I am running for the CCSD because I want to be elected not loved. Some people want the approval of their friends more than they want almost anything which is certainly not me. I want to be an agent of change and therefore I want to become a member of the CCSD.
The people of Cambria have rejected Cityhood two times with their ballots but the current Board has through their policies attempted to use their power create a mini dynasty by increasing the water rates, hiring a lobbyist, pursing a desal plant that the Coastal Commission will surely reject and hiring a Board manager and a lawyer who are paid lavishly.
Should the Commission finally approve a desal plant for Cambria, a highly improbable event, then the rate payers will see their bills increase considerably. Replacing the desalination’s plants membranes are expensive as well as the costs of scaling the system and doing away with the brine problems.
The most foolish thing they are doing is to pursue a plan that is almost certainly is going to be rejected by the Coastal Commission. A more important resolution of the problem at hand is to conserve water and to manage the plans for dredging consistent with the current regulations of the State and Federal government.
And the people who sell desalination plants plan to make extraordinary profits that are well beyond any reasonable amounts of money that any small community can afford to pay. And a desalination plant will surely encourage growth with increases in population and the services needed to support such changes, which in turn will require the need for more infrastructure.
Separating salt from water has always been an expensive operation confined to Middle Eastern nations and small scare operations such as ocean bound vessels and small operations such as the one that Catalina Island once had. And Catalina abandoned the system they once had in favor of buying water on the open market. There may be other reasons for doing away with their desal system but they are unknown to this writer at the time of this writing.
And desal water will cost $600 per-acre foot compared with to $100 per-acre foot for conventionally obtained water. Finally many communities along the Central Coast have abanded the desal plants they currently own and maintain that it is just too costly to operate such plants.
These are just some of the reasons that I have opted to run for the CCSD; there are more that I will elaborate later.
Clive Finchamp
Last 5 posts by Clive
- Clive Finchamp on Running for Office
- Some Observations on Last Night's CCSD Debate From Clive Finchamp
- Clive Finchamp on his Candidacy for CCSD
- Clive Offers His Two Cents
