Laguna Beach 95,000 Gallon Sewer Spill On 11/27/2023: How You Can Help

CLEAN WATER NOW PRESS RELEASE

December 1, 2023 Laguna Beach CA

CWN anticipates that, predictably pro forma, the City will "fudge" in its spill report to the OC Health Care Agency (OCHCA) and San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (SDRWQCB), allege that little if any oceanic ecological damage occurred.

Like chronic driving scofflaws, pulled over, they'll low-ball the incident's basic detrimental eco-factors too, trying to pay the least amount, get the media to move on, vacate from publications sooner.

Little known is that some poor schlub, some high echelon employee will sign that report under penalty of perjury, and there is a serious $$$ fine and jail time if caught. All too often, ONLY when caught, they file "amended reports" to cover their asses because there's a brief grace period.

That employee is basically high up enough to impress but expendable, replaceable, it allows for the City Manager and/or City Council"plausible deniability membrane" and creates a public relations scapegoat.

First Ask: CWN asks that you consider taking a few minutes and write a letter to the editor (LTE) of local media, or post the link to this PR in your SM accounts, expressing, sharing your outrage with your friends and neighbors.

If you're not afraid of a microphone and podium, come to the next regularly scheduled LBCC meeting on December 12th, convening at 5 pm. Give 'em Hell, an earful in front of media and TV viewers, i.e., lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels worth.

We're providing some information herein to assist you in organizing while remaining factual, focused.

We helped break this story as soon as we viewed the LB PATCH PushAlert/Notification @ 10:37 am, however, the initial report hit OCHCA's desks @ 8:19 am. So for over 2 hours no one in the general public were aware of the incident, that's a lot of unacceptable lag time considering the health and safety issues, isn't it?

We've been in constant communication with local media, plus the enforcement division of the SDRWQCB ever since.

Second Ask: Violators are on a self-reporting path (fox guarding the henhouse), the SDRWQCB has no choice but accept the volume numbers and duration. Combined, they constitute a rough idea of how much staff time will be needed to budget, to justify enforcement investigations. Larger the spill, the more time eaten up. Duh!

Another metric in Assessed Civil Liability (ACL) $$$ fines and other subsequent, related sanctions are the reporting/responsible local lead agency's projected impacts to surrounding habitat: In this case due to proximity conditions, that would be tidal and near tidal marine aquatic specie invertebrates (mollusks, octopi, starfish etc.) and crustaceans (crab and lobster).

Chronic violators of the US Clean Water Act or California's Porter-Cologne Act often under-report, under "guesstimate" amounts and impacts to soften that first punishing, mass publicized blow.

One has to wonder: How long did it take before warning signs were posted, initially closing the beaches from Blue Lagoon to the Hotel Laguna? Filed with OCHCA @ 8:19 am, it's possible that unaware seaside strollers, local or visiting moms and dads with kids, local skimmers, scuba divers and surfers weren't cognizant of the hazards, walked or swam through this s**t.

Today, there's no excuse for NOT having a PushAlert (akin to an Amber Alert) System in place, like we do for flash flood, fire or tsunami advisories. You sign up your cell and get robo-called plus texted. WTF, warnings in an advanced electronics society is no longer "rocket science," why don't we already have that?

This area, at/near the Bluebird Sewage Pump Station, if memory serves, has had at least 3 prior spills, more massive, in the hundreds of thousands of gallons range from around 2000-2012. I've viewed the beach (below the Surf & Sand Hotel) a few days afterwards.

The aquatics previously mentioned have humungous die-offs, float ashore. The strands from the Hotel down to Center Street I viewed back when were gut-wrenchingly strewn with them. Bet that Hotel just loves these spectacles, media trucks on PCH, helicopters, spectators, all converge like flies on you-know-what?

Great promo optics, huh? "Welcome To Laguna Beach: Home To The Pageant Of The Poopsters!"

So, what can you do as your community contribution? Take a few high resolution photos and I, Roger (Gonzo) Bütow will accept them in my email box, but try to stay around 3 MB/photo. Address: rogerbutow@clean-water-now.org

To assist us and state investigators, Saturday---Sunday or even Monday might be a strategic window. If you see any dense clusters, any signs of unusual numbers of dead aquatics, take a few panoramic shots from upcoast and downcoast.....S&S down to Center your most likely sandy graveyards. Several closeups to help us verify/identify those species exterminated.

We'll collect, collate and transmit to media and San Diego, if you wish attribution, make sure I have your full name. Anonymity, afraid of blowbacks? No problemo.

Because the discharge was within our Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) Marine Protection Area (MPA), CWN believes that the state might want to "wade in," voice its concerns to the SD Board as one of the jurisdictional, regulatory public agencies.

I brought this MPA connection up and emphasized in convos with SD staff on Thursday, so if it takes a stick this time, instead of a carrot, CWN is all in for a maximum fine plus public humiliation, a publicized pillory.

Our City staff aren't directly at fault, btw. I've spoken with them individually in the field, they're conscientious and dedicated. The City refuses to spend the $$$, to keep them properly trained and to modernize, to upgrade our infrastructure to present per wastewater industry standards. It's always about "The Benjamins," the $$$, isn't it?

Like a 100-year-old house, or car or a person for that matter, once an aging system like ours starts going "Jurassic Park," infrastructural entropy ensues, degradation increases but at a more rapid pace.

Did you know that it wasn't our crews that successfully took on the emergency response, that 1.87 million gallon sewage spill on The Resort Golf Course in Aliso Canyon, on Thanksgiving 2019? It was South Coast Water District (SCWD) and SOC Wastewater Authority (SOCWA) first responders.

Did you know that 500,000 gallons of it was discharged at Bluebird because they had to de-pressurize the North Coast Interceptor (NCI) system to expedite repair; the NCI being the miles long common collection system under PCH that starts at Emerald Bay, terminates at the Coastal Treatment Plant just above The Ranch Resort?

The City Council has no issue with raising water and sewer rates, do they? Plus taxing ratepayers to death, raise sales tax too, when every year we have millions of $$$ in surplus. I estimate that since we declared ourselves a ZERO SPILL TOLERANCE municipality (20+ years ago), setting only 2 million $$$/year ($45 million or so), and we wouldn't be in this mess today.

Last: CWN is going to be pressing the City to relinquish its sovereignty, its ownership and operation of the sewer system. Through the Local Agency Formation Commission of Orange County (LAFCO), we'll be pushing for the City to divest, turn the "virtual poop keys to the sewer car" over to SCWD via annexation.

Presently, their waste system starts, ours ends at the former County line, near Ruby's Diner and the old St. Catherine's School.

Oddly, previous CM John Pietig was in serious dialogue with Rick Shintaku, GM of SCWD, to expedite that consolidation, they were working on the nuts and bolts, the specific terms and conditions.

He clocked out, and his total train wreck of a successor, Shohreh Dupuis, summarily broke off the conversation. Apparently she and our Siamese Twins Bobby-y-Sue (Whalen & Kempf) didn't want to give up the liquidity, the $$$ they could then re-direct to THEIR pet projects.

I'll leave it there, what an avoidable fiasco, but residents DO need to know that this City has NEVER prioritized rehabilitation or modernizing. Lip service, a random million $$ or 2 here and there, band-aid, fix it as it goes broken mentality.

Don't spend too much, be reactive instead of proactive style policies, procedures and protocols. Totally out of touch, our wastewater system distress exemplifies what happens when "anal obsessive," fiscal control freaks become stewards of our beach environs.

That's what happens when ignorant or apathetic voters don't look under the hood, get these career politicians to sign binding compacts during campaigns: Either fulfill your vows, your oaths, keep this beautiful coastal gem's reputation pristine, unblemished, or take a hike, legally-binding, fast tracked grounds for immediate recall or resignation.

Next man or woman up, we no longer have time for parasitic public health and safety slackers like BobbySue.