|
|
|
This Page Designed & Copyrighted By: Webmasters Torri Barrett
James Barrett
|
Even in Death, Cannell Full of Shit by J. F. McGuire Since the retirement and passing of Salton Community Services District General Manager Thomas Cannell in January of 2010 many of his best kept secrets have slowly oozed out from underneath the veil of secrecy and deceit that was the trademark of his decades long tenure as manager and board director. Of all those secrets that have come to light as of late, the one about the recently commissioned Thomas R. Cannell Wastewater Treatment Facility is probably the most relevant to the wellbeing of the population of the Salton City area. From the very beginning of the procurement process the Board of Directors were told and led to believe by Cannell and the engineering firm of Krieger and Stewart that the new wastewater treatment facility they were designing and proposing would have an initial capacity of 250,000 gallons a day (GDP) expandable to 500,000 GPD with the simple installation of additional aerator pumps in the second pond that was to be excavated as part of the initial construction process. Being that the old Salton City treatment ponds were at critical mass at 200,000 GPD coming in to it, and that it was leaking untreated sewage into the Arroyo Salada wash, as well as contaminating residential properties surrounding it, the Board of Directors voted to go forward with the construction of the new ponds which would be paid for with the remaining 5.5 million dollars that was left in the Sewer Construction Fund. Little did the directors know at the time that they were being sold a bill of goods. The original design, as was explained to the board by Cannell and Krieger and Stewart, would consist of one percolation pond that would have aerator pumps installed in it and have a capacity of 250,000 GPD, plus another pond that would be excavated and plumbed at the same time that would set dormant until its individual 250,000 GPD capacity was needed. When that time arrived, the directors were told, all that would be needed to commission that second pond was the simple addition of some of the same type of aerator pumps that were to be installed in the first pond. With the commissioning of the second pond the board was told that the total capacity of the new facility would be 500,000 GPD. After the resignation and death of Cannell the magnitude of his legacy and its underlying deceit has come full circle. Contrary to what Cannell and Krieger and Stewart told the Board of Directors at the beginning of the procurement process, the new treatment facility was never designed to handle 500,000 GPD. The reality of the situation is that the two ponds that were constructed never had a 250,000 GPD capacity each, for a total of 500,000 GPD, but rather their design capacities were only 125,000 GPD each for a total of 250,000 GPD, which happened to be only 25% more than the ailing old ponds were receiving at that time. Conversations with, and documents received from the state water quality control board have revealed that Cannell’s and Krieger and Stewart’s promise of a 500,000 GPD capacity was all reliant on the addition of a secondary treatment process that would reclaim some of the wastewater flowing into the facility. This fact was never mentioned to the Board of Directors either before or after the construction of the new facility was completed. The first time that the board had ever been told about any requirement to build a secondary treatment plant for water reclamation was months after the new facility had been completed and commissioned. In fact the board was always told that the 8 inch reclaimed water line that was installed to the new facility at the same time as the 12 inch waste line was for future use only. The board was never told that secondary treatment would be needed to achieve the promised 500,000 GPD capacity. These lies and perpetuated misconceptions have left the citizens of the district holding the bag, and what ever you do, don’t hold that bag too close because it is about to burst under the pressure of the raw sewage that is once again threatening to spill into Salton City. From opening day of the Thomas R. Cannell Wastewater Treatment Facility it has been at near capacity, and as you read this that capacity has been exceeded to the point where the new district General Manager, Rosa Reagles, was forced to ask the water quality control board if the district could reopening the dilapidated and formally leaking old Salton City Ponds; ponds that 5.5 million dollars of taxpayers money was used to replace. The stated request was to reopen the old ponds for emergency overflow use only, and not as a regular part of the daily sewer system. And what about future sewage treatment capacity for when the 300 or so vacant houses become occupied and new ones get built? Under the law when the districts sewage inflows reached 85% of the design capacity of the new treatment facility the district was required to inform the water quality control board about what the districts plan was for increasing capacity. As of 6 months after that 85% threshold was reached the district has not yet advised the water board of any such required plan. As for where the money is going to come from for increasing needed capacity, it is obvious, it will come from you the ratepayer who has collectively stood idly by while the district skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sewer construction fund to reimburse the district office for construction related sewer construction office overhead in years where no such construction ever took place. Open wide, its time to swallow.
|
