CHEMICALS, CHEMICALS AND MORE CHEMICALS
Soquel Creek Water District Board approved the expensive contract for bulk delivery of many hazardous chemicals to the “Pure” Water Soquel treatment facility at the intersection of Chanticleer and Soquel Avenue in Live Oak.   It was on their consent agenda, and they did not discuss it.

See page 22 for a list of the nine chemicals for which Soquel Creek Water District’s “Pure” Water Soquel Project will require regular bulk delivery.

Neither the 2018 EIR, 2020 Addendum or 2021 Addendum ever analyzed the potential impacts on local roadways for these large and potentially hazardous truckloads of chemicals traveling on our highway and in the Live Oak Community, which is considered a Disadvantaged Community.

According to page 9 of this Invitation for Bid, the treatment facility is anticipated to start up on March 15, 2025, not the December or January date recently reported in local media

How will these large trucks navigate the sharp turn entry into the treatment facility driveway?  Hmmmm……  Stay tuned for necessary new traffic lights at that intersection, and hopefully no accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists at the new “whale” overcrossing immediate.

NEW COUNTY WELL ORDINANCE…FUTURE WELL PERMITS BECOME MORE RESTRICTED
If you or someone you know has a private well in certain “Areas of Concern” in the County, you no longer will be able to get a new, supplemental or replacement well permit.  Where are those restricted areas?  Take a look here at the areas marked in pink

Fairly well-hidden is the area around Soquel Creek Water District’s three injection wells, where 1.67million gallons of treated sewage water will be pressure-injected into the groundwater.  This effectively forces consolidation of the Pine Tree Lane Mutual and Bluff Mutual Water entities and other private wells in the area with Soquel Creek Water District.

Worse yet, there is no appeal process for any of the new well requirements or restrictions, or mandated reporting now approved. Read through the strikeout underline versions of this new hammer to private water rights. Well Ordinance Update

I wrote the County Water Advisory Commission this week about my concerns when the proposed Well Ordinance came for their blessing.  One  particular response from staff amazed me:
“Public trust values have priority over established water rights.”  Hmmm……..

Also, there is no appeals process included in the new well permitting ordinance, but staff claims that will come along later as policy.  What does that mean?

The Board of Supervisors approved this unanimously anyway.

FOR THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR, COUNTY WATER USE IS LOWEST SINCE 1984
Good news!  According to the 2024 Water Resources Status Report, water use by residents in the County is the lowest since recorded in 1984, for the second consecutive year.
Page 2 of 58

• For the second year in a row, total municipal water use reached its lowest level since
1984.

The draft Report was reviewed by the County Water Advisory Commission last Wednesday, and will next go to the Board of Supervisors.  That is what caused many in the City’s Water Commission to wonder how water use in the City could have increased by 22%.  Hmmmm…….

SANTA CRUZ CITY WATER RATES WILL LIKELY GO UP AGAIN
On December 9, the City Water Commission heard a thorough financial report from staff regarding the many capital improvement projects on the table with the goal of bridging an anticipated water supply gap of 500 million gallons/year by 2027.  Staff claimed water use increased 22%, a figure that caused some Commissioners to ponder why.

Staff ended with the thought that even though water use is up, the City is still not bringing in enough money to pay for the costs involved in the capital improvement projects and system operations. Therefore, they suggested that a new rate study is needed, and that the fixed rate could mirror what some water agencies in the State have increased by 45% or more.

FUTURE WATER FOR THE CITY WILL INCLUDE WATER FROM SCOTTS VALLEY AND TREATED SEWAGE WATER
The City Water Commission also heard an explanation of why staff has chosen “Portfolio #1” of potential water supply scenarios, weighting risks vs. costs.  This will include storing potable surface water in the aquifer when it is available, termed “Aquifer Storage & Recovery” or ASR, as well as sharing water with Scotts Valley Water District and also receiving treated sewage water from Soquel Creek Water District’s “Pure” Water Soquel Project.  Staff pointed out that the water from Soquel Creek Water District source is VERY expensive.

Interestingly, the greatest risks identified in the City’s use of water shared with Soquel Creek Water District are lack of agency agreement and public resistance.

The City would still consider desalination but the risk is permitting, and again, public resistance…based on the past Desal Alternatives public campaign that blocked a desal plant in 2013 with a citizen’s initiative to put the energy-intensive and environmentally problematic desalination project on hold.

I pointed out in testimony to the Commission that the Desal Alternatives action was before the energy and chemical-intensive option of making people drink recycled water (Direct Potable Reuse) or injecting it into the drinking water supply (Indirect Potable Reuse) was on the table.  I pointed out that over 100 comments made on the PureWater Soquel Project Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) were from the Desal Alternatives group, voicing concern about energy and environmental problems associated.

Commissioner David Baskin, who served on the initial City Water Supply Advisory Committee (WSAC) that met subsequently and developed the guidelines for the City’s future water supply projects, reminded staff and other Commissioners that “we wanted to do desal last!” with priority given to conservation incentives.

I testified that if the Desal Alternatives folks were quizzed now about the dilemma of desal vs. drinking treated sewage water, the opinion could be that desal would be preferable.  As I was being told that my time was up, I urged the Commission and staff to consider brackish wells at the sea coast, which would avoid the negative impacts on marine life that an open marine water intake would pose, and therefore, permitting would likely be much easier.

[Brackish Desalination Projects] I am not sure the Commission heard me…the Chair continued to tell me my time was up.

By the way, this City Water Commission meeting was held in the Downtown Library upstairs meeting room an hour after the library had closed.  No staff was at the door to allow Commissioners or members of the public in.  By a strange coincidence, the General Manager of Soquel Creek Water District was waiting inside the library lobby for another District staff member to arrive, and kindly let me in.

COMMENT NOW ON THE COUNTY’S EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN
If you care about what this County’s plan for emergency evacuation could look like, take a moment to look through the Draft County Emergency Operations Plan and send in your comment by December 16.
 OA Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) Base Plan.

Note that the Watsonville Airport is crucial in disasters…shouldn’t the County help pay for maintaining it?  Currently, that falls on the wallet of the City of Watsonville.

2.3.4.4 Air
The Watsonville Municipal Airport serves the general aviation community and
supports limited freight operations. The airport is the only fixed runway facility in
the county capable of handling large aircraft and is designated as an essential
facility in disaster response.
(page 52)

Please write the County Board of Supervisors and ask that they consider countywide funding of the airport in Watsonville.
Board of Supervisors (boardofsupervisors@santacruzcountyca.gov)

The Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience (OR3) is pleased to announce the draft Santa Cruz County Operational Area (OA) Evacuation Planning Appendix is now available for public review and comment from December 6, 2024 to December 16, 2024. Thank you to everyone who has contributed information, insights, and interviews to inform this current draft. (See link below)

The Evacuation Planning Appendix provides a framework for preparedness, response, and recovery operations related to a planned or spontaneous evacuation due to a natural, human-caused, or industrial emergency. This Appendix is a supplement to information within the OA Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) Base Plan.

Engaging with the “whole community” is an important aspect of our planning efforts at the County. We look forward to your constructive feedback, suggested revisions, and insights to refine and enhance the Appendix. Please feel free to share the draft widely.

Click the link to download a copy of the plan and submit feedback: Evacuation Planning Appendix

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to the safety and resilience of our community. Should you have any questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you!

Respectfully,

Amanda Gullings | Emergency Services Analyst (she/her)

amanda.gullings@santacruzcountyca.gov

831.454.3579 (O)

WHAT IS GOING ON UP THERE?
The large white golf-ball-like device on top of the County Sheriff Dept. has become a landmark for many, shared by the new pedestrian overcrossing on Highway One.  Two years ago, the people were told this weather radar equipment was 100% grant-funded, and  would provide publicly-available information about local storm activity and help in disaster preparedness.

Is that happening?

Recent correspondence with County staff has revealed that Public Works officials do not know much about the equipment and do not rely on it for storm activity affecting local rivers and streams.  They also did not know how to access any data that it might provide, instead relying on USGS stream gauges to monitor water levels during intense storms.

Better information came from another staff member, Antonella Gentile, and former flood control engineer at Public Works, Dr. Mark Strudley.

While we do utilize the radar system during storm monitoring, we are in the process of identifying long-term maintenance options for the radar system and funding sources for that maintenance.  One of the maintenance options is currently being pursued as a partnership with Scripps Institution at UC San Diego.  While a contract has not been negotiated with them, they are currently displaying the data from the radar and have plans to continue improving the interface.  You can view the interface here.  There is an archive tool available on the interface, but I do not think it is working yet, as the interface is still in development.  Real-time data is available during active weather, so tune in during the next rain event.  Please also try the dual-screen mode (button on the top of the radar display) to compare the data from the NWS radar to the County’s radar. 

The radar sensor covers inland areas within Santa Cruz County as well as the Monterey Bay and the north coast.  It is limited by the Santa Cruz Mountains, so the inland extent is somewhat less than the area within the circle shown below (snapshot from the map at AQPI Radar Viewer).  Select “Santa Cruz Reflectivity” or “Santa Cruz Rain Rate” from the layers icon on the map to see the circle and to monitor the data from our radar during wet weather.

Take a look at the data in the next storm and see what you think.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH CALIFORNIA’S BUDGET?
A recent Cal Matters Opinion Letter in the Sentinel really gave me pause.  I am worried about the mounting debt at all levels of government.  The article below should make us all pause and ask…who can we hold accountable?

“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Finance, based on one short-term spike in income taxes, projected that revenues from the state’s three largest sources would remain above $200 billion a year indefinitely.

Newsom then declared that the budget had a $97.5 billion surplus, although that number never appeared in any documents.

“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom bragged as he unveiled a 2022-23 fiscal year budget that topped $300 billion.

With that in mind, he and the Legislature adopted a budget with billions in new spending, most notably on health and welfare programs and cash payments to poor families.
Within a few weeks, Newsom and legislators learned that real revenues were falling well short of the rosy projections. But the damage, in terms of expanded spending, was done.

Two years later, buried in its fine print, the deficit-ridden 2024-25 budget acknowledged that sales taxes and personal and corporate income tax revenues would fall well short of the $200 billion a year projection, estimating a $165.1 billion shortfall over four years.

The Legislature’s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, unveiled his office’s annual overview of the state’s finances Wednesday and it wasn’t a pretty picture.

There’s been a recent uptick in personal income tax revenues thanks to wealthy investors’ stock market gains , some stemming from Donald Trump’s presidential victory. However, Petek said, government spending — much of it dating from 2022’s phony surplus — is continuing to outpace revenues from “a sluggish economy,” creating operating deficits.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, reacting to the analysis in a statement, indicated that he’s gotten the message.

“We need to show restraint with this year’s budget, because California must be prepared for any challenges, including ones from Washington,” Rivas said. “It’s not a moment for expanding programs, but for protecting and preserving services that truly benefit all Californians.”

Newsom will propose a 2025-26 budget in January, but no matter what he and the Legislature decide, the structural budget deficit will still be there when he exits the governorship in 2027. It will be part of his legacy”

California State Budget Error

THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY REGULATIONS TO KEEP TRACK OF!
Take a look at what I came across while doing some research.  What do you think?

11340. Legislative findings and declarations

The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) There has been an unprecedented growth in the number of administrative regulations in recent years.
(b) The language of many regulations is frequently unclear and unnecessarily complex, even when the complicated and technical nature of the subject matter is taken into account. The language is often confusing to the persons who must comply with the regulations.
(c) Substantial time and public funds have been spent in adopting regulations, the necessity for which has not been established.
(d) The imposition of prescriptive standards upon private persons and entities through regulations where the establishment of performance standards could reasonably be expected to produce the same result has placed an unnecessary burden on California citizens and discouraged innovation, research, and development of improved means of achieving desirable social goals.
(e) There exists no central office in state government with the power and duty to review regulations to ensure that they are written in a comprehensible manner, are authorized by statute, and are consistent with other law.
(f) Correcting the problems that have been caused by the unprecedented growth of regulations in California requires the direct involvement of the Legislature as well as that of the executive branch of state government.
(g) The complexity and lack of clarity in many regulations put small businesses, which do not have the resources to hire experts to assist them, at a distinct disadvantage.

AT&T PLANS TO ELIMINATE COPPER LANDLINES IN FIVE YEARS
Earlier this year, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors took AT&T leaders to task in a public meeting and defended the peoples’ need to have copper landline telephone service kept intact and operational.  AT&T had applied with their regulatory agency, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to drop all such landlines as a carrier of last resort.  Amazingly, the CPUC sided with the people and denied the AT&T request.

But now, AT&T has issued a five-year warning that they plan to drop these copper landlines. Stay tuned! MSN

A LAST LOOK AT THE APTOS VILLAGE PROJECT….REMEMBERING THE WORLD-FAMOUS POST OFFICE JUMPS
I have often wondered about how all the backroom deals behind the Aptos Village Project ever got pulled together, and what deals continue still.  The area used to be a haven for kids to ride their bikes in the world-famous Post Office Jumps.  But Swenson bulldozed it all away without permits and without a care for the youth.  Swenson also dug up a buried fuel tank and hauled it away in the middle of the night, telling County Environmental Health staff investigating the foul diesel air that the tank had been located in a different location than where it actually had been located.  But that soil was contaminated, too.  And the water going to the Soquel Creek Water District’ Granite Way Well adjacent and downstream gradient?   Well…..

Take a look below at recent photos.  There is nothing there for the kids anymore.

These homes are built on the area where the underground fuel tank was buried.

How can anyone ever imagine this fits the character of the neighborhood, namely, the Bayview Hotel?

The hillside seen to the right in the image is the “park” that Swenson will someday donate to the County, and for which the County granted free easement across the Aptos Village Park adjacent for the large drainage pipes to dump parking lot storm water into the Aptos Creek.

The road to Nisene Marks State Park from Granite Way is gone, removing a bike pump track for young kids, a parking area that made wonderful Community concert days in the Park disappear, and removing an emergency access for the neighorhood.

What a shame that the world-famous Post Office Bike Jumps are gone…

An Ode to the Aptos Post Office Jumps | A Half-Acre of Glory

LISTEN IN ON FRIDAYS
Every Friday, 2pm-4pm, I host an online radio program called “Community Matters”.  I hope you will listen in from your computer or smart device and call in to join discussions about local topics and interesting people who are actively working to improve our Community.  The Santa Cruz Voice platform was begun by a group who really felt it important to provide good local radio in a way that does not require alot of expense and regulation.

This Friday, Ms. Sarah Christensen, the new CEO of the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission (RTC),  will be my Guest.   What is the latest news on the rail trail and passenger train?

Listen in! santacruzvoice.com

THE IMPORTANCE OF CERTIFIED FARMERS MARKETS
Santa Cruz County is a bountiful and wonderful place to be.  Visiting the local farmers markets is a good way to find your healthy, locally-grown food and meet the folks who grew it for you.  Here is a good interview about our local farmers market network.  I think you will enjoy it!

A FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM MICHAEL OLSON 
If we are what we eat, then we are what is in those colorful packages of food that fill the shelves of the nations’ grocers.  But that is only the beginning of the story, because we are also what our food eats.  And that leads us to ask:

What does our food eat?

The Food Chain Radio Show & Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Catherine Barr, Executive Director, Monterey Bay Area Certified Farmers Markets, for a conversation about guaranteeing the authenticity of food.

Topics include a look at why California established a state-sponsored Certified Farmers Market Program; how the foods sold through the certified program are guaranteed to be from the farmers who sell the foods; and how the markets enforce the guarantee.

Show:  “Real Food from Real Farmers: Guaranteed!” (#1377)
Host: Michael Olson,  www.metrofarm.com: 
Sponsor:  TimeShare Media:

A TRIBUTE TO BRUCE
Since writing this contribution, I received the news that Bruce passed away in his sleep.  Though sad, it is a blessing.  I have thought of him so much since, and have felt honored to have known and worked together with him here.  Bruce spent alot of time trying to help me learn better, writing technique,  always stressing succinctness.  Well, that lesson is still in progress….

It was an honor to  learn from someone like Bruce who truly cared about our Community.  He told me about his work with the group in Operation Wilder back in the 1970’s, to stop the backroom deals that were spinning a plan to build 10,000 homes, a high-rise hotel, shopping center, conference center and seven acres of parking lot in the place where Wilder Ranch State Park is now.  We have Bruce and his dedicated crew of activists to thank….otherwise, that Park we all love and enjoy would be long gone.

Please join me in lighting a candle in honor of Bruce Bratton.  May he rest in peace with a life well-lived and a feisty spirit that lives on in the Community he loved and mentored.

Happy Winter Solstice,

Remember…

MAKE ONE CALL.  WRITE ONE LETTER.  ASK ELECTED OFFICIALS AND STAFF QUESTIONS AND EXPECT ANSWERS.
DO JUST ONE THING EVERY WEEK….YOU CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.

Cheers!
Becky