What You Can Do
How Can I Get Involved?
READ: Some of the very same tactics used in Cambria to convince ratepayers that desal is needed are also being used in the city of Marin (See the Marin Water Coalition site). As in Cambria, Marin residents never voted for desalination, and thus the future ‘desalination project’ is unbudgeted, depriving the public of an adequate paper trail for discussion. Financial costs and future ratepayer increases are unknown, water demand is overstated, water supply is underestimated, and high energy use is downplayed. Savvy Marin residents, with bi-partisan support from Democrats and Republicans, with help from the Surfrider Foundation and the Marin Taxpayers Association, have now successfully placed desalination on the November ballot. SPEAK OUT: According to Mr. Sanders at the July 22 CCSD meeting, the coalition of unmetered lot owners in Cambria (aka UNLOC) is willing to pay $2.5 million for desal. Meeting minutes suggest that San Simeon would help pay for it too. Is our CCSD for sale to the highest bidder? VOTE: Sunset Magazine is not the only one who appreciates the beauty surrounding Cambria. Cambrians value their pristine beaches, amazing diversity of wildlife and habitat, public parks and scenic resources. Public leaders must be held accountable for their actions. November’s ballot features two new candidates who support openness and transparency in government. As always –take the time to read and vote for change at the CCSD. Just as is being called for in Marin County, Cambrians can organize a ballot measure to put the desalination plant to a vote. Although the CCSD board members support the desal plant, they now have a chance to change course. They can issue a resolution stating that, before they start the building process and incur any further debt towards a desalination plant, they will put it to a public vote.
Cambria residents should follow in the footsteps of the well educated and affluent community of Marin in supporting the right to vote on any future water project for the town of Cambria. (See succinct article from the Marin Voice)
According to the Marin Voice the Marin Municipal Water District “the MMWD created a financing vehicle that allows the board to issue revenue bonds without a public vote. This vehicle, called MMWD Financing Authority, also allows the board to hire consultants, buy and sell land, and do anything else that is in the MMWD's power to do.” And “the authority's broad powers could easily be corrupted without accountability to the ratepayers.”
If wealthy Marin residents are worried about the financial costs of desalination, and the possibility of issuing bonds without a vote, Cambrians should worry too.
Let your voice be heard. Attempting to block the residents from hearing public discussions by disbanding Standing Committees at the CCSD, or creating financial vehicles such as the one in Marin without a vote in Cambria is a very bad idea. Attend meetings on this very important topic whenever possible.
The CCSD meets the 4th Thursday of each month at the Cambria Vet’s Hall, 1000 Main St. Cambria at 12:30 pm
(Note that the November and December CCSD meetings aren't on the 4th Thursdays, due to holiday calendars. Please check for date changes.)
The North Coast Advisory Council (NCAC) meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month at Rabobank at 6:30pm (except December). They can receive mail at PO Box 533 in Cambria.
PROTEST: For a public agency to conduct an ‘end run’ around environmental review does not serve the public well, results in costly law suits (see the Landwatch suit), and will not succeed in the long run. (see Art Van Rhyn’s cartoon). Citizens opposed to the CCSD tactics of pushing through projects without complete environmental review quickly organized and, within a few hours, gathered almost 400 signatures opposed to drilling on the beaches in front of Shamel Park. The drill rigs will be on our beaches in September. Stay tuned for future action on this front.
Possible approaches to highlighting the need for a public vote on funding a desalination plant could be organized at the time of the drilling in September and October. Drilling will take place five days a week, with 41 foot trucks driving back and forth thru residential neighborhoods right next to the children in Shamel Park, twice a day, Monday thru Friday.
As we all know, a picture's worth a thousand words, and photo ops abound: protesters playing volleyball on the beach near the drill rigs, protester picnics with drills in the shot, protesters holding hands in solidarity against this intrusive equipment, plus the gathering of signatures to put the desal plant on the ballot and the presence of candidates running for seats on the CCSD are all potentially newsworthy events that can and should be organized. Take a stand. Gather your neighbors and make your position known.
WRITE OR CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES:
Dianne Feinstein's Fresno office: 2500 Tulare Street, Suite 4290 Fresno, CA 93721 Phone: (559) 485-7430
Barbara Boxer's Fresno office: 2500 Tulare Street, Suite 5290 Fresno, CA 93721 Phone: (559) 497-5109
Lois Capps' office in SLO: 1411 Marsh Street, Suite 205, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Phone: (805) 546-8348
Bruce Gibson - SLO County 2nd District Supervisor: (805) 781-4338
Before the CCSD takes ten or more thousands of dollars out of your family budget for a plant that may never work or may only last a few years, don't you want to have a say in how that money is spent - if at all? We sure do!