Council, the only mechanism for true representation.
Disclaimer: If the TAC committee finds errors in my data, it's to be expected. They've had 3 years for their report. I did this in 6 days and tomorrow I'll rest.
Now Class, the chemistry section. Bored yet? Need to go to the lavatory! You can't! You'll pollute our water.
Closed volcanic basins - like the Sierra Pelona Drainage Basin - are known to contain evaporates which contain Sal Ammoniac and Soda Niter. (Seward Engineering Geology Report, 5/15/89) Sal ammonia or ammonium chloride contains 66 % chlorine and 26 % nitrogen. It is soluble in water and hygroscopic - which means it pulls water out of the air and bonds with the surface crystals to make a soft paste. This paste doesn't dry out in desert climates. It will stay relatively fresh in wet crystal form rather than drying out and solidifying into a rock - making it non-soluble. It is also described as strongly endothermic which means it is formed with the absorption of heat. That means that there will always be a new source of nitrates being constantly formed by natural chemical activity every summer, just so that it will wash out into our water table every time we have a big rain. Ah Ha! We have found the source of the naturally occurring nitrates. Yes, that elusive butterfly in the report, although they seem to think that it makes up possibly 50 % of our nitrate situation.
Now add the other element occurring in volcanic rock. Soda Niter or Sodium Nitrate (NNaO3) N 16.5%, Na 27%. It is described as deliquescent powder or granules, which means it undergoes gradual dissolution and liquification by the attraction and absorption of moisture from the air (Merck Index). It too is very soluble in water.
Now add these two elements together and a lot of cloud bursts, quickly moving running water off the hills and you've get high level liquid nitrates instantly. Don't believe me! The entire Riverside Report analysis and conclusion is based on the winter of 1992/1993 rains, as proof that nitrate levels are constantly going up and we need sewers and pipes. They took these tests after a 50 year rain (4-7). The UC researchers completely ignored the published data from the past 30 years showing that the levels of nitrates on average are not rising . So why is everyone crying that the sky is falling?
Many of us in the community will volunteer to have our wells tested again and have the results compiled with the help of the Town Council and the Water Committee. Of course, that's after we weed out those who work for the Mining companies. Surprised! I'm not! They're all here tonight!
The water committee spent months looking at different data and compiling ideas and suggestions from the community for mitigation efforts. These ideas ran the gamut from wishy-washy to well-thought out suggestions. We can't place all of the blame on the state, the county and the university, because we are responsible, too. We have some solid, creative ideas for our problems. For instance, we have contacted an organic grower's cooperative in Fillmore that starts out needing 6,000 tons of horse manure a year. From there they will spread across the Fillmore, Santa Paula and Santa Barbara areas soon taking not only Agua Dulce's output, but Acton's and others too! Horse manure will replace chemical fertilizers that really pollute the water. We are also exploring a new septic tank design for future construction, and the possibility that biological enzymes will be available soon to breakdown nitrates. We'll need some help getting the proper authorities to have the animal dump sites cleaned up and government enforcement of existing codes.
These are the sort of projects that we would like to work with the State and the County on. These ideas will be our future, unless our government has already decided that we need to sewer and water pipe the whole United States. We are the first test case town. We don't want to lose our homes. There are a lot of people waiting in the wings hoping we'll stumble on this. They'll even try to force the issue. Watch our town and see what we can achieve positively. Please work with the water committee and the Town Council to find a solution that all of us can live with.
I'm Howard Carlip - Orchid Grower - and I'll be running for Town Council this November. Yes, there will still be a Town Council in November. Thank you!
Thank you.
Howard Carlip
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