On Oct 25 we had a Harvest Potluck at Quarry Park Community Garden in recognition of our generous donors and everyone who made the garden come alive. 

We thanked Christa Bigue in honor of the Frank Stanley Beveridge Foundation. Christa is a board member of her great grandfather’s Foundation and awarded us with a generous donation for the garden.

A wonderful Old Time American Music band called the KJammers (Katherine Gardner,fiddle,Dan Kluger,banjo and Mark Kartman, guitar) volunteered to play for us. Their music was perfect for the warm autumn day, they play beautifully!

We all had a wonderful day, pumpkin carving, kids having fun and of course good food and music!

Thanks so much
Pam Manuel and Friends of Quarry Park

Paul Perkovic is President of the Montara Water and Sanitary District Board of Directors, but this article reflects his own understanding of Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside work on the Intertie Pipeline System and not the official position of the GSD or MWSD Boards.

"Put Community First", a Coastside political action committee, has been distributing last-minute campaign material that raises questions about the incumbent Granada Sanitary District (GSD) Board Members - Ric Lohman, Gael Erickson, and Leonard Woren.

Here are the questions, and my (unofficial) answers:

"Why do we still have polluted beaches?"

Since Carollo Engineers performed an extensive series of studies and analyses in 1998 and 1999, identifying problem areas in the Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) Intertie Pipeline System (IPS), the member agencies, including GSD, have completed improvements eliminating approximately 95% of the previous incidence of IPS sewage overflows.

In those rare instances in which spills still occur, their severity has been greatly reduced by the flow equalization storage capacity at the rehabilitated Walker Tank in Montara and through better sequencing of pump operations.

Much of the continuing pollution, especially in the Pillar Point Harbor area, seems to be coming from runoff into local creeks that drain into the harbor. GSD has invested in studies that show sanitary sewer overflows are not the problem.

UPDATE: Judy Taylor says that she has sent an correction to the original recipients of her email, saying in part "I was able to talk with the sewer plant management this morning and confirm that there is no connection and that the closures were a result of other causes." See this comments on this story for her full statement and a link to Jim Larimer’s original misleading article.

In the waning days of the 2009 election season, the challengers for the GSD board and their supporters have apparently decided that facts are not enough.

Placards have been added to at least four of the GSD challengers’ billboards declaring "Endorsed! HMB Review". That’s not even a half-truth. Write-in challenger Charlie Hall has been endorsed by the Review, but so have incumbents Gael Erickson and Ric Lohman. They’re on the other sign. The one without the endorsement claim.

The Review singled out challengers Bill Griffis and Lisa McCaffrey as potential puppets of development interests.

As if on cue to confirm the Review’s fears of pro-growth puppetry, Half Moon Bay Realtor Judy Taylor has been circulating a photo of a sign that the county has posted on unsafe beaches, claiming that GSD is responsible for the mess:

The above photo, taken 2 weeks ago, is the reason why the Granada Sanitary Election (Frenchman’s Creek to Clipper Ridge), this coming Tuesday, November 3rd, is so critical.  The incumbents have had 12 years to fix this problem and have not.  Our sewers are still polluting our beaches.  We need GSD Board Members who will address our most pressing needs.

Taylor suggests that GSD’s sewers are responsible for the current bacteria problem on local beaches. This is simply false. The county health department has trying for years to find the source, but it has turned out to be elusive.

Meanwhile, the GSD has a solution to the serious, unrelated problem of wet weather overflows. GSD’s solution is not only elegant, it preserves crucial El Granada green space. Pro-development forces have been trying to delay the project, putting the health and finances of the community at risk for political gain.

If you’re undecided about whom to vote for in Tuesday’s Granada Sanitary District election, this should be a clarifying moment.

A determined group of real estate and developer interests are trying to take over the Granada Sanitary District (GSD). They are stooping to despicable lies and smears against the incumbents. WE NEED YOUR HELP to preserve the Granada Sanitary District.

If you believe, as I do, that the GSD incumbents - Gael Erickson, Ric Lohman, and Leonard Woren - have done an outstanding job keeping GSD rates the lowest on the Coast, maintaining GSD infrastructure, cooperating to make recycled water available, protecting ratepayer investments, and working to prevent spills, it is critically important that you cast your votes for the incumbents.

PLEASE EMAIL THIS ARTICLE TO YOUR FRIENDS who will also support the GSD incumbents, and ask them to do the same.

This is likely to be a very low turnout election, so EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

At issue is a critical piece of infrastructure needed to protect our beaches, plus the very survival of GSD as an independent district serving its community.

The opposition wants to abandon the Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside’s (SAM) Wet Weather Flow Management Project that is well through the planning and engineering process. It will provide underground storage for excess wastewater flows during high flow periods, in a completely passive system not vulnerable to the frequent power outages we have during major storms. The current expected completion date is prior to the rainy season next winter.

Montara Fog has video of the Coastside Young Professionals’ city council candidates’ forum at Sam’s Chowderhouse on Thursday.

The questions, prepared in advance by the CYP, focused on issues of concern to younger residents of the coast including movie theaters and support for small businesses. Charnock suprised many in the audience by announcing at the start of the forum that there were to be no no questions on the Beachwood matter and suggested that answers should avoid the Beachwood issue as well.

Considering that this is the single most salient issue in the election and the future of the city, it’s startling that the topic was forbidden.

The City of Pacifica faces a $2.3 million fine imposed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) for discharge of partially treated sewage estimated at 6.9 million gallons into the Pacific Ocean during a rainstorm on January 25 and 26, 2008.

See the article headlined "Sewage spill costs Pacifica" by Julia Scott in the San Mateo County Times for Thursday, October 29, 2009 - available online at http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13664462 for the full story.

Midcoast residents may remember that storm also, because areas in Montara and Moss Beach were flooded. Fortunately, San Mateo County has completed stormwater drainage improvement projects in the Cedar Street and Harte Street vicinity in Montara, and several areas in Moss Beach, in time to prevent or reduce the severity of flooding in the coming rainy season.

Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) also had a spill resulting from that same rainstorm in 2008, but the improvements already completed in SAM’s Wet Weather Flow Management Program were able to capture and store 579,656 gallons that would otherwise have spilled within the SAM service area - at the treatment plant in Half Moon Bay, near Surfer’s Beach in El Granada, or at the old Montara wastewater treatment plant.

Prior to 1999, SAM was experiencing an average of ten spills per year from the Intertie Pipeline System (IPS), which collects sewage from within the City of Half Moon Bay, Granada Sanitary District, and Montara Water and Sanitary District for transport to the wastewater treatment plant in Half Moon Bay. After careful studies and consideration of cost-effective alternatives, the SAM member agencies agreed on improvements that currently provide 579,656 gallons of wet weather equalization storage within the system. These existing improvements prevent overflows in all but the most severe storms - down from an average of 10 per year to about 0.5 per year. It has been estimated that these existing improvements have already saved ratepayers approximately $1,323,473.58 in potential fines by the RWQCB.

Completion of the SAM Wet Weather Flow Management Program improvements should eliminate IPS overflows for storms with an intensity likely to recur only once every five years or longer, on average. SAM’s exposure to fines from the RWQCB will be significantly reduced once these improvements are completed.

Further details on the Wet Weather Flow Management Program can be found on the SAM website at http://www.samcleanswater.org/projects/PeerReviewReport-January2000.pdf which is a report summarizing the problem (as of 1999) and examining solutions.

For comparison with our recent storm on October 13, where 3.71 inches of rain was recorded at Montara and there was no overflow within the SAM IPS, the rainfall on January 25, 2008 totalled 4.06 inches and on January 26, 2008 was an additional 0.44 inches. Pacifica is closest to Montara of the SAM member agencies and has similar hilly topography, so the Montara rain gauge presents the best basis for comparison.

After consolidating two coastside fire districts and contracting out fire services to Cal Fire, the Caostside Fire Protection District should be on the mend.

Instead, the firefighters are continuing their war for control of the board by spending heavily to support three challengers for the open seats on the board. This is the second election in a row where the firefighters have pulled out all the stops to gain control of the district.

Coastsider endorses the three incumbent board members: Gary Burke, Ginny McShane, and Jeffrey B. Cockrell—so that district taxpayers, and not the firefighters, will control district policy.

If the firefighters’ candidates win this time, not only will a majority of the board have a conflict of interest with the taxpayers, the Cal Fire contract (which puts a protective barrier between the board and firehouse politics) will be at risk.

Our firefighters work hard and take risks to to protect our lives and our homes. They deserve our respect, a good contract, and excellent management. But they should not get to write their own contract.

The union-backed candidates claim that the incumbents have "given State Control of your Fire Department".  The truth is that for the first time in a long time, the taxpayers have control of the fire department. Vote for the incumbents if you want to maintain control.

If water weren’t a proxy for the development wars on the Coastside, it would still be controversial. It’s precious, the demand is growing, the supply is static, and climate change puts what supply we have at risk.

The Coastside County Water District (CCWD) has enough on its plate without the district picking fights with everyone else on the Coastside.

Coastsider endorses James "Jay" Johnson for CCWD board. Johnson is intelligent, qualified, reasonable, and independent. He’s a political newcomer who’s interested in public service. He’d shake up the cozy consensus in Coastside’s most aggressive public agency.

When you look at CCWD’s efforts to control recycled water on the Coastside, commitment to use recycling to increase (rather than mitigate) development, offer to supply water to a huge and controversial development outside the district, desire to expand their authority to the sewer and water districts they don’t control on the Midcoast, and struggle against the authority of the Coastal Commission, you wonder how they have time to meet the needs of their ratepayers at a reasonable price. Of all the districts on the Coastside, CCWD is the only one that seems to envision itself as an empire on the move.

At the same time, the district faces supply uncertainty and rising prices for the water it buys from Hetch Hetchy, as well as local supply issues due to climate change and planned growth. And then there is the fact that CCWD has more than doubled water rates in less than ten years.

Like I said, you’d think they’d be content to supply water to their customers.

Incumbent Chris Mickelsen’s anonymous hate mail to a member of the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission is symptomatic of CCWD’s aggressive approach toward people who don’t share its vision.

Your best chance for change on the CCWD is to cast a single vote for Jay Johnson even though there are two open seats.  If you want to cast a second vote, you should vote for Jerry Donovan.