Los Osos sewer/"Photos From the Vault" idea
TO: David Middlecamp, Photographer, The Tribune
Hello David,
I just wanted to quickly tell you that I enjoy your blog, Photos From the Vault, on the Tribune's web site, where you take old photographs of local, SLO County significance, and (re)shine a spotlight on them.
Well, have I got a Photos From the Vault idea for you!
It involves one of your pictures, from January, 1998. I've embedded the photo here, hopefully you can see it:
As you can see, it shows then-County Supervisor, Bud Laurent, sitting next to "the Solution Group's Pandora Nash-Karner and Gary Karner."
The back story to that photo, in the context of 2016, is stunning, and, now that the Los Osos sewer is finally on-line, I think that story would, now, make for a GREAT Photos From the Vault.
If it'll help, I can give a little context:
What the photo shows is then-2nd District County Supervisor, Bud Laurent, sitting next to Los Osos residents, Pandora Nash-Karner, and, her husband, Gary Karner, at a California Coastal Commission meeting, at the Embassy Suites conference room, on January, 16, 1998.
Interestingly, that meeting's agenda is still archived, at this link:
The reason Laurent and the Karners were at that meeting, was because of this agenda item:
- - -
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1998
3. COASTAL PERMIT APPLICATION.
a. (Los Osos Wastewater Treatment Project, San Luis Obispo Co.) Application of San Luis Obispo County Engineering Dept. for wastewater treatment system to serve limited areas of the Los Osos and Baywood communities, including collection & pumping system, treatment plant at southeast corner of South Bay Boulevard & Pismo Street, and effluent disposal system 500 ft. south of Highland Drive between extensions of Broderson & Doris Drives, in South Bay Urban area of Estero Planning Area, San Luis Obispo County. (SM-SC) [TO CONTINUE]
- - -
So, the Coastal Commission was going to rule on a "Application of San Luis Obispo County Engineering Dept. for wastewater treatment system to serve limited areas of the Los Osos and Baywood communities..." in 1998, but the Karners' -- he, a landscaper and she, a marketer -- so-called "Solution Group" whipped up their "better, cheaper, faster," "alternative" sewer project, that was known-to-the-Karners to be DOA, but they heavily hyped it anyway throughout 1998 (in fact, that's what all of those "YES! YES! YES!" signs are in the photo, part of Nash-Karner's so-called "behavior based marketing" "strategy" for "YES!" on their fake "project") and the Karners' fake "project" went on to 1) form the Los Osos CSD in November 1998, 2) get Pandora Nash-Karner elected to the initial LOCSD Board, where that Board then immediately killed the county's "ready to go" project in early 1999, where Nash-Karner then, as a now-elected official, hired her husband's firm, The SWA Group, to help "develop" their fake project.
[Note: The reason it reads "[TO CONTINUE]" in the Item above was solely because of the Karners' fake "project." The Coastal Commission did NOT issue the county its permit at that meeting solely to allow more time to compare the county's "ready to go" project, with the Karners' known-to-the-Karners-to-be-DOA fake-"project."]
Then, of course, my New Times cover story, Problems With the Solution, in 2000, chronicled the spectacular (and predicted by numerous water quality experts) failure of the Karners' fake project. That spectacular story is archived at this link:
And, at this link:
... from 2009, I exposed (what I term), "The SWA Group Scam," where I show how the Karners knew that their fake project was never going to work, but they over-the-top-hyped it anyway, and then used it so they could make a lot of money, at a massive expense to SLO County taxpayers, Los Osos taxpayers, and the environment.
In other words, had the Karners simply NOT run their "SWA Group Scam" (starting in late 1997) -- just so they, and a small handful of their friends, could make a lot of money -- the county's "ready to go" project would have likely been up and running sometime in the year 2000, and the past 16 years (at "one million gallons (of water pollution) per day") of (very expensive) Los Osos sewer disaster would have never happened.
A spectacular story, and your excellent photo from 1998 captures its stunning beginning perfectly!
Anyway, thought you would find that photo interesting in the context of 2016, and how it would, today, make for a GREAT Photos From the Vault.
If you have any questions about the spectacular significance involved with your great photo, please just ask.
Thanks,
Ron
P.S: This email automatically posted to my blog, SewerWatch, at this link:
Thanks again.
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sewerwatch.blogspot.com
posted by Ron at
11:55 AM
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