Page 6 - Sonoma County Gazette July 2020

LETTERS con’t from page 5
Low Flow on the
On June 8th, SCWA submitted a Temporary Urgency Change Petition (TUCP) to the State Water Board. This Petition requested permission to lower minimum flows in the lower river
is plenty of room for improvement. They claim their per person use is 107 gal. per day, but I believe there is room for improvement here, even though state standards are lower.
course, EPA rejected the first petition, and would reject a second, no matter how excellent, for the same reason.
A reevaluation of fluoride, this time focused on risk, would take several years at very least.
you change your town’s name to non- Confederate, pro-American option, perhaps a much less militaristic direction if they prefer.
Re-Imagining Law
Enforcement
Russian River
- Jacob Pickering, Arcata
SCWA has plenty of water in Lake Sonoma. They claim they have to hold on to it for possible drought in future years. They also claim that the Biological Opinion (BO) forces them to keep flows at around 80 cfs in Dry Creek. Yet there have been MANY times when flows occurred over 100 cfs. I don’t know what enforcement by NMFS is provided on those flows. I’ve been criticizing SCWA for years for treating the lower river like an orphan (in regards to the impacts of their water policies) while assuring that their customers have enough. In the meantime, not only has growth been rampant in SR and RP, but I just read there are plans for two 5 story apartment buildings on Santa Rosa Ave.
What is missing for EPA is a formal EPA-standard risk assessment of fluoride. However, although EPA
has protocols for determining unacceptable risk of neurotoxins, and for determining a safe dose, if any, below which the risk is acceptable, EPA has not applied these protocols to fluoride. EPA began its evaluation of fluoride only well after the lawsuit was filed, and that evaluation is far from complete.
Find more information in the online edition of this paper @ sonomacountygazette.com.
Choking may be banned but
sadism is limited only by an officer’s imagination and the public’s tolerance. Many — especially minorities, the poor, homeless, mentally ill, the powerless and vulnerable — are routinely harassed & brutalized by non-violence that seldom makes headlines: Issuing a costly ticket for no-harm-no-foul traffic offenses; threatening to toss a homeless person’s possessions into the creek; planting drugs to fabricate arrests with impossibly expensive bail; etc. Such tactics can financially, emotionally and otherwise totally upend lives balanced on the thin edge of society and survival.
It is concerning that very low flows are likely to concentrate bacteria and toxins and potentially cause serious health issues for vacationers and their pets (wildlife as well) throughout the lower river. it will similarly invite huge problems with algal growth, including possible cyanobacteria (toxic algae), which also involves a host
The Court would like the plaintiffs to submit a new petition, including studies not yet published when the petition was filed, and perhaps to do, and submit, the formal EPA-standard risk assessment EPA says it requires, but has not yet done. The Court expects EPA to reverse course (like turning a battleship on a dime), accept the new petition and the new risk assessment, and do the right thing
First of all, no self-respecting Californian could ever possibly justify or countenance any town or city in the Golden State being named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who was not only a traitor
and a slaveowner, but an especially intemperate and incompetent military commander as well. That name is nothing to brag about, Fort Bragg.
It is Social Terrorism, and every cop knows it.
of health concerns. And in light of coronavirus, who knows what health impacts could ensue? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! At a minimum, we need 70 cfs flows.
re. Fluoride. Attorneys for both sides expressed strong reservations.
Secondly, why would any patriotic American want to set foot in a town named after an anti-American racist traitor to the republic, like Braxton Bragg? Thankfully, Mendocino County has other equally picturesque communities to visit and spend our money in as tourists.
It was on wide-screen display recently when our sheriff profanely declared he would not enforce the “f*%king health orders” of our County Health Officer. Those orders, having full force of law, were issued to protect us all from a plague that has taken 120,000 + lives and counting. With disregard for the well-being and peace of mind of all county residents, he exposed the imperious jack-booted mindset that — more than any knee or chokehold — murdered George Floyd.
- Brenda Adelman, Russian River Watershed Protection Committee
EPA’s U.S. Justice Department attorney Debra Carfora explained that, by law, EPA must respond to a petition within 90 days, and that it takes a minimum of 3 years for EPA’s risk assessment process so, of
Too bad, Fort Bragg, but you’re not getting another dime from me until
The horror won’t stop until law enforcement is totally Re-Imagined, and mercilessly held accountable.
PS: While contractors have been fairly good about conservation, there
bob edwards, Sonoma
People can contact me at rrwpc@ comcast.net for more information.
Michael Connett, lead attorney
for the plaintiffs, explained that this is a citizens’ suit, that it has taken almost four years and considerable effort and expense (even though the legal team is working pro bono, and plaintiffs’ expert witnesses testified from “a sense of civic duty” - Philippe Grandjean, MD, PhD) to get to this point, and it might not be possible to do it all over again. Connett pointed out that, more important, in the meantime millions of U.S. babies and children suffer continuing harm.
to as low as 40 cubic feet per second (cfs). Under D1610, we should be in a Dry Year which would set minimum flows at Hacienda at 85 cfs. (In Normal rain years the minimum flow would be 125 cfs.) The TUCP does not discuss any impacts to the lower river that would result from this request. Because flows are already very low and will probably go much lower, we would allow that the very lowest they should be able to go is 70 cfs, and even that is questionable. This flow level provides ankle deep water to recreate in at most beaches. Right now (mid- June) the river is around 88 cfs, an extraordinarily low level for this time of year.
Fluoride in Our Water
As police chiefs nationwide rush to the cameras to disavow the chokehold and ‘take a knee,’ one can’t help thinking it’s just a PR stunt to mollify public outrage over defenseless deaths at the hands of those sworn to Protect and Serve. Constantly told to ‘move along, nothing to see here,’ cellphone cameras are now revealing to us all that there’s plenty to see: A horror show of police brutality and murder.
Judgement ON HOLD in TSCA EPA Water Fluridatioon Case UPDATE: After final arguments concluded on Thursday June 18th, Judge Edward
M. Chen (the Court) made a surprise proposal that he defer judgement, while EPA and the plaintiffs discuss a solution that will satisfy both.
The Court appeared convinced by the science indicating that fluoride poses an unacceptable neurotoxic
risk to the 200 million in the U.S. (about 2/3s of the total population) who currently receive artificially fluoridated tapwater, with the greatest risk to perinatal infants and children.
The Court has asked the two sides talk to each other, and come back
and talk with him in July, then have a formal conference with documents in August (Ms. Carfora said EPA needed at least two months). The Court will postpone ruling on the case, as long as necessary, until alternatives have been exhausted.
More than a single tactic, what must be abolished is the dark institutional mindset that pervades law enforcement, brazenly displayed against peaceful protesters exercising their 1st amendment rights and with full knowledge the cameras were rolling.
In addition, the Court determined that EPA has been applying the wrong standard to fluoride, looking for causation of harm, instead risk of harm. Risk alone is the standard mandated by statute, and any evaluation done under EPA’s current standard will be legally flawed.
The Northern California town of Fort Bragg is in desperate need of a name change ASAP! Sure, there will be some relatively minor expenses for residents from the municipal name change, but the cost of keeping the town’s current obnoxiously racist name will be far greater.
- Carol Goodwin Blick CleanWaterSonomaMarin.org
Re-Name Fort Bragg
6 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 7/20