And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: "Ruth Lopez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Inform" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: $Rate Increase--Needles Rate Payers get dumped on Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 17:07:32 -0700 PARD Bulletin NEEDLES NEWS Bulletin geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5162 members.tripod.com/Needles_News September 8, 1999 Needles Utility Board member, Bill Claypool, convinced officials to approve a rate increase of 2.1%. (He based this upon something he read about this amount being the "cost of living" increase this year). I told him that I would not be surprised if Needles people boycotted his True Value Hardware store (Claypool's) and that they could probably save 2.1% by shopping at Walmart. I told him that the City never passed on the savings when they deregulated and were able to buy electric over open market for .5 (1/2) cent and that they were gouging the rate payers who are already suffering because they must pay almost 20 times this amount or 9.309 cents per Kilowatt hour. (Readers: please inform us as to how much your utility company charges you for electricity. Remember, we use expensive air conditioners here all summer long). The contaminated sewerage waste dumping in the River was not on the agenda, at the same Utility board meeting, held yesterday, but the violation came up in the City Manager's report. They did not admit that the need to raise rates was directly related to the fact that they now have to pay a $10,000 fine from releasing almost 300,000 gallons of UNdisinfected sewerage into the Colorado River. The Utility Board Chair, Bruce Weekly claimed he was unaware of the legal notice and apparently was first informed at the utility board meeting yesterday when I brought the subject up under public comment. Bruce should be upset that the Utility Board was not immediately informed but instead he made an excuse related to "parts per million" using the total amount of river water as the mixer!!! Does a cover up surprise anyone knowing how angry the Ratepayers would be that they are the ones that get stuck with the cost of liability? The City of Needles subjected the Needles rate payers to! ! a p otential liability of almost $3 MILLION dollars ($10. per gallon). The Water Board said Needles' pays only $10,000 took Needles' ability to pay into consideration. BUT Tom Parry told the Utility Board yesterday that the low fine amount imposed was because the Board considered how much water in the river that the sewage mixed with ...but I did not believe him, as I did not see this factor in the Board's calculation anywhere...and I have a copy of their statement/complaint. To my knowledge, it is illegal to dump UNdisinfected sewerage waste in the River no matter how many parts per million it is. Once again, it appears that Parry and others (as in one of the letters that follow) are trying to downplay the serious health and safety consequences that resulted from the waste being dumped in the River. (By the way, in the discussion of the black water we are paying for as our City drinking water, Utility Board member Peter Dwyer informs us that he is satisfied with the City water he drinks.) By pointing at what other cities or the casinos are doing does not correct what Needles did. It is all unhealthy and if Bullhead and/or the casinos are dumping contaminated waste into the River, then the people need to coalesce to stop them from doing this. Here are the emails I received regarding contaminated sewage waste dumping in the Colorado River by the City of Needles and my response. -----Original Message----- To: Ruth Lopez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 5:08 PM Subject: Let's not blame Needles >Don't ya think it's kinda funny That this should pop up here? >We should be ashamed of ourselves blaming poooooooooorrrrrr Needles. > >Name of author withheld. Here is another email...Whoever sent this, it would be extremely helpful if you had some hard data/facts to support these conjectures. Do you have any documentation of casino spills, dumpings, etc??? You say we would be surprised, please tell us how much the casinos dump and I'd expose them just like I exposed what Needles did. I gave you the facts about Needles as reported by the Water Board, and the City is not arguing with these facts. Please give us some hard cold facts. ">Interesting: Has anyone looked at all the CASINO's and how much sewage they >dump into the river!!!! You might be surprised on just how much they dump. >Most likely about 100 times the amount of the city of Needles. Looks like >the Casino's have been able to blame a city for the dumping so the taxpayer's have to pay the fines. Let's look at those Casino's and you would be surprised how a fine of 2 million can be payed by them, especially when they to dunp tons of waste in the river each year. So before we prejudge a city and point a finger so that the blame causes tax payer, lets re-evaluate who is realy causing the most harm!!!" (No authors name given) Here is another letter: "Hi Ruth, "Have missed your intelligent and vital emails lately. This situation is outrageous. "Living in Santa Barbara County, with most of our beaches frequently closed due to effluence, I sympathize hugely with your point-of-view. I hope your community makes a very loud statement of complaint. We have a diminished fishing industry and many sick folks who have swum in these polluted waters, and still no answers. "Certainly, when the city fathers and mothers are up re election, vote the scum out, literally and figuratively. "Best Wishes," (Authors name withheld) Another email: "At the very least he should have let the Needles residents know. Do you think if you were swimming 100 yards down stream from the discharge that you could of gotten sick? I do. I wonder where Tom got his degree on bacterial contamination? If the spill is of minimal consequence why could the state have imposed a 2.7 million dollar fine? Some thing stinks and I don't mean sewage." Authors name withheld. Here is my favorite email: "Ruth, "Can you answer this question? What can we do?" (Author's name withheld.) Here is my answer: Thank you for asking!!! I think that is one of the nicest questions I have ever heard! It is so far for us to show up at those water board meetings in Palm Desert. It is unreasonable for us to be forced to travel four hours for meetings regarding the river that runs through our town. The location of the meetings needs to be changed and moved to some place on the River. Meanwhile, #1 I'd like to see allot of people at the water board meeting on September 16, 1999 8:30 a.m. City Council Chambers, City of Palm Desert, 73-500 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92260. Not only is the Needles Civil Liability Complaint for Failure to meet the requirements of the Board Order No. 99-002, but also another important item: The Kaiser Ventures, Eagle Mountain dump project is also on the agenda 99-061, Regarding the Waste Discharge Requirements for the Landfill. Waste Discharge requirements is a potential way to stop this irresponsible dump project from being permitted. People who are making a living from agriculture, like Donna Charpied, (she's been fighting Kaiser and Riverside County for years) will be glad to see people who are interested in Conscientious and responsible disposal of Kaiser waste rather than the planned dumping in a leaky rock quarry. Further, there are two other Colorado River water districts which have allegedly falsified sanitation district records or monitoring records and these issues are on the agenda. These water districts must think that the Regional Water Quality Control Board is just going to slap them on the wrist, which is what they have been doing I think. This needs to change. We need trustworthy regulators in the field, watching what is going on. WE need fines that mean something to the municipalities and districts which are violating the law and we need to enforce existing laws against situations like the illegal pipeline from the Needles sewer plant whereby, are made, releases of UNdisinfected sewage directly to the mixing zone of the Colorado River. We went snorkeling and to our horror the river was littered with toilet paper, bottles, cans and scum. My neighbor caught a catfish full of worm like parasites downstream from the pipeline. I am informed that last Sunday the Methodist had a picnic at the Jack Smith park but that the children were told not to swim in the River. My husband brought our dog home after going to the river yesterday afternoon. The dog had been fetching in the river and he wreaked of a deathly fowl odor that was like something I have never smelled before, and I was raised on a dairy. These are just a few of the things I have heard in the past week. There are probably hundreds of similar stories floating around out there. We have a new Governor now. It is his job to make appointments. I'd like to see some changes on the Colorado River Regional Water Quality Control Board. This is a state board and the board members are to be appointed. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
