[ca-gw] CALL TO ACTION

[Bill Wilson, Associate]

This is a project that we originally held a Master Plan Charrette for in
1997 and that I developed the original schematic design of a laundry
graywater system for-- a very simple and uncomplicated application for
this site.  This is a very typical confrontation, unfortunately.  I
would also suggest a direct appeal to Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Second
District Supervisor for Compton, and a very progressive and accessible
representative with a keen interest in sustainability for his generally
highly economically impacted district.  As we have developed through
many design meetings in this part of LA, having a sustainable and
interactive landscape helps create a sense of place and 'environmental
intelligence'  that works to defeat the alienation that is otherwise so
common, and this is a great project that deserves support and a 'can do'
spirit of cooperation from the developers and the inspectors.  At the
end of the day, the only issues should be signage and labeling, and
backflow protection, which I'm sure there is as part of the overall
design.  This is a non-critical system, and can be easily bypassed if a
nuisance condition were to develop.  It is my hope that the concerned
parties can work this out for a win-win outcome.

 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas

866 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
500 W. Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 974-2222
(213) 680-3283 Fax
markridley-thomas at bos.lacounty.gov

 

 

 

Bill Wilson, Associate

Environmental Engineering & Sustainability

CARLILE * MACY

15 Third Street, Santa Rosa CA 95401

Tel: (707) 542-6451, ext 1551 Cel: (805) 689-7639 Fax: 542-5212

Best Places To Work   |   Northbay 2007-2009

wwilson at carlilemacy.com   |   www.carlilemacy.com
<http://www.carlilemacy.com/> 

 

 

________________________________

From: ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org
[mailto:ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org] On Behalf Of Steve Bilson
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 7:11 AM
To: ca-standard at graywater.org
Subject: [ca-gw] CALL TO ACTION
Importance: High

 

LA COUNTY REFUSES TO HONOR CHAPTER 16A

 

Many of you have asked what the LA County inspectors are up to, and the
answer is they are refusing to even consider Chapter 16A while they work
up some reasons to restrict Chapter 16A.

 

The project they are stonewalling is called Casa Dominguez, located in
an unincorporated part of Compton.  It's a 67-unit low-income
County-owned housing project that would irrigate about 12,000 square
feet of landscape with laundry water.  It's a perfect example of what
could be done with green stimulus money, which they're using, if the
County would only join the rest of the state in its water conservation
efforts.

 

Instead, the inspectors have demanded that Chapter 16 be used for plan
check, and are flat refusing to consider the permit application we
submitted under 16A, knowing that the contractor is so far along in
construction that they will have to omit the system real soon if a
permit is not issued real soon.  These few county employees are breaking
the law to force submission to a superseded and antiquated  code.  

 

Because a low-income housing project system was new to those inspectors,
we provided them with plenty of professionally-compiled documentation
about the soils and groundwater, but they want to hold the project to
every word of Chapter 16.  The permit will never get issued under
Chapter 16 because all the "potential" greywater could exceed the soil's
ability to "percolate" that much water, if all that water were all
applied, which is won't be due to the controller.   Chapter 16 is for
dumb disposal systems, not controller operated drip irrigation systems.

 

Please write the County Board of Supervisors' contacts and let them know
that their inspectors' breach of law is absolutely counter-productive to
the county's and the state's water conservation efforts.  I will provide
the names of the Supervisor's contacts later today.  In the meantime,
please write the inspectors themselves in hopes they realize the fight,
that they think they've already won, has only just begun.

 

Kaveh Razavi

Chief Mechanical Inspector

Los Angeles County

900 S. Fremont, Alhambra, 91803

Email:  krazavi at dpw.lacounty.gov

 

Patrick Nejadian

Chief EHS, Environmental Health,

Land Use Program

5050 Commerce Drive,

Baldwin Park, CA 91706

Phone: (626) 430-5390;

Fax: (626) 813-3016

E-mail: pnejadian at ph.lacounty.gov <mailto:pnejadian at ph.lacounty.gov> 

 

 

Also, please cc our friends at the county's community development
office, their developer, Abode Communities and Engineer:

 

Lynn Katano,  Lynn.Katano at lacdc.org

Lara Regus, lregus at abodecommunities.org

Tim Kohut, TKohut at abodecommunities.org
<mailto:TKohut at abodecommunities.org> 

Jack Khalifeh, jack at khalifehassociates.com

 

Steve Bilson

 

 

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