By: Libi Uremovic | Original Article at Patch.com
2014 Amendment to the Basin Plan shows the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board still Pacifying City.
In 1994 the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board established the Basin Plan which included a plan for the City of Beaumont to become Title 22 Compliant and produce Recycled Water. The deadline for the City of Beaumont to build a desalted and provide Recycled Water was originally 2001, but has been extended by the Regional Board numerous times. The last deadline was December 23, 2014. The new deadline is five (5) years after submitting a Plan, but the City hasn’t submitted a Plan in 20 years, so it’s not likely to happen now.
It was the duty of the Regional Board to monitor the City of Beaumont and protect the Citizenry. For 20 years the Regional Water Quality Board has allowed the City to forge reports, drop deadlines, and build 10,000 houses without proper sewer facilities and an adequate water supply.
The City of Beaumont acquired three (3) Bonds totaling $25.8 Million, charged Mello Roos taxes, and levied numerous other taxes and fees to raise the money needed to build the desalted and become Title 22 Compliant, but the Elected and Appointed Officials of Beaumont stole the money instead of developing the infrastructure.
For the past 20 years the Beaumont Sewer Plant has been controlled by Urban Logic. The Board has issued faux requirements to have another company operate the Plant, but all Urban Logic had to do to satisfy the Board was change the letterhead on their stationary. As recently as August 12, 2014 Executive Officer Kurt Berchtold addressed a letter to Kishen Prathivadi, who is an Urban Logic Employee.
Widermuth has been paid $1/4 Million yearly to write forged reports for the City that the Regional Board has repeatedly accepted.
A map of the Beaumont Sewer Lines shows not a planned City, but a rigged City. The Sewer Lines were installed from each Development to the Sewer Plant without any regard to the rest of the City. The City installed six (6) Lift Stations to force the flow of sewage to the Sewer Plant instead of properly laying the pipes to allow a natural flow of sewage.
From 1994 to 2014 the City of Beaumont built 10,000 houses and is currently constructing 12,000 more. These property owners are being told that the City has recycled water and a ‘state-of-the-art’ wastewater facility that doesn’t exist.
The 1994 Basin Plan Page 5-69 requires the City of Beaumont to submit plans for a desaltr/brine line to be completed in 7 years (2001).
In April 2014 the Regional Water Quality Control Board recently amended the Basin Plan with yet another fantasy deadline for Beaumont:
“The City of Beaumont shall construct and operate desalting facilities and brine disposal facilities to improve recycled water quality and/or other sources of non-potable supply. A detailed desalter/brine line plan and schedule shall be submitted by January 30, 2015. The schedule shall assure that these facilities are in place within 5 years of Executive Officer approval.”
Common sense would dictate that if the same people that have operated the City for the past 20 years have made no attempt to comply with the RWQCB in the last two decades they’re not going to start now.
The reality is that the City has over $300 Million in Bond Debt and over $100 Million in lawsuits pending; they couldn’t build the facilities if they wanted to. The current Sewer Facilities are in such bad shape that the City would not let Staff from the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water Department onto the property.
At the 2014 Meeting to Amend the Basin Plan Representatives of neighboring Cities and Agencies attempted to protect themselves from the City of Beaumont, but the Regional Board struck down their proposals and protected Beaumont instead.
The last time the City attempted to become Title 22 Compliant was 2007. For the past decade the City of Beaumont has been allowed to overdraft the Basin. There is now estimated to be a 3-4 year supply of drinking water remaining, but that’s not considering the population from the additional 12,000 houses currently under construction.
It is unbelievable and inexcusable that the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board has enabled a few corrupt men to perpetrate a scam of this proportion, but it is even more unbelievable that the Water Board continues their laissez-faire stance to this day.
Private Citizens and Heads of Cities & Agencies throughout the Region have attempted to educate and inform the Regional Board regarding the corruption in Beaumont, but their attempts have always fallen and continues to fall on deaf ears.