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San Luis Obispo County, CA November 2, 2004 Election
Smart Voter

Recycling, Conservation, and Enhancement over Desalination

By Vernon A. "Vern" Kalshan

Candidate for Director; Cambria Community Services District

This information is provided by the candidate
Implement a secondary water system, Recycle reuseable water, and Enhance the Watershed.
I am opposed to the desalination project for the following reasons:
1. The toxic discharge will kill the local marine life
because wherever the salts of the desal discharge causes the sea water to be more than 10% normal salinity, young fish and fish eggs will perish.
2. It binds this community to supply water to San
Simeon to whomever they sell water because their Community Services Distinct wants to renew their agreement to buy desal water. They were told that even if federal funds fall through, "Cambria will find the funding mechanism. This plant will be done."
3. It provides for 650 more homes in Cambria which will result in 975 more daily vehicle trips to Main Street.
4. We risk the danger of losing control over our water
supply because the contract gives the Army Corps of Engineers the option to sell the plant to a private company if, for any reason, the District cannot finish the project once it starts. If that company is an affiliate of a NAFTA participant, they have the right to operate at a profit at our expense.
5. The project violates our Local Coastal Plan Policy 2 which provides that new or expanded public works
facilities shall be designed to accommodate but not exceed the needs generated by projected development within the designated urban reserve lines because
-it supplies 50% more water (600 acre-feet per year) than we are now permitted to use (1230 acre-feet per year),
- it operates nine months of the year,
-it provides 18 units of water to 4650 houses per two month billing period, and
-it promises water to San Simeon which is outside the designated urban reserve line.

A combination of Recycled Water, Demand Management and Watershed Enhancement for just our district will serve us better for the long term.
Recycled water discussed in the Water Master Plan uses secondary water from the waste water treatment plant for irrigation. We should have a secondary water system for landscaping that effectively reduces the demand for drinking quality water.
Demand Management discussed in the Water Master Plan discusses using our current conservation measures and implementing other measures to reduce potable water use for landscaping.
We can have cisterns to capture rain water for irrigation of landscaping. If each of our 4,000 houses would capture 750 gallons of rain water that would save 4000 units of drinking water.
Houses that are not built on concrete slabs can modify their plumbing to capture water from dish-washers, clothes-washers, showers, and tubs in a cistern for irrigation use.
Laundry water can be recycled for reuse as laundry water.
Commercial rest rooms can have automated fixtures which discharge water when actuated by movement.
Watershed Enhancement would include agreements with land owners in the San Simeon Creek watershed to have them or allow the District to maintain ponds to capture and hold rain water for future percolation into the creek's underflow which would eventually flow down into the District's well fields after the rainy season.

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ca/slo Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 2, 2004 18:47
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