Tomorrow afternoon, you can find out what the N-P-D-E-S system is all about. Not to keep you in suspense, I am authorized to tell KUSP listeners that NPDES stands for “National Pollution Discharge Elimination System.” This is a regulatory program established under federal law to help implement the Clean Water Act. In our system of government, federal policies are most often implemented not directly by federal agencies, but by requiring state governments to take the necessary actions to do what the federal law says. In turn, state governments frequently discharge their obligations under federal law by placing responsibilities on local units of government.

The federal Clean Water Act, among other things, requires states to clean up stormwater discharges that might affect the environment, including the marine environment. In California, the state has established a system of Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and these state agencies have placed requirements on local cities and counties. Tomorrow afternoon, at 4:00 o’clock, the Salinas City Council will get a report on how well the City of Salinas is complying with a 1999 Discharge Order, demanding that it clean up stormwater discharges. The fate of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary hangs in significant part on how well Salinas, and other local jurisdictions, comply with federal and state requirements.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

City of Salinas Website
http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/index.html

Salinas City Council Agenda, August 31, 2004
http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/CCouncil/CCminutes/CCmin/CCag.html

EPA Regulations
http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/npdes/stormwater.html

California’s Municipal Stormwater Program
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/stormwtr/municipal.html

Stormwater Order For Salinas
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/stormwtr/docs/salinas_permit_99_087.pdf

Local communities have the right (and the responsibility) to establish rules, regulations, goals, policies, objectives, and etc. governing land use. Community decisions about land use policy will, in a very significant way, affect our future. Such decisions have both economic and environmental impacts, and profoundly affect our efforts to advance social equity. Since every single land use decision must, by law, be “consistent” with the policies established in the local General Plan, the General Plan is the single most important policy document governing land use within a community.

A number of local governments along the Central Coast are in the midst of a General Plan update process. I have frequently urged listeners to get involved in these efforts, since the General Plan is so important. But here is a pertinent question, “after the General Plan is adopted, what happens then?” How do members of the community know that the policies of the General Plan are actually being followed? How do they measure whether the policies are actually accomplishing what they’re supposed to accomplish?

One technique is to establish a periodic, public review of the community General Plan, to see how it’s working out in practice. This evening, the Scotts Valley City Council is considering just such a review of its General Plan, last updated in 1994. You can check it out by clicking on the Land Use Report link at www.kusp.org.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Scotts Valley Website
http://www.scottsvalley.org/

Agenda, September 1, 2004 Meeting
http://www.scottsvalley.org/cca.PDF

Boronda is a relatively small “unincorporated” community right next door to Salinas. “Unincorporated” means that the Boronda community is not located within the official boundaries of the City of Salinas, so that land use and other governmental decisions are under the jurisdiction of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

Santa Cruz County listeners can think of comparable unincorporated communities in Santa Cruz County, like Davenport, Felton, Boulder Creek, Aptos, Live Oak (and others). All of these communities are “unincorporated,” meaning that they are not cities, and are under the jurisdiction of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. Live Oak, like Boronda, is within a redevelopment area, and being within a redevelopment area makes a big difference. Live Oak has been able to obtain street, parks, and library improvements over the past twenty years or so, largely because the redevelopment agency has made special funding available. That kind of funding is not available in communities like Davenport, Felton, and Boulder Creek, where there is no redevelopment agency.

At any rate, redevelopment funding is available and is going to continue to be available to the Boronda community, and the Monterey County Board of Supervisors has established a Citizens Advisory Committee, to help develop, and then implement, a community plan for Boronda, using redevelopment funds. The Committee meets this evening at 6:00 p.m., at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel Meeting Room.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Information on a Redevelopment Video

• http://www.porterpictures.com/
  main/corporate/stepping.html
• http://www.porterpictures.com/main/
  corporate/images/steppingstone.pdf

Boronda Redevelopment CAC
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/bcandc/boronda.htm

List of Members
http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/boards/
BorondaCAC/Boronda%20CAC.htm

I got a letter the other day from Steve Leonard, Vice President and General Manager of the Monterey Division of the California American Water Company. The letter was signed jointly with Curtis Weeks, General Manager of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. The letter outlined a number of upcoming public meetings to discuss the proposed “Coastal Water Project.” There’s more information at www.kusp.org.

The “Coastal Water Project” is a large desalination plant proposed to be located in Moss Landing. Cal-Am, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest private water companies, would apparently like to take control of public waters in Monterey County, using public money, in order to advance its private business. Whether that happens, or not, will depend in large part on the kind of public involvement that occurs at the local level.

Cal-Am has a responsibility to reduce its withdrawals of water from the Carmel River. The Moss Landing desalination plant, with a new pipeline to the Peninsula, is the company’s proposed solution. The County Water Resources Agency has now also gotten into the act, presumably to increase the amount of water produced. If the plant only produces what is needed to comply with the Carmel River Order, then the proposed pipeline would probably not be “growth inducing.” If the plant produces more, the Coastal Water Project could mean the suburbanization of all of the lands from Castroville to Marina, along Highway One.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Monterey County Water Resources Agency
http://www.mcwra.co.monterey.ca.us/

Full Schedule of upcoming meetings:

• On Wednesday, September 8th, a Town Hall meeting will be held in Pacific Grove, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Sally Griffin Senior Center, 700 Jewell Avenue, Pacific Grove.
• On Monday, September 13th, a Town Hall meeting will be held in Carmel Valley, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Crossroads Community Room, 243 Crossroads Boulevard, Carmel Valley.
• On Thursday, September 16th, a Town Hall meeting will be held in Monterey, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Monterey Youth Center, 777 Pearl Street, Monterey.
• There will be a future Town Hall meeting in Moss Landing, time and place yet to be determined.
• There will be a future Town Hall meeting in Carmel Valley, time and place yet to be determined.

Frequent listeners know that I’m always trying to send you off to one meeting or another. How about a meeting in Eureka?

Next Wednesday, the California Coastal Commission is meeting in Eureka, and will be continuing its periodic review of the Monterey County Local Coastal Program, or “LCP.” Under the California Coastal Act, each local government with lands inside the Coastal Zone must prepare a Local Coastal Program, to show how that local government will protect coastal resources. After the State Coastal Commission certifies the LCP, the local government can largely make decisions without Coastal Commission involvement (except for appeals). The Coastal Act does require, however, that the Commission conduct a periodic review of the LCP. In this case, the Commission intended to combine its periodic review of the LCP with a review of the proposed Monterey County General Plan Update. The decision of the Board of Supervisors to “start over” on the General Plan Update, after five years of work and the expenditure of $5 million dollars, has thrown the Commission a distinct “curve ball.”

An appeal of the proposed “Sunridge Views” subdivision in North Monterey County, as approved by the Board of Supervisors over strong legal objections, will also be heard in Eureka. Water overdraft and ag land preservation are the key issues. The appeal was filed by LandWatch Monterey County, Friends Artists and Neighbors of Elkhorn Slough, and two members of the Commission itself.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

More Information:

Coastal Commission Website
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/

Agenda, September 8, 2004 Meeting
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html

Staff Report, Monterey County LCP Review
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/sc/W7c-9-2004.pdf

Staff Report, Sunridge Views Appeal
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/sc/W10b-9-2004.pdf

LandWatch letters on Sunridge Views Project
http://www.landwatch.org/pages/issuesactions/northcounty.html