Candidate for
State Senator; District 16

I am the Archaeologist who demands Sacramento throw District 16 MORE THAN JUST A BONE.

• Restore our contaminated water aquifers. End corporate ground water heists via pollution and direct pump and pipe. Recharge depleted aquifers.

• Restore access to Justice; reopen Justice Courts in Tulare, Barstow, Needles. End draconian 8 hr travel requirements for minor infractions of the law.

• Restore our roads and schools; create peace time jobs for Veterans building infrastructure that would lower the carbon footprint.

I love wildlife and I love to go fishing and I know a lot of you do too. When I look at the dry Kern River channel where once flowed through Bakersfield, I think of the words Joni Mitchel sang back in 1970, "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot." Its been almost 50 years and finally people are beginning to appreciate the idea of water conservation and what an attitude changer it is if one could only see water flowing right through a community. My dream is to see the Kern River paradise restored in Bakersfield, in my lifetime, put my feet in it, go fishing in it, and then catch a fish that I am not afraid to eat because of disease by toxic pollutants.

I support the no thrills water conservation project proposed in Measure 1 on our November 4 ballot which will reallocate money from unused bonds to make better use of the money. Our need for safe drinking water for all communities is critical and Measure 1 will start the ball rolling on filling up our dangerously low underground water aquifers in the central valley where we can store water naturally while protecting it from evaporation. State Officials are appointees of our elected officials and the State is the right government entity to get the job done because water swaps cross county lines. We need to ensure that our farms and businesses get the water they need during dry years by managing our water resources efficiently in wet years and being in a good position to transport surface water from areas that have excess water to give.

Measure 1 will provide the mechanism to manage and prepare for droughts, to invest in water conservation, build water treatment plants so that water can be used and recycled at least 10 times (hopefully) improving our local water supplies. The bill proposes to increase flood protection and capture the unbridled rain run off, fund groundwater cleanup, clean up polluted rivers and streams, and restore the environment. All of the things that I have been campaigning for in the last 6 months.

We need someone who is for key water conservation measures that would have required urban and rural areas to develop and implement water conservation plans such as crop sprinkling at night, drip irrigation, planting drought tolerant crops, reconditioning old water pipe infrastructure to avoid leaks and pipe bursts and prohibiting wasteful industrial uses.

When elected, one of my first legislative efforts would be to look at California's Integrated Waste Management Act and iron out the twists and tweaks in the law and regulation that denies the people of the County of Kern the right to decide for themselves if they want to accept Los Angeles County's sewer sludge be placed over their drinking water aquifer. It is unacceptable that the people vote to stop the potential contamination of their aquifer and then are denied because of some clause in the law that the State legislature made.

The damage of pollution in various aquifers throughout the state including SD16 has been done, but the necessity of cleaning up after polluter corporations must end. The solution to pollution must not be dilution in our water aquifers. PG&E continues to be allowed to monitor their own Chromium 6 "clean up" activity and that tragic situation at the Hinkley aquifer is still going on after 20 years even after the situation was exposed by the famous movie Erin Brockovich.

We have been losing out by repeatedly electing those candidates supported by water polluter corporations and those who would privatize the public clean water that we do have. It is against our interest that oil and gas corporations are not disclosing the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") chemicals they use above our aquifers because such information is a "trade secret." We loose billions of gallons of good water to fracking operations--operations that are contaminating our drinking supply and then the taxpayer ends up flipping the bill for testing what those contaminants are.

I also support the campaign for a moratorium on oil fracking in California unless it can be guaranteed to be safe. Now we know about the leakage of fracking chemicals into our central valley water aquifer and the contamination of billions of gallons of water that could otherwise be used for farming.

Further, I have written an opposition paper to the "HECA" project which amounts to a coal burning energy plant near Bakersfield that would add to the already high particulate matter in the air and produce an immense amount of CO2 adding to the threat of global warming. Though the proposal is to use the CO2 in the fracking operations then sequester it in deep wells, with the history of seismic activity in the Central Valley, such a scheme is a huge risk given the existing faults and fissures from historic seismic earthquake activity.

I am for sustainable use of water and for this reason I oppose whole sale corporate water heists of public water including the Cadiz Corporation's proposed project, a plan to pump and pipe to Orange County the water that is under the East Mojave desert.

I am for providing incentives for installing energy efficient roof top and road way solar and solar over already disturbed parcels and corridors while at the same time imposing a moratorium on massive corporate solar plants situated directly over water aquifers, destroying pristine, fragile desert wildlife habitat. Since these industrial plants result in the loss of ground water through pumping and evaporation they are another type of water heist occurring in the Mojave Desert.

RESTORE OUR COURTHOUSES AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Entire communities in SD!6 have lost their constitutional right of access to justice for failure to get state funding earmarked for our local justice courts. We have lost three courthouses in this district with desert citizens being forced to travel over 8 hours just to deal with minor infractions. The Cities of Tulare, Barstow and Needles have lost their justice community jobs, judges, lawyers, law clerks and support staff. When elected, I will be able to work with Democrats to make sure annual expenditures include funds earmarked for our local justice courts. The draconian 8 hr travel requirements for minor infractions of the law must cease.

RESTORE OUR ROADS AND SCHOOLS; CREATE PEACE TIME JOBS FOR VETERANS ON PROJECTS THAT WOULD LOWER THE CARBON FOOTPRINT.

The cost of this rail project over 30 years pales in comparison to the hundreds of billions of dollars that are paid out each year in defense contracts and military budget. We need to move beyond the military industrial complex mentality and build for TOMORROW'S FUTURE with a world class rail system.

Since California's landmark cap-and-trade market program funds can supplement the federal funds to be provided for the scheduled high speed rail system, the project has received new momentum. Federal funds are available for the project and its a situation of use or lose.

Thousands of new good paying construction jobs for the next 30 years are at risk of being lost in the western end of SD16 and the Central Valley should we not proceed on this project. Young people are already anticipating getting trained (no pun intended) for the new jobs that this project will offer...welders, carpenters, maintenance, inspectors, etc. plus all of the support industries. These are peace time jobs for Veterans and the now unemployed. Our high schools need to gear up for apprenticeship program in the trades to prepare motivated students to move right into the construction work force.

Consider the international tourism that high speed rail will attract bringing in billions of visitor dollars in foreign exchange. Already we have a multi-million dollar industrial tourist industry just with the attraction of Route 66 alone. (BTW, this is just one of the highways in SD16 where necessary repairs and reinforcement require state funding--meaning jobs--that I would promote in Sacramento). Asian and European tourist fly to Los Angeles and make a great triangle from there to Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and back to L.A. via Route 66. The leg from L.A. to Las Vegas via high speed rail with a connector between Victorville and Palmdale to the Central Valley high speed rail line, is next. These rail lines would attract tourism, would lower the carbon footprint, and would lessen travel time for tourist making for a better visitor experience. This is forward thinking. This is the kind of thinking that will get Sacramento to throw SD16 MORE THAN JUST A BONE.