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Why should we construe this as a declaration of war? Because very simply, Chloride kills and by raising the standard 2 ½ times as they propose, it will kill absolutely.

What will it kill? Salts dumped in the Santa Clara River work their way permanently into the very water shed that flows through the center of Ventura County. Half of our cities and most of our growers of fruits and vegetables are directly dependent on the river for their daily water supply. Down stream cities such as Santa Paula and Fillmore will have to spend millions in tax dollars to try to cleanse their water supplies. Homeowners will spend millions more to soften hard water, which in turn creates further problems for our sanitary districts.

Not only will excess salts in our water supply ruin most of the food supplies grown in the county, they will permanently destroy the ability of the land to grow crops into the future.

Agriculture, and the many businesses that service and support it, constitute a Seven Billion Dollar economic impact on our county. There is not one of us in Ventura County that would not be adversely affected by this degradation of our water supply.

The negative economic impact upon us from this assault will be far greater than most any feared terrorist attack if L.A. Sanitation gets its way with the Regional Water Board. We don’t know what motivates the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, but we can surmise that it simply doesn’t want to shell out their tax dollars to do the right thing. LA Sanitation would rather dump the costs for clean up on us.

James Stahl's commentary of 10/17 in the Ventura County Star representing the position of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, strains all credibility when he suggests that "Chloride issue need more study," - up to 17 more years worth - before we can learn the effects of salts upon water quality and crops in Ventura County.

His remarks have to be among the most self-serving bit of scientific gibberish fostered on us by a public agency official,

The impact of chloride salts upon crops has been amply studied - not for decades - but for thousands of years. The classic example came in 146 BC when Rome finally defeated its arch rival in the Mediterranean, Carthage, at the end of the Punic Wars. Not only did the Roman army raze the North African city of Carthage to the ground, they also salted the fields so that no crops could ever grow there again. To this day none do.

The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts attempt to shirk their responsibility to clean discharges into the Santa Clara River by changing the water quality standards, is nothing less than a declaration of war, not only upon the farmers and growers here, but upon the entire populous of Ventura County that deems its open space, quality of life and agricultural lands an inherent part of our identity and a vital element of our economy.

Were I a public employee of a government agency in Los Angeles, would I risk the wrath of the entire business, agricultural, political and civic community of Ventura County to prop up a bogus standard? I think not.

The Regional Water Board meets again this May. One hopes they have sufficient wisdom to come to the same conclusion.

But they need to hear from us. They need to know now that the citizens, business and government officials of our county will not stand for this insidious assault engendered by a public agency.

Let this be our call to action:

We are asking each and every one of you to join us in petitioning the Regional Water Board to stop this threat.

You can help by e-mailing the attached petition today and by encouraging others to do the same. For more information about the water quality issue, please read “The War at Home” which is attached.

All you need to do is to copy the e-mail petiton below and send it to the the e-mail addresses llisted below by copying them as well in the address poriton of the e-mail

And if you want your friends to respond too, add them to the "BCC" list before you hit the send button.

__________________________________________________________________________________

David Nahai, Chairperson
Regional Water Quality Control Board
Los Angeles Region
C/O Jonathan Bishop, Executive Officer
320 W. 4th Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013

Via E-mail: jbishop@waterboards.ca.gov
smayhew@oxnardlemon.com ; '"Sam Unger"' ; '"Vicky Conway"' ; '"James Stahl"' ; '"Cameron Smyth"' ; '"Laurene Weste"' ; '"Linda Parks"' ; '"Jonathon Bishop"'

Dear Mr. Nahai,

We the undersigned are adding our names to the many other petitions you will be receiving on this issue below that requests and acknowledges the following:

The Clean Water Act clearly requires that polluters need to control their wastes to protect downstream users. A valuable water resource is not to be degraded to benefit a single discharger or community at the expense of another;

The Los Angeles County Sanitation District has sought to and continues to seek to alter and raise the standards for the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) of Chlorides that are released into the Santa Clara River to levels that are clearly detrimental to the citizens, farmers, cities and businesses of Ventura County;

We respectfully request that the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board of which you are the Chairperson, reopen the issue of Chloride TMDL's at your next meeting in May of 2006, if not sooner;

We further request that at this hearing that the Regional Water Quality Control Board impose Chloride TMDL standards for the Santa Clara River upon the Los Angeles County Sanitation District that have been proposed and are acceptable to Ventura County Agricultural Water Coalition and its members;

Given that the Los Angeles County Sanitation District has repeatedly sought to delay the implementation and enforcement of appropriate standards by various bureaucratic tactics that typically fall under the rubric of "Further Study" we further request that the Los Angeles County Sanitation District be held fiscally and legally responsible for meeting these standards according to an implementation time schedule that is again acceptable to Ventura County Agricultural Water Coalition and its members.

Sincerely,

Name:
Address:
Phone:
E-Mail:

cc: Linda Parks, Chair, Ventura County Board of Supervisors E-mail: linda.parks@ventura.org
Mr. Sam Unger, Regional Water Quality Control Board E-mail: sunger@waterboards.ca.gov
Laurene Weste, Mayor, City of Santa Clarita E-mail: lweste@santa-clarita.com
Councilmember Cameron Smyth, City of Santa Clarita E-mail: csmyth@santa-clarita.com
Mr. James Stahl, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts E-mail: jstahl@lacsd.org
Ms. Vicky Conway, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts E-mail: vconway@lacsd.org

VCEDA’s mission is to advocate for policies, legislation and programs that stimulate business and a vital economy as the foundation for a vibrant quality of life in Ventura County.