A blog about Marinwood-Lucas Valley and the Marin Housing Element, politics, economics and social policy. The MOST DANGEROUS BLOG in Marinwood-Lucas Valley.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Marinwood Plaza Toxic Waste hearing 2/10/2016
Public Hearing on Marinwood Plaza Toxic Waste Cleanup
Damon Connolly, Marin County Supervisor, Regional Water Quality Control Board, Geologica and the Clean up Marinwood Plaza Now Oversight Committee.
Held at Mary Silveira Gym, Marinwood, CA 2/10/2016
Editor's Note: this is the unedited version for historical record. It may be hard to watch in some sections because I had to leave my camera position during the citizens presentations. I will edit sections to make it more accessible in the coming days.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Marinwood CSD 2/9/2016 meeting Part Two
Second half of the February 9, 2016 Marinwood CSD meeting discussing general business, new CSD Directors policy manual, general business, board and commission updates, SolEd Solar update
Marinwood CSD meeting part one. Leash law 2/9/2016
Part one of the February 9, 2016 Marinwood CSD meeting discussing the ban of the last remaining "leash optional" section in Marinwood.
Justin Kai, Leah Kleinman-Green, Izabela Perry voted to ban off leash walking. Bill Shea and Jeff Naylor opposed. The crowd was overwhelmingly in support of keeping the sixty year policy.
Puppies for Jeff Naylor!
Pandering to fears is wrong. Jeff Naylor, Marinwood CSD Director and long time residents knows that dogs have been allowed to be walked "leash optional" for all the years he has lived here. Jeff, like so many residents has compassion to those who have been hurt or even intimidated by dogs but understands that our community can easily accommodate all residents . Puppies for Jeff Naylor!
Bill Shea, Marinwood CSD Director Gets it.
Bill Shea, Marinwood CSD director supports the sixty year tradition of allowing the last "leash optional" portion of the park remain. Over 99% of the community is leash mandatory for people who don't want to be around off leash dogs. Over 36,000 dog walks happen in this area with virtually ZERO incidents. Isolated incidents and hyped fears should not be the basis for policy.
Bill Shea gets it!
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Rely on the CSD Directors to ignore Dog Owners.
Justin Kai, Marinwood CSD director ignores a roomful of citizens who support keeping the area in Marinwood which has been "leash optional" for dogs for sixty years. He cites fears for safety and legal liability, yet cannot find any supporting statistics to support his claim. The area has an estimated 36,000 dog walks a year but almost ZERO incidents. This is how freedom dies.
It's a people problem, Izabela
Izabela Perry, Marinwood CSD director informs the packed audience of dog owners why she must vote for a ban on the last "leash optional" in Marinwood Park. It is being done for "safety" despite the fact that 36,000 dog walks happen each year with almost ZERO incidents. Fear is not a good basis for making laws.
We do not need to be "saved" from our own park. We want our park back.
Leah Kleinman-Green is "Terrified"!
Leah Kleinman-Green , Marinwood CSD director expresses her support for the elimination of a "leash optional" area of the park due to her "terror". Listen as she lists her fears of off leash dogs, the danger to the park, the danger to children, danger from strangers and lawyers with lawsuits. This park has been "leash optional" for sixty years with almost ZERO incidents. The room was packed with responsible dog owners who want to maintain their freedom. Justin Kai and Izabela Perry also voted for the ban.
Marinwood approves leash requirement for popular multiuse trail

By Stephanie Weldy, Marin Independent Journal
POSTED: |
2 COMMENTS
Marinwood community leaders tightened the district’s leash law this week, saying liability concerns inspired the new requirement on multiuse trails.
Marinwood Community Services District directors voted 3-2 Tuesday to extend the leash requirement to multiuse pathways such as the popular Panhandle Trail south of Quietwood Drive, along Miller Creek. Board members Jeff Naylor and William Shea were opposed.
The ordinance can now be enforced by the Marin Humane Society on the Panhandle, the only multiuse trail in the district. Off leash violators are subject to citation and a $76 fine.
Board member Izabela Perry said she understood the ordinance may come as a shock for those who have walked their dogs unleashed for years on the trail, but safety was key in her decision to approve the restriction.
“My decision was influenced mostly by the concern for the safety of our residents and children in the community,” Perry said. “There were reports of adults and dogs being intimidated and attacked. Some of these incidences resulted in the necessity for medical treatment. That’s concerning.”
Perry, along with board member Leah Kleinman-Green and board president Justin Kai said they wanted to insulate the district from lawsuits.
“My decision was based on airing on the side of caution and working toward limiting the district’s liability if instances of any tragic incidents of attack were ever to occur in an area made known to us as having issues,” Kai said. See the full story HERE
ABAG director attacks the California Constitution for being "Anti-Government"
Ezra Rapport, Executive Director of the Association of Bay Area Governments speaks to Regional Planning Directors at a special conference held on November 13, 2015. Mr. Rapport urges allegiance to the goals of ABAG and dismisses local politics as a roadblock to their plans to raise taxes.
He even calls the California constitution as "anti-government". Does he even know the purpose of a constitution is to define the limits of government?
Mr. Rapport and his cohorts at MTC believe their mission is to govern us through a technocratic central authority of appointees that is largely insulated from the capricious public. It is the exact philosophy of fascists and socialists.
Regionalism is merely about the consolidation of power and resources in the hands of a few and flies in the face of our U.S. Constitution and Republic. The Constitution recognizes State and Federal power. No where is "Regional Authority" a legitimate form of government except as a tool for local governments to coordinate functions. We live in a dangerous age for democracy. According to Transparent California Ezra Rapport earned $298,388.80 in 2014.
See the full meeting at https://youtu.be/T3RxQUtAwlY
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Groundwater Soil Conditions similar to Marinwood and Silveira Ranch
This groundwater model shows soil conditions very near the the Toxic Plume.
Note the speed, toxic waste spreads in the layer of the confined aquifer. This is analogous to the Franciscan Plate of the Miller Creek Streambed where the PCE toxic waste has spread.
From the Geologica Remedial Action Plan page 9-10:
2 SURFACE AND SUBSURFACE CONDITIONS
Sections below describe topography and surface water near the Site, soil lithology, groundwater occurrence, and flow conditions.
2.1 TOPOGRAPHY AND SURFACE WATER
The subject property is located in the Gallinas Valley at an elevation of approximately 40 feet above Mean Sea Level (MSL). Surface topography slopes gently to the east. The Site is located approximately 500 feet north of Miller Creek, which flows in a generally easterly direction towards San Francisco Bay. San Francisco Bay is located approximately 2 miles east of the Site.
2.2 SOIL LITHOLOGY
The site and vicinity are underlain by Quaternary Alluvium consisting of unconsolidated deposits of silt, clay, sand and gravel. Franciscan bedrock comprised of sandstone and shale reportedly outcrops in highland areas north, west, and south of the site. Borings have been advanced to maximum depths of 52 feet (ft) below ground surface (bgs) on the property and 78 feet bgs on the Silveira Ranch property to the east across Highway 101. The Site and vicinity are underlain by up to 50 to 60 feet of silt, sand, and gravel deposited by a meandering ancestral Miller Creek over fractured bedrock of the Franciscan Complex. Borings advanced at and near the Site indicate that these stream deposits are variable in texture both laterally and vertically and generally become coarser with depth. Key lithologic boring locations are shown on Figure 2. Schematic subsurface cross sections are presented on Figures 3, 4, and 5. Soils encountered at the Site generally consist of a surficial sandy clay horizon overlying as many as three horizons of clayey sand separated by grading to clayey medium sand as depicted on Cross Section A-A’ (Figure 3A). The upper silt and clay horizon was encountered to depths of approximately 15 to 25 feet bgs. Varying thicknesses of more permeable sand horizons and less permeable silt and clay horizons were encountered below that depth. However, many of the permeable sand layers may have limited lateral continuity.
2.3 GROUNDWATER OCCURRENCE AND FLOW
Groundwater is encountered under semi-confined to unconfined conditions in the uppermost permeable soil horizon beneath the Site; groundwater present in deeper permeable strata appears to be semi-confined or confined by overlying finer-grained strata. As evidence of these conditions, groundwater is typically first encountered at depths of 16 to 20 feet bgs during drilling, and rises following boring completion. Groundwater levels in monitoring wells completed at the Site fluctuate seasonally, ranging from 6 to 12 feet bgs in late winter and several feet lower in late fall (see Figure 6). Generally easterly to southeasterly horizontal groundwater gradients have been identified at the property and off-site on the Silveira Ranch to Remedial Action Plan Page 5 Former Prosperity Cleaners San Rafael, CA the east. Figure 7 presents a groundwater elevation contour map for the most recent quarterly monitoring event, which was conducted in November 2015. Based on off-site investigations, groundwater north and east of Miller Creek was encountered below the upper silt and clay horizon under partially confined conditions. South of Miller Creek on the Silveira property, groundwater was encountered in a shallow sand horizon overlying the upper silt and clay horizon as well as in deeper confined units underlying the upper silt and clay horizon (See Schematic Cross Sections B-B’ and C-C’, Figures 4 and 5). Offsite investigation completed in August/September 2015 estimated groundwater elevation ranging between approximately 18 and 31 feet MSL, which is consistently above the water level in Miller Creek, indicating that the creek gains water from the underlying groundwater-bearing zone as it crosses the Silveira Ranch property.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
EPA document on the Health Effects of Dry Cleaning Fluid PCE (as is found at Marinwood Plaza.)
Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene)
127-18-4
Hazard Summary-Created in April 1992; Revised in December 2012
Tetrachloroethylene is widely used for dry-cleaning fabrics and metal degreasing operations. Effects resulting from acute (short term) high-level inhalation exposure of humans to tetrachloroethylene include irritation of the upper respiratory tract and eyes, kidney dysfunction, and neurological effects such as reversible mood and behavioral changes, impairment of coordination, dizziness, headache, sleepiness, and unconsciousness. The primary effects from chronic (long term) inhalation exposure are neurological, including impaired cognitive and motor neurobehavioral performance. Tetrachloroethylene exposure may also cause adverse effects in the kidney, liver, immune system and hematologic system, and on development and reproduction. Studies of people exposed in the workplace have found associations with several types of cancer including bladder cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma. EPA has classified tetrachloroethylene as likely to be carcinogenic to humans.
For a complete report see the EPA Website HERE
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Children are especially vulnerable to health effects of PCE. |
Monday, February 8, 2016
Important Meeting Wed, Feb 10th at 7:30 PM at Mary Silveira
Important Community Event!
Public Hearing on
Marinwood Toxic
Waste Cleanup
"Get the facts" with: Damon Connolly, Marin County Supervisor,
Regional Water Quality Control Board, Geologica and the Clean up Marinwood
Plaza Now Oversight Committee.
Learn: What is PCE, TCE
and its dangers ?
What are risks to our community if it goes untreated?
How this will affect my property values and our future?
You'll see the latest test reports, current maps of the
toxic plume and other exhibits. Experts available to answer your
questions.
Don't Miss it! One Night Only!
Wed. Feb 10th at 7:30 PM.
Mary Silveira School
375 Blackstone Dr.
Susan Adams Marin Voice Column March 15, 2013
AS A CATHOLIC SECOND-GRADER, first confession meant
entering a small, dark closet- like room and waiting for the priest to hear our
sins. Eighth-graders started the rumor that child-eating mummies were hiding in
a secret passage behind the wall of the confessionals. Fear and pandemonium
ensued, making it almost impossible for the good sisters to control the
chaos.
I am reminded of this as I read the blogs, Lucas
Valley and Marinwood doorway leaflets and letters to the editor about the
horrors that will supposedly befall us if we allow workforce housing into our
communities.
According to these literary works, education will deteriorate, property
values will crash, high-rise Dubai-style apartment complexes will sprout up in
Lucas Valley and thugs will terrorize our neighborhoods.
Misinformation and half-truths are being purported as fact. SPAM email
petitions disappear in county SPAM filters and don't allow the opportunity for
responses to concerned constituents.
Fear No. 1: Gangs and thugs equate with affordable housing. "Those people"
increase crime and don't pay taxes."
Examples of affordable, high-quality, high-density housing exist in our
county. Non-profit housing projects which are run by organizations such as EAH
and BRIDGE exist in West Marin, Larkspur, Corte Madera, San Rafael and Novato
and rent to low-income seniors, child care and home support workers, retailers,
teachers, nurses and others making less than $65,000 per year who contribute to the fabric
of our communities.
Properties are typically well managed. Anyone can drive down Lucas Valley
Road and see what a high-density housing project with a three-year waiting list
looks like for low-income seniors at Rotary Village.
The 80 units are clustered, small, one-story and well- maintained with
residents engaged in the community.
Fear No. 2: The quality of public school education will deteriorate. There
are already too many children and no capacity.
Established in 1864, Dixie is one of the oldest districts in Marin. It
started as a small one-room school house serving the local farming and ranching
families.
During the development surge of 1955-69, two junior high schools and eight
elementary schools peaked at 4,900 students.
The lowest enrollment of 1,000 in 1985-86 left only Miller Creek Middle
School, Dixie and Vallecito operational. As older people leave the district and
new families arrive, another expansion is underway. In Basic Aid schools,
property owners pay taxes regardless of whether they have children in school.
District taxpayers consistently vote for parcel assessments because it's good
for our kids and our property values. Those without children in school continue
to subsidize the educations of those with children.
While non-profit housing is exempt from ad valorem taxes, they are not exempt
from the extra school parcel assessments and taxes.
Fear No. 3: Affordable workforce housing will ruin property values. A
derelict strip mall with a toxic plume, drug dealing and vandalism ruins
property values.
The Marinwood/Lucas Valley community and the property owner worked together
over the past eight years to create a redevelopment concept for the Marinwood
Plaza.
There have been many meetings over the years.
The concept of a mixed-use village has been in the works for quite a while
and was memorialized at a board meeting about the general plan Sept. 26, 2006,
which is archived on the county web for viewing.
Phase 1 brought our wonderful grocery store and farmers market. An eyesore
has been transformed, the toxic waste remediated and a vibrancy is
returning.
The county website is a great resource.
My door is always open and I welcome the opportunity to discuss your concerns
and suggestions. Together, we can work through the challenges.
Susan Adams of Marinwood represents District 1 on
the Marin Board of Supervisors. She has served on the county board since
2003.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
This piece is breathtakingly deaf to the real concerns of accommodating 71% of all affordable housing for unincorporated Marin in Marinwood-Lucas Valley.
We would rather have productive communication and practical solutions.
P.S. State regulators confirm that the toxic waste spill at Marinwood Plaza is still not fully remediated. Although there is a slow process underway to clean it, the major removal of soil on the property and under the 101 Freeway on ramp has not begun. Even Bridge Housing acknowledges that only a portion of the clean up has begun. We cannot understand why Susan Adams claims it is complete. Perhaps she will be willing to speak to the subject in full detail. To accuse the public of "spreading misinformation" when there is lack of transparency and misinformation given to the public is misleading at best. Susan Adams lobbied to DELAY TOXIC WASTE clean up in February 2014 despite the health risk to the community. See this shocking video.
One thing we can thank former Supervisor Adams for is building community in Marinwood-Lucas Valley. We have met hundreds of our neighbors since this controversy arose.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
No Justice For Flint Water Victims
No Justice For Flint Water Victims
Unlike private companies, they can't sue their government
Shikha Dalmia | February 2, 2016
Michigan's state and local officials poisoned Flint's water with lead but innocent federal taxpayers are the ones having
Bert van Dijk via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SAto foot the cleanup bill. President Obama has pledged to hand Flint $85 million in aid money. This sounds like a lot, but the fact of the matter is that it is far less than what Flint's victims would have gotten if a corporation — rather than government — had been the culprit. That's because, unlike private companies, the government is shielded from liability lawsuits.

This would be an excellent argument for the wholesale privatization of public utilities, but, alas, privatization is a dirty word in the liberal lexicon.
After initially giving Michigan Governor Rick Snyder only $5 million in going away money to help Flint residents buy water filters and bottled water, President Obama finally acquiesced this week to pleas for more help and authorized another $80 million. Now he's also considering Snyder's request for extending Medicaid eligibility to all Flint children up to age 21 regardless of their income or insurance status.
Setting aside the Medicaid expansion, the $85 million in federal aid combined with the$28 million in state aid that Snyder has arranged, works out to on average $1,000 for each of Flint's 99,700 residents — or about $4,000 for a family of four.
But consider the horror they are confronting:
As has been widely reported, 6.4 percent of Flint's nearly 8,500 kids are now testing for dangerously high lead levels in their blood stream — up from 3.6 percent before the city switched them from Detroit water to toxic Flint River water. Many of these children have developed rashes and brittle bones and face the prospect of permanent brain damage, diminished IQ, and behavioral difficulties. But kids are not the only ones hurt. Around 85 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease — a particularly horrible form of pneumonia — compared to around six to 13 in a normal year. Ten of them have already died.
Even if Obama expands free Medicaid for all Flint children, the rest of the medical bills — deductibles and co-pays — for middle-income Flint families will be substantial. Nor is that their only financial exposure.
The lead poisoning occurred because Flint failed to treat water with phosphorous, something that corroded the coating inside city pipes and home plumbing, allowing lead to leach in. Though switching back to treated water has diminished the lead content for now, the danger of lead poisoning will always remain unless all the piping is refitted. But replacing city pipes will cost up to $1.5 billion. This would be difficult for even a financially healthy city, let alone one that can't even pay its existing bills and has unfunded pension liabilities of $1.1 billion.
What's more, each homeowner will face at least $4,000 to install a new water heater, plumbing system, and a new service line connection, as The Washington Post points out. And then of course there is the hit to Flint's already declining property values as the city further cements its reputation as an irremediable basket case.
It is an understatement to say that Flint residents are in for some very tough times. But compare the pittance that they will get to the compensation that General Motors and Toyota crash victims received.
GM had to pony up $35 million to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration) and $900 million to the Justice Department in penalties for the faulty switch in its 2005 Cobalt that was linked to 125 deaths and 250 injuries. What's more, despite the totally deplorable liability shield or immunity from personal injury lawsuits the automaker received from the Obama administration as part of its 2009 bankruptcy restructuring, it still paid $625 million in compensation to the victims. And of course it recalled and fixed all the 2.6 million affected vehicles. All in all, it was down $1.5 billion.
But Toyota coughed up more than double that amount for its suddenly accelerating vehicles that resulted in 12 deaths and 31 accidents. It paid $1.2 billion in fines to Justice and $35 million to NHTSA and fixed all the vehicles, of course. In addition, it made an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount that was likely more than what GM paid to each victim. But the real kicker is that, because it did not have GM's liability shield, it also paid $1.6 billion to all Toyota owners for the loss of the resale value of their cars.
Compare all of that to the $115 million or so that Flint victims will receive!
The main reason that they don't have a prayer of collecting much more is something called the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Under this doctrine, citizens are barred from suing their government for screw-ups that it has caused in the course of discharging a core function unless the government itself consents. Some very narrow exceptions exist but it is very difficult to make them stick.
Some activist lawyers in Michigan have come up with a creative constitutional argument to try and surmount the sovereign immunity hurdle. They have filed a class action lawsuit on the grounds that the government failed to provide Flint residents with equal protection under the 14th Amendment. But this rationale is a stretch that many plaintiffs' lawyers are having trouble buying. Indeed, Reuters reported that law firms representing Southern California residents in their own class-action lawsuits against the recent gas leak caused by Southern California Gas Co, owned by the non-governmental Sempra Energy, have so far declined to participate in the Flint lawsuit because they don't think this reasoning will work.
Scrapping or at least circumscribing sovereign immunity may be worth considering although that isn't a great answer because it will only expose taxpayers to liability for snafus they have not committed.
Privatizing water utilities so that they can be held accountable by strong regulators and courts might be a better solution, as Stephen Carter points out in Bloomberg View. The penalties that private companies would have to pay would be an automatic motivation to minimize Flint-style scandals, especially if they are slapping homeowners with a $150 a month bill as Flint authorities have been doing (talk about greed!). And when these companies do allow them to happen, it would be easier to hold them accountable.
But don't stand on one foot waiting for a privatization program to catch on because in liberal land privatization is anathema. Liberals consider clean, drinking water a "public good" that ought to be immune to privatization and the profit motive. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, hilariously enough, even tweeted: "Flint isn't a failure of government at all levels. It's a failure of Gov. Snyder's private-sector theology." Never mind that the Flint water system is owned and operated by the government from top to bottom.
Flint ought to be a wakeup call for liberals to stop putting religious faith in government. Until they smell the (clean water) coffee, future victims of future Flints will suffer without relief.
A version of this column originally appeared in The Week.
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