Thanks Wes Womack at San Francisco Surfrider Chapter for the information about the oil spill.  He says:

I am getting dozens of emails today asking how Surfrider are going to help with the oil spill cleanup. I’ve also received word that parts of Ocean Beach already have oil in the water, so we’re recommending that everyone remain out of the water at OB for the time being.

I just talked to woman who is in charge of oil spill control at my work (BCDC), She is out at Fort Mason where all the involved agencies are meeting and working from. She told me to call the Coast Guard’s Public Info Line at (510) 772-8865. I left a message to see what environmental groups and the public can do to help. I also called the Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary office at (415) 561-6622. They are conducting surveys to see the damage of the spill (counting animals, taking water samples, ect).

The Farallones contact gave me the following information that we may want to pass on to others:

If people see oil in the water, they should call (985) 781-0804
If people see oiled wildlife, they should call (877) 823- 6926. The animals will be picked up and taken to a facility to be cared for.

As for beach clean-up, people have to be specially trained (HAZMAT) to conduct an oil spill clean-up. The beaches are closed for health and safety for the time being. But, I am sure that volunteers will be needed at some point. We should contact our volunteers when the professional clean-up crew or other agencies or groups need volunteers. As far as I can tell, they are not having the public help yet. I’ll let you know if i hear anything more.

For those of you who haven’t heard, a cargo ship hit the Bay Bridge yesterday (Wednesday 11/7/07), spilling 58,000 gallons of oil into SF Bay, 8,000 of which was contained at the ship by the CoastGuard. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez was 11 million gallons, so the spill is relatively small. The latest story I can find is here: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_739 9949?nclick_check=1.

Take special note that all beaches inside the mouth of the bay are posted and closed. The oil could spread to Ocean Beach by today or tomorrow.

The Coastguard are deploying all available satff to start the cleanup process. Our chapter have no formal plans for cleanup at this time. Technically our chapter focuses on Ocean Beach specifically, however if people want to get involved in the general cleanup, I suggest starting by contacting the CoastGuard. I can’t seem to find anything online pointing volunteers in any certain direction. Our core group are discussing scenarios that would involve cleanup of Ocean Beach if that becomes necessary in the next few days.

Most of all, be safe this weekend and keep an eye on the news, as the oil could potentially drift to Ocean Beach. And if Ft. Point and Dead Man’s are firing this weekend, you may need to give it a miss for your own safety. Spread the word!

There will be a special recycling dropoff at Farallone View School 250 LeConte & Kanoff, this Saturday, November 10, 9AM to 1PM The event is sponsored by. Montara Water and Sanitary District and Seacoast Disposal Company.

Accepted Items:

• Batteries      
• Cell phones, pagers    
• Fluorescent bulbs   
• Foam/Carpet/Styrofoam   
• Scrap metal, car parts   
• Tires (5)     
• Small fax and copy machines  
• Stereos, TV’s, VCR’s   
• Household appliances   
• Unpainted wood
• Printers, cartridges, cables  
• Computers, monitors, etc 

NOT Accepted:

• Antifreeze, motor oil
• Hazardous waste
• Pressure treated wood
• Pickup truck loads
• Paint
• Painted wood
• Sheetrock

Contact Seacoast Disposal at 650-355-8400 for a complete list. For questions Please Call 728-3545  Sponsored by

So I have called the Montara Water and Sewer district and got no return phone call, and I then emailed Kathryn Slater-Carter and Scott Boyd, and nobody will answer my simple question.  My question was, "I got my tax bill, I pay ~$800 for the bond, and another ~$700 for another MWSD charge that is not explained anywhere.  What is this charge and how is it calculated?" 

Ms Slater-Carter and Mr Boyd offered to meet me for coffee to discuss instead of simply answering the question.  I don’t have time to go meet them as I work over the hill.  ~5 years ago, when I originally was told that the MWSD purchase was going to save me money, I thought, "great, I pay too much to Cal-Am" as the sales pitch was for rate hikes to be eliminated, or minimized by Cal-Am not selling to the German company.  Now, including my monthly charges (of which about $15.- to $20.-/month is water), I pay over $200 EACH MONTH!  10% of my total monthly bill is for the actual water.

I know that there has been talk recently of raising rates.  A few months ago, a polite woman was asking people to sign a petition at the post office one Saturday.  She said that one of the MWSD directors was yelling at her earlier that morning, telling her that she, "Was ruining everything".  All she asked me to do was to sign a petition to prevent sewer rates from going up 35% or something like that.  I don’t know how accurate her story was, but I do know that I’m paying way too much for water and sewer, so part or maybe all of her story was accurate. 

Can anybody explain why we all pay so much?  I can’t get any answers from the MWSD people.  How much are rates going to keep going up?  I also don’t want to hear that I can deduct the bond from my taxes as I still have to pay it.

The Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) Board met Thursday, Nov 1. The district board is now recording and encoding its own meetings, making them available to the Coastside community. Click below for the meeting agenda.

Video produced and encoded by Scott Boyd and the Montara Water and Sanitary District.

Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go. Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter are friends of mine. I’ve known them as long as I have anyone in this community and I don’t know of anyone who is more dedicated to the future of the Midcoast or works harder to make our community a better place. We’re lucky to have their services on the board of the Montara Water and Sanitary District.

You can stop right here if you like. That’s reason enough to feel good about for voting for Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter. What follows is an angry rant.

The MWSD’s water supply is at the nexus of the development pressure on the Coastside. Developers, large landowners, and citizens who confuse growth with progress would like to see the district more focused on serving the needs of future residents than current residents. The Half Moon Bay Review is their newspaper.

And the Review has tried to blunt criticism of its candidate Richard Bulan by targeting Kathryn Slater-Carter.

An anonymous letter tipped the Review to the fact that Bulan, who is running on a campaign of fiscal responsibility "owed San Mateo County $19,562 in unpaid property taxes on his Moss Beach home until being confronted with evidence last week. He had also not paid $687.78 in MWSD property assessments over the last two years." The charges were true and they are a significant issue in this election.

What followed was even more revealing.  The Review investigated a charge from an anonymous poster in its TalkAbout forums that "Slater-Carter’s primary residence was in Incline Village, Nev. The poster questioned whether that would preclude Slater-Carter from running for office in California." Review reporter David Smydra checked out the allegation and discovered it was meritless, but the paper published the story under the disingenuous headline "Controversy surfaces over Slater-Carter residency". A more accurate headline would have been "Slater-Carter qualified to run for MWSD seat". But who would read that?

The next week, the Review revealed that Slater-Carter was 11 days behind in paying her Nevada property taxes of $2,433. This was presented under the headline "Slater-Carter owed taxes in Nevada", and featured an incendiary lead: "Montara Water and Sanitary District board member and current candidate Kathryn Slater-Carter recently owed delinquent taxes on her family’s vacation home in Incline Village, Nev., the Review confirmed Monday." The accurate headline?  "Slater-Carter pays Nevada taxes 11 days late".

The Review really likes Richard Bulan. They endorsed him before they found out about his tax problems, but they’re standing by their man. They’re also in a snit because Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter (understandably) chose not to attend the Review’s endorsement interview:

Montara Water and Sanitary District: This race turned nasty in the last few weeks after revelations that challenger Richard Bulan had fallen years behind on his local taxes, including the MWSD assessment. Incumbent Kathryn Slater-Carter later admitted that she had fallen behind on property taxes for a Nevada vacation home. Meanwhile, incumbents Slater-Carter and Scott Boyd ignored the Review’s repeated calls for an endorsement interview. We continue to back Bulan because we think some new blood would still be valuable on the board, but we were disappointed to learn a self-described fiscal watchdog had lost track of his tax bill.

Yes, the Review is still struggling to manufacture an equivalence between the tax issues of Bulan and Slater-Carter. It’s as if the editorial board only read the Review’s headlines and not David Smydra’s reporting.

Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter are experienced, dedicated to the community, independent, and the best candidates for the Montara Water and Sanitary District board.

NOTE: There’s a great discussion of the Review’s bias in the comments attached to this story, including important information about Kathryn Slater-Carter’s tax situation the paper declined to publish. Click the story headline or CLICK HERE to read and comment.

The Coastside has a huge swell of people every year during the pumpkin season and festival - and the beaches and highways pay for it, with trash littering the coast.
 
At the second annual Post Pumpkin Festival Beach Clean-up last Saturday, more than 40 volunteers spent the early hours cleaning up Montara State Beach.  The event was sponsored by the League for Coastside Protection.  The crowd of volunteers included two candidates for the Midcoast Community Council, Leonard Woren and Deborah Lardie.
 
The usual detritus of cigarette butts and Styrofoam was picked up, along with a few unusual,

• a surfboard, broken in pieces,
• three shoes,none of them matching
• a set of car keys, worn by the sea into something resembling metal sea glass
• a taped-up, used (of course) diaper
• a live, large antlered deer, which was hunkered down in one remote part of the beach.

 The male deer was the only stray thing not put in recycling or garbage bags.  The state park rangers picked up the trash bags during their usual routine.  The League thanks everyone who suited up, showed up and gave back to the community.

On Tuesday morning, the Montara Water and Sanitary District commissioned its latest water source, the Alta Vista well, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The Alta Vista well is located in the foothills of Montara Mountain, five miles and several valleys east of Devil’s Slide. At its peak level of service, the Montara Water and Sanitary District is confident it can provide 6.5 million gallons of water a month to customers.

That will almost meet the basic legal standards the district must achieve to both recover from its deficit and supply enough water for the fire district in case of emergencies, said district Board President Bob Ptacek.
...
"I’m assuming we’re going to have enough to serve the ones who are on the wells and the ones who develop," he said.

The new well will also enable the district to reduce the amount of water they extract from three other wells its customers rely on, situated under the Half Moon Bay Airport. The county owns the airport and charges the district $50,000 in extraction fees every year, according to Ptacek.
...
Ptacek says the district now hopes to make up the rest of its water deficit by drilling some wells along a Caltrans-owned strip of land southeast of Montara Mountain. State Assemblyman Gene Mullin will re-submit a bill he introduced last year to get the district permission to explore the area.

There are two videos (Ribbon Cutting and Water Flowing) of the new well’s opening on Montara Fog.

The Montara Water and Sanitary race has turned into the roughest, down and dirty contest on the Coastside this year. One candidate, framing himself and his campaign around issues of wise financial management was discovered (via anonymous tipster) not to have paid his taxes—including the portion that goes to MWSD—for two and a half years. Then, in apparent payback, a rival candidate was found (via anonymous tipster) to be a few weeks late on taxes on her second primary residence. I still don’t know what "second primary residence" means but it is legal, it seems.

But wait! That’s all about the horse race and nothing about the course. That’s what the old, traditional news sources do—put the excitement of campaigning up front and center and sort of forget to cover the very issues that are motivating people to fight so hard over a seemingly boring topic such as water.

Here we present each of the three candidates at the recent debate, hosted by the Midcoast Community Council. You’ll notice it is all about issues and nothing about scandal. That’s a good thing.

Opening Statements Quicktime | Flash |

We have now owned our water sanitary district for over four years. We do not have more water, more water storage, better taste, or better quality. What will you do to remedy this in the next one year? Quicktime | Flash |

In November, 2003, at the community meeting, the water district stated, "a water deficiency of 400,000 gallons per day." What would you do to solve this? Quicktime | Flash |

Do you strongly support sewer authority’s midcoast recycling program? Why or why not? Quicktime | Flash |

Would you commit yourself that, if elected, you will do everything within your ability to relieve the water moratorium within the next four years? Would you please consider the Alta-Vista well and county permits for wells in your response? Quicktime | Flash |

Closing Statements Quicktime | Flash |

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) will hold a Wildland Fire Management Policy study session on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 in Los Altos at 6:30pm on November 6, 2007. The meeting will be at the Los Altos Youth Center, 1 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos.

A panel comprising agency and consulting professionals experienced in wildland fire management will make presentations and discuss several issues that will help the District develop a fire policy.

You can download the discussion draft of the Pilarcitos Creek integrated watershed managment plan from Coastsider.