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Clean Air Projects Program (CAPP) Administrator Lisa Isaacs officially secured a $5.5 million air pollution management mitigation contract from the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (GBUAPCD) Governing Board on Monday. The contract will fund both direct projects, such as paved roads and diesel generators, and indirect projects, such as education, to help cut down on air pollution in Mono, Inyo and Alpine counties.

The money comes from the LADWP, explained Isaacs; “Essentially it’s a judgment on air emission issues that they agreed to pay to go toward something like this.”

One hundred and seventy five thousand dollars of the funds have already been approved by the District Board to pay for a stretch of paved road in Keeler, which will cut down on dust pollution. Another $500,000 was awarded to Bishop-based Inyo Mono Advocates for Community Action, and will be used for weatherizing and updating non-compliant and inefficient heating devices, some in low-income housing, such as wood stoves and fireplaces. “This project will get measurable results: we’ll know how many stoves are being replaced, and how much smoke they would be producing,” Isaacs said.

Dust and smoke are two of the primary pollutants in the District, particularly in the southern end of Inyo, which is home to Owens Dry Lake. The dust from that area is a problem because it is PM (particulate matter) 10, which means the fine particles of dust are small enough to get into the lungs. The District also has problems with smoke from frequent forest fires. One solution would be to “turn our local-standing dead trees into fuel and burn them as pellets,” which are less smoke-producing than wood, according to Isaacs.

In Mammoth, the biggest problem is road cinders swept into the air by traffic. “The Air Quality Management Plan for the Town of Mammoth Lakes is from ’91. Updating it would be a great project to fund.” Isaacs also envisioned setting aside funding for expanded street sweeper services to combat the cinder problem.

Isaacs will be releasing a call for projects before the end of the year. Projects need to be finalized by 2013, so she hopes to have proposals in by early 2012. “We’re trying to stretch the $5 million as far as possible with the help of matching funds and partnerships.”

The funding is open to everyone, from individuals to the federal government. For more information, contact Lisa Isaacs at capp@gbuapcd.org.

Was redistricting about fairness, or political expediency? 

As I pondered the absurdity of Mono County’s redistricting process, which resulted in having 700 Mammoth Knolls residents being lumped into District 4 to join their County brethren in Bridgeport, Walker and Coleville, I decided to call Knolls resident Dawn Vereuck for a reaction.

Vereuck, who’s been burning the midnight oil volunteering for Mammoth Rocks, hasn’t been keeping up with the news of late and was caught unawares. “How is that even possible?” she asked, a little stunned.

How did Nancy Walter, who’s been away most of the summer traveling in Russia, react? “I’m not overly happy,” she said. When asked if the Knolls residents had essentially been treated as sacrifical lambs in the process, Walter replied, “I wouldn’t call it sacrificial. But certainly, it was the most expedient [decision]. They felt we could learn to live with it.”

Tom Cage wasn’t so benign. “700 people in Mammoth Lakes will get no representation,” he said. “It stinks of unfair political practices.” Then he paused for a moment. “It feels unfair … I don’t know whether it is.”

In Kirkner’s story last week, Byng Hunt was quoted as saying, “Maybe it will open the door to more conversation between north and south counties.”

When asked about that comment this week, Hunt said candidly, “I was very honestly trying to assuage myself [with that comment].”

“The other options were equally absurd,” he added. “It [Option B] was the best of the lousy answers.”

The lousy answer achieved by the redistricting committee and approved by the Mono Supervisors on a least affected 3/most affected 2 vote, was arrived at much like the answer to a Sudoku puzzle. Through the power of elimination, you end up with the inevitable result.

In this case, District 3 Supervisor Vikki Bauer (by far the best politician in Mono County), convinced all that Lee Vining and June Lake needed to be reunited within one district.

Then it was determined that combining all the rural communities into one super rural district stretching north-south from Topaz to Chalfant [Option A] wasn’t workable because we couldn’t possibly expect a Supervisor to represent a district that unwieldy in terms of travel.

Then it was decided that the demographics of Hap Hazard’s District 2 are largely unchanged so why mess with it. Besides, as Bauer explained, “Hap begs off every issue involving Mammoth that comes before us. He views Mammoth as a cesspool.”

So obviously, tweaking Hazard’s district to include part of Mammoth would meet with stiff resistance.

One option which didn’t even make the final round voting was the one titled B2. This would have preserved Tim Hansen’s residence in District 4 and ability to run again for his seat.

But Mammoth Supervisor Byng Hunt didn’t like that option because it would’ve “decimated” his district and made it too “jagged.”

“At least he’s still got a district,” deadpanned Hansen.

When asked if he would run against Bauer for the District 3 seat, Hansen demurred. “I’m a lame duck. No offense, but I want nothing to do with June Lake and Mammoth Lakes.”

Hansen, however, thinks that the redistricting gives Mammoth more power, not less, with Mammoth having a vote in four of five districts.

Two Mammoth districts are 100% Mammoth. Bauer’s District 3 is comprised of 63% Mammoth voters. District 4 will have 23% Mammoth voters.

Mammoth Lakes Town Councilman Rick Wood said his initial thought was that even though Mammoth would have just a slice of District 4, he thought that slice  would be large enough to provide a certain degree of leverage.

When informed that the slice was 23%, Wood replied, “That’s not leverage.”

“All we’ll do with the demographics [over the next decade] is that Mammoth will continue to grow and continue to be underrepresented.”

Bauer countered, “They [the Town] are in such desperate straits [financially] that all they wanted was three seats so they could hijack the County budget.”

Bauer is currently the only supervisor who is essentially a swing vote, balancing the interests of incorporated Mammoth and unincorporated Mono County.

She said one thing that’s become evident during the redistricting process is that there remains a lot of friction between Mammoth and the outlying Mono communities.

But, she said, what Mammoth residents don’t often take into consideration is that they have the benefit of an extra layer of government. If the unincorporated areas aren’t properly served by the County, they have nowhere to turn.

I asked Bauer what would have happened if District 4 had been stretched southward and June Lake had been split. How many June Lake voters would have been lumped into a largely Mammoth district?

About 200 was the reply.

Is it fair then, I followed, to disenfranchise 700 Knolls voters as opposed to, say, 200 June Lake voters?

Because Mammoth has the extra layer of government, she said, the 200 June Lake voters deserve more consideration.

Sticker price

I talked to Mammoth Lakes Tourism’s John Urdi on Tuesday to ask him about the letter to the editor which appeared last week criticzing his sticker postcard.

Urdi said 5,200 postcards were sent out and that MLT spent about $3,000 on the effort.

The $36,000 number referenced in the letter concerns the entire budget for the rebranding effort in the short term , placing the logo on Town vehicles, business cards, website, et. al.

“I have heard only a few truly negative things about the branding [process],” said Urdi. But he thinks it’s critical. “Mammoth Lakes is a destination. It’s not Gardnerville.”

Criticism, he said, comes with change. Mammoth Mountain caught heat when it transitioned its logo, noted Urdi.

Cottonwood Plaza

Expect the chain link fence to come down in Bishop sometime soon now that investor Ray Eslamieh has bought the Cottonwood Plaza in Bishop.

Eslamieh owns a number of El Pollo Loco franchises down south.

The initial thought was that Eslamieh would put an El Pollo Loco into the old Burger King location as an anchor tenant, but it was determined that Bishop is not a large enough community for an El Pollo franchise.

Unfortunately, Eslamieh has been suffering from illness of late, so pending his recovery, the rental and renovation process has stalled.

Isaacs wins recommendation

Ted Schade of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (GBUAPCD) announced this week that he is recommending his Board award the management contract for the $6 million in mitigation money paid to the district by the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power to Lisa Isaacs.

Isaacs would oversee disbursement of the funds to organizations which would create local clean air projects.

Isaacs and Rick Phelps of the High Sierra Energy Foundation were the only two bidders. Isaacs bid was $86/hour or $172,000/year. Phelps bid was $125/hour or $254,000/year.

Both bids contemplated one total full-time employee.

The contract will last for two years, and likely three said Schade.

The Board will have the option of accepting Schade’s recommendation, choosing Phelps, or directing staff to run the program with existing personnel.

Town hiring!

That is not a misprint.

The Sheet learned this week that interviews were held this week to hire a “temporary maintenance worker” at the airport.

When asked why the hire is being made now, Airport Manager Bill Manning replied, “Brian Picken and I are the only remaining airport employees from last winter and as such there is a significant amount of firefighting, snow removal, and general airport training required for the new hires.”

Hmm. Doesn’t sound temporary.

When asked where the job was advertised, Sr. Personnel Analyst Noreen Wilbur said the job was posted in June in the Fifty Center, Inyo Register and Town website.

Interesting, since The Sheet has the Town’s legal classified contract and yet the legal classified was placed elsewhere.

Several Councilmembers were unaware of the planned hiring.

Finally, a late press release from the Sheriff’s Dept.

But pay me $6.5 million while you’re at it

When there’s a delay, one pays.

For the City of Los Angeles, a delay in the implementation of dust controls mandated by the Great Basin Air Pollution Control District has resulted in a $6.5 million settlement.

According to Great Basin Pollution Control Officer Ted Schade, who negotiated the settlement, the District ordered the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power to implement dust mitigation measures over 13 square miles of Owens Dry Lake in 2008.

LADWP had two years to comply.

However, by October 2010, only 10 square miles of mitigation had been completed.

The $6.5 million settlement gives the LADWP until December 2013 to complete the remaining 3 square miles.

The $6.5 million is intended to be used for  local clean air projects to offset potential excess dust emissions generated by the deadline extension.

Preference will be given to projects in the southern Inyo County areas most affected by the delay.

LADWP has spent almost $1 billion performing dust mitigation and rewatering on roughly 40 square miles of Owens Lake. Under the new deal, LADWP will be allowed to “transition” three square miles of existing shallow flooding to a mix of vegetation, some flooding and gravel cover. The water saved will be routed to the new 3.1 square miles that are to be controlled. Projected cost of the endeavor: $110 million.

Within the past year, LADWP, the subject of intense environmental scrutiny for its water diversion practices during the past several decades, joined with a consortium of 60 local, state and federal agencies, organizations and various advocacy groups to develop a master plan for Owens Lake’s future.

“The LADWP has worked diligently to implement dust control measures on Owens Lake since 2000,” commented Schade. “Dust storms blowing off the lakebed have been dramatically reduced.” New LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols, who recently took over for former GM David Nahai, echoed Schade’s sentiment, issuing a statement saying LADWP is “pleased that we have been able to work with Great Basin to come up with a solution that allows us to meet our dust mitigation commitments on Owens Lake.” He went on to praise dust reduction and improvements to wildlife habitats achieved during the last 10 years.

-Lunch/Press Release

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Plastic floating in our oceans is getting out of control forming an island of plastic and debris. (Photo courtesy Great Pacific Garbage Patch)

By Dr. Mike Dostrow

Imagine a snow-capped mountaintop. From its expansive glacial moraine flows a pristine cascade of clear refreshing water. The picture of purity? Perhaps, but you can’t always judge a book by its’ cover or, in this case, a bottle by its label.
The bottled water industry would certainly like us to believe that water from the bottle is better than other sources. The fact is, however, that they are not well regulated and their claims of purity are often unsubstantiated. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested more than one thousand bottles of about 100 brands for various contaminants and concluded that nearly one third of the water tested exceeded allowable limits set by the EPA.
Although bottled water is tested, it is sampled less frequently than municipal sources and held to a less stringent standard. And despite the scenic labels, the water tested by the NRDC was found to be nothing more than tap water in about a quarter of the samples. Of course, some bottled water is treated and filtered but a uniform standard for this industry is still lacking
Extensive use of bottled water is an extension of consumer mistrust of municipal drinking water. Bottled water, however, can often prove thousands of times more expensive than tap water and is often more expensive than gasoline! The expense of bottled water stems from marketing, transportation and production of plastic bottles.
Almost 15 million barrels of crude oil are utilized by manufacturers to move and make the 30 billion bottles of water consumed by Americans annually. It is estimated that only 1 in 6 of plastic bottles is recycled. The remainder wind up in landfills or floating in the ocean with the resulting heinous insult to our rapidly dwindling environment.
Where does all this plastic wind up? Some of it is carried by ocean currents to a vast mass of floating garbage, 800 miles west of San Francisco known as the “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” About the size of Texas and weighing several hundred tons, this environmental nightmare is composed of eighty percent plastic. While most plastic is not biodegradable, the action of the waves and elements break it down to particles small enough to be consumed by marine life, thus entering the food chain.
The effects of this toxic ingestion are being studied by marine biologists but it doesn’t take Jacques Cousteau to tell us that it will have profound consequences on everything living in this area. Preliminary analysis revealed that this slurry of plastic particles is seven times more abundant than the area’s naturally occurring phytoplankton. Although oceanographers studying this atrocity say clean-up would be “almost impossible,” we can help by limiting our use of all plastic products and recycling when possible.
As we have established the undeniable link between plastic and pollution perhaps we should explore evidence regarding bottled water intake and health. Where does the plastic end and the water begin?
A recent study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that 95 percent of Americans have a chemical known as bisphenol-A (BPA) in their urine. BPA comes from plastic and can leach from containers into their contents. BPA is found in a wide variety of products, most notably, polycarbonate containers, the lining of aluminum cans and even water towers and pipes. BPA is known as a xenoestrogen and an endocrine disruptor. It mimics the effects of estrogen and may be linked to hormone irregularities, premature onset of puberty as well as breast and prostate cancer. A recent British study indicated that high levels of BPA could be associated with heart disease and diabetes. According to the National Institutes of Health, BPA poses “minimal health risks overall.”
Nevertheless, BPA-free containers, baby bottles and sippy cups continue to sell like hotcakes. Alternatives to BPA containing polycarbonate plastics include polyethylene and polypropylene. The composition of plastics can be determined by the recycling code, which appears as a number inside a triangular symbol on each plastic container, usually on the bottom. Polycarbonate (BPA-containing) plastics often bear the number 7. In general, numbers 1-6 are considered BPA-free. This, however, does not ensure their absolute safety as other byproducts of plastic breakdown may be unhealthful as well. Reuse of containers is commendable but remember that heating and washing of plastic can hasten its breakdown.
The bottom line: ome people just prefer bottled water and there are times (on the road or traveling abroad) when its use is unavoidable. In my opinion, however, properly filtered tap water is as good or better than most bottled brands. When you consider the inflated cost, the impact on our precious environment and the possible health effects, it makes sense to utilize a reusable container to drink your recommended 2-3 liters of water per day. Otherwise, attempt to recycle plastic whenever possible.
“It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.” -Hunter S. Thompson

For more info on plastic and recycling visit www.earth911.com/plastic and go to www.cnn.com/pacificgarbagepatch to learn about the patch.