Category: City Reports

Sewage spill

heidi08 City Reports December 14, 2008

Got a call yesterday from beaver friend JD about the report in the times saying a manhole had overflowed some 1800 gallons of raw sewage into the creek near Highland Holiday Hills park. The overflow was reported on wednesday but it’s possible the leak had been ongoing since monday.

District manager David Contreras said the agency learned at noon Wednesday that a manhole on Fig Tree Lane, east of Morello Avenue and north of Highway 4, was overflowing, and that raw sewage was running into the creek in Holiday Highlands Park. Initially, the agency estimated about 1,800 gallons of sewage had run into creek, but Contreras said that figure could rise because the manhole may have been overflowing since Monday.

For those of you following your watershed maps at home, this creek is an upper feeder that may go to Alhambra Creek, home of the beavers. It poured sewage for two days before it was stopped. We should all be curious why this wasn’t reported sooner, or how it was eventually reported at all. I wonder why the report says it “might have been leaking since Monday”. Why monday? Do you mean that’s when the initial phone call was retrieved from the message machine and sat in an untended pile until wednesday when the followup call made you think it was really worth investigating? Maybe its been leaking since saturday?I don’t want to hear a single complaint if someone eventually finds giardia in a water test at the beaver dam, when us humans put gallons of raw sewage into their creek. The outraged satirist in me loved this part of the article especially

A staff biologist at the scene did not see any dead fish, and live crawdads were visible in the creek, Contreras said.

The Crawdad and Deadfish Test? Really? Is that the subtle biological indicator you learned in water quality testing school? Aren’t crawdads like lobsters and shrimp which eat animal waste? Aren’t they often found in sewers? So would they really be a sensitive tool for identifying sewage problems?

This comes two days after the water district reported a “spill” with high coliform bacteria levels in 1.3 gallons released near the bridge. This was later declassified as a condition rather than a spill, and the results haven’t been repeated in subsequent testings.

He said the sanitary district performs a total coliform bacteria test three times per week. Under the district’s permit, the “most probable number” of total coliform bacteria in any single sample can’t exceed 10,000 per 100 milliliters of the sample water during the winter. Usually, that number is less than two, Contreras said. But the Tuesday sample, the district confirmed Thursday, exceeded 16,000 coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters. The preliminary results from the Wednesday test show the bacteria level fell back to below two, according to Contreras. “We’re currently investigating what caused this (high testing) number or if it was sampling error and we will provide that to the regional board in five days,” he added.

I can hear the false sympathy now. “The poor things. This just proves why beavers don’t belong in a city creek.” Maybe. Maybe its bad for HUMANS if sewage dumps into the water where children play and bacteria pours into the bay. Maybe filtering dams are the only defense we have left against spreading our germs all through the entire water system.

Maybe we humans should be more careful and beavers can remind us why.

We’re Looking for a Few Good Wo(men)

heidi08 City Reports December 10, 2008

December 31st will mark the penultimate First Night celebration of the decade. This downtown event often brings out-of-towners to visit, and on their way to hear music or have their face painted many stop off at the beaver dam. Last year Worth A Dam didn’t yet exist, but beaver supporters had a presence on the bridge for the duration of the evening, with volunteer beaver docents to explain sightings and behavior.

Our presence is even more important this year. People want to know if the beavers are still in residence, and if the flow device (soon celebrating its first birthday) is still working. They will need to be reminded that the city of Martinez still hasn’t voted on their fate. We have a new generation to keep safe from people’s mischief and curiosity.

The beavers could use your help during this event. Look at your party calendar and see if there’s an hour or two you could be on hand between 5:30 and midnight. Why should you bother? It was first night last year where we met FRO, who became our resident artist and children’s project coordinator. It was also first night where we met our kindly benefactor who helped our legal defense. New potential supporters are drawn by the event, and they might make a difference in how we move forward.

Man, woman, or teen, we’d love to have you onboard. If you would like to volunteer to help out contact us or just come by that night. We’ll give you information, coffee and encouragement; you’ll give our beavers a safe night with some new friends.

The Quickening

heidi08 City Reports December 4, 2008

A friend of mine from England wrote me yesterday about the latest cosmic scuttlebutt. She called it “The Quickening” (a phenomenon where older folks feel like time is speeding up), but said that it was now happening at a global level even in young lives. This is thought to be due to the slowing of the earth’s spin and the massive advances in technology.

a time in the earth’s history where not only are both human and geological events are speeding up, but the rate at which they are speeding up is speeding up. It’s fractal time.

Earths poles have shifted and we are heading back to the true galactic center. So gravity is decreasing and time is speeding up and the whole whirlwind is supposed to culminate on December 21, 2012. Apparently it has something to do with passing near the central black hole in the galaxy and the Mayan Calendar and precessional movement and I’m not sure what else.

This is particulary interesting to me because time has been very odd indeed since the beavers approached Martinez. Allow me to explain. I can remember this languid, halcyon summer of filming and photographing our 2007 kits, where it seemed like weeks stretched on forever. Then a gunshot of sudden panic in late October when we found out the beavers would be killed, and then a literal blur of activity from November 07 until, well um, now.

There are specific epochs of time I remember among the din. The subcommittee epoch, which seemed to drag on forever. The first flooding and massive dam lowering and death of our kit epoch. The April meeting epoch and the earthday followup. Then many farmer’s markets and a festival and art in the park. Most recently the bridge-sitting epoch which seemed like 1 day and a million days all at once. If the calendars were suddenly taken from my life, it is possible I would have no idea whatsoever what month it was. Surely that’s got to be the effect of “The Quickening”?

(Or maybe its just been because I’ve been as busy as…well, you know.)

No danger of calendars disappearing though. I just got the 2009 watershed calendar in the mail! Designed by artist John Fingers, it is a lovely collection of images throughout the bay area, and features our favorite subject with the tail up photo I took the day the city reported they would be exterminated. Track down yours today.

Meanwhile, ask your friends. Is the effect of The Quickening visible in their lives this past year? I’d be interested in what they say.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”

heidi08 City Reports July 7, 2009

Troubled by pesky criminial prosecutions? Here’s some problem solving Shakespeare-style. Contrary to the modern misunderstanding that this references frivolous lawsuits as the problem with modern society, Dick’s advice to Cade in Henry IV part 2 is much more elemental: Bothered by the consequences of breaking the law? Then kill all the lawyers (and if you don’t believe me, ask Pakistan).

I’m thinking that Rossmoor must have had their “problem solving for Dummies” book open to the Shakespeare/Machiavelli page, because in their most recent news story they offer the following “longterm” solution to their acorn problem.

One long-term option is to work on limiting the acorn production of the trees. This can possibly be done with a spray-on solvent and by heavy pruning.

I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

The grand solution-eers of the gated community, with the entire Mount Diablo Audobon Society at their disposal, and a host of contractors willing to pitch in and help out, have offered a solution of chemically treating the trees to reduce woodpecker population. The mind was already reeling at their decision to hire a sharpshooter, now it has dropped like a stone into the abyss. Birth Control for Oak trees? Why not cut down the offending bird-accomplises altogether? You’ll have a much better view of your gates without all those pesky natural obstructions.

This is akin to killing all the salmon to control the grizzly population, or stopping tourism to St. Marks square to limit the pigeon population. This is as bad an idea as any we have heard from the Martinez City Council and that’s saying something. Does anyone bother to worry that there might be other creatures dependent on the acorns? Or that a sudden decrease in available food might increase storing operations before it decreases them?

(I guess we can be thankful that the technology wasn’t available back when we were dealing with that pesky “native american” problem).

Property managers and architects everywhere know exactly why this problem has happened. The solution isn’t to kill the woodpeckers or eliminate the acorns or shoot the media. It doesn’t cost 170,000 dollars either. The problem is the “synthetic stucco” (and if by synthetic you mean pretend, I think the name is perfect). Its longer name is Exterior Insulation and Finish System or EIFS for short. It has so many problems that it even has a legal defense network for disgruntled homeowners. Water damage behind the facade is a more widespread problem than acorns, but there are many reasons to avoid this material, and just as many to invest in its replacement. Do your homework and find a real solution.

One of my favorite moments at the famous November 7th meeting came after about an hour of public comment. A woman approached our city manager directly and pointed out the remarkable solutions offered by an audience of lay-people who had all spent thirty minutes on the internet researching solutions. She referenced our hard work and asked with genunine inquiry, “What have you done to research the problem?” Had he learned about any of the tools or problem-solving devices we discussed? He wriggled like a man uncomfortably far from his vacation and said that they hadn’t thought they would work in this setting. Her response was amazing. It took my breath.

“But you knew about them? You knew about these options and you didn’t present that information to us?”

This remarkable Perry Mason moment is probably what inspired an early retirement for our City Manager, and he quickly redirected her question towards the council to deflect her attention. With two short questions she had highlighted the fact that (as Mulder would say) “The truth is out there“, and that people who are paid to offer solutions should bother finding it. I hope that woman has a mother or aunt at Rossmoor to ask the same question of their Board.

To paraphrase Dr. Seuss once more:

From there to here, from here to there, stupid things are everywhere!

The Cost of Losing Credibility

heidi08 City Reports November 25, 2008

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

William Shakespeare: Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161

And when the person that ruins your reputation is YOURSELF you are realllly in trouble. Here’s an example From Sundays Gazette, reprinted with permission from the author, Ken King:

If it’s “good to be king”, as Mel Brooks once quipped, it must really be good to be the king maker. You want it, you got it. You don’t got to esplian. Those of the well buttered bread in city hall know just what to do. Dunivan’s new $500,000.00 wall is but the latest example of some good ol’ boys and girls gettin’ ‘er done MTZ style. Never mind the conventional rules and procedures, the Brown act is for sissies. Open government, pfffft! Never mind that the situation creating the “emergency” had been languishing for years, or that there were a number of solutions available all along the way. No, that’s not how we operate here. In Martinez all roads lead to a redevelopment agency, or so the king makers would have it.

The prevailing idea here, since 1962, when the first Benecia bridge was completed and ferry service ended, seems to be, to let your, now devalued property, fall into disrepair in hopes of a bailout. While it is fair to argue that the property in question had been overlooked in a previous creek restoration project, there were rules to it. Now the same city council that failed to correct the situation for years suddenly decides, under threat from one of their main benefactors, that there is an “emergency”! As the Church Lady used to say, “How convenient”. No time for any of those darn reports, or stupid studies that might show pushing the structure over three feet into the channel may cause more of a risk to flood control than a beaver could ever dream of. If stabilizing the bank against floods and beavers were the only issue, there were too many cheaper and more aesthetically pleasing solutions. No, the idea was to drive the beavers off pure and simple.

And why is it RDA vs the beavers? There are those who feel that the future of downtown is in developing the very special assets we already have. Our historical architecture, the theaters, the marina, the Joltin’ Joe the opera and yes, our world famous beavers! And there are those who would carve our town into ever smaller pieces in the name of affordable housing Putting a RDA into the hands of a group who already shun accountability and making them completely and forever unaccountable is like putting a sledgehammer into the hands of a petulant child in a china shop! Bad idea!

Ken King