Being Un-retired
As a Former Director,
Santa Clara Valley Water District
After 23
years of service, in 1995, I resigned my elected seat on the SCVWD Board of
Directors and took on the responsibility of leading a newly-formed non-profit
organization named The Silicon Valley Pollution Prevention Center whose mission
was to identify sources of water pollution in our local watersheds and convince
polluters to change behavior to eliminate their emissions so the water would
not require so much costly end-of-pipe treatment. The board of directors of
this organization were themselves executives of industry, government and the
NGO’s that had filed the Clean Water Act lawsuit against the South Bay
dischargers who were then in violation of their discharge permits. Board
discussions served as ongoing mediation to determine pragmatic solutions to
preventing water pollution and avoid further litigation.
Through
numerous educational symposia, we worked with our stakeholders to identify
activities and sources, which produced degradation of local water quality. We worked closely with municipal and industry
officials and started with “low hanging fruit” like used oil filter
collection/recycling, and began the long process of replacing plastic shopping
bags with canvas totes. We worked hard
to get manufacturers to recycle high-quality deionized rinse water and reduce
their water demand and sewer discharge by 80%. Harder issues like land use and
extended producer responsibility of electronic products generated by many
Silicon Valley companies were a tougher nut to crack and eventually made the
industrial members lose interest in continuing the dialogue. The Board voted in
2003 to close the organization after eight years and not renew my employment
contract.
This
timing coincided with my medical leave to get bi-lateral hip replacement,
giving me back the mobility that I had suddenly lost earlier in the year. The
next few years were the closest I came to being retired. My wife, Cari, was
happy to have me home to complete many of my long-deferred maintenance projects
on our creek-side home. I sold the last of the moving vans I owned, as I knew
those days were certainly behind me. (Many ARDE members were former clients of
Ferraro Van Lines.) I used the money from selling the truck to install 36 100-watt
solar voltaic panels on my roof plus a solar water heater.
My desire
to return to teaching to give back what I had learned
during my unconventional engineering career took several years to materialize.
I had applied to teach at both San Jose State and De Anza College soon after
retiring from SCVWD. I had taught courses at Santa Clara University and
Evergreen College during the mid 1970s, and in 1986 I taught a course at SJSU
on Groundwater Remediation as a way to better understand the cleanup
technologies and our precious groundwater basin.
In 2009,
the SJSU Environmental Studies Department needed a lecturer, on very short
notice, to teach Water Policy and Water Management to non-engineers in the
College of Social Sciences. Since I already had prepared a syllabus for one of
these courses when I had applied earlier, I was able to “hit the ground
running” and was hired and have been on the faculty since then, enjoying the
role of professor and resident “water guru,” as my department chair calls me.
I’m also planning on applying to teach similar courses at Santa Clara
University and give back to the Jesuit teaching syndicate that educated me at
Loyola (Marymount) University in Los Angeles.
In May of
2013, I decided to get back into politics by applying for a vacant seat on the
Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (OSA) Board of Directors to fill out
the term of the director in my electoral district, who resigned when his family
relocated. This position also required
someone who could “hit the ground running” so the OSA Board chose a candidate
who had held the seat before the current incumbent.
However,
when I interviewed for the OSA position I addressed the board in a way that
would educate the agency and promote my passion for protecting water quality.
Knowing the high porosity of the Coyote Valley alluvium and other ecosystem
values it contained, I summarized all the reasons that the Coyote Valley should
be preserved as permanent open space:
• Laguna Seca should be preserved
and re-established as a vernal wetlands, creating habitat and reducing
potential flooding in downtown San Jose
• A wildlife corridor across Coyote
Valley should be established between Diablo and Santa Cruz range
• Buffer setbacks from main stem of
Coyote and Fisher Creek should be preserved to protect the ecosystem of the
riparian corridor.
• Remaining lands should be
preserved as organic farming to minimize adverse impact to aquifer water
quality
Finally I
proposed a financing option for the Coyote Valley acquisition:
A
Joint Powers Authority with Santa Clara Valley Water District. The rationale for this is based on
SCVWD’s Water Supply goal in its ends governance policies to aggressively
protect groundwater from the threat of contamination. SCVWD also has a Water
Resources Stewardship goal to promote the protection of creeks, bays and other
aquatic ecosystems from threats of pollution and degradation.
This
partnership would give access to existing and future State and local water
bonds as a significant funding source. The current Open Space Credit, applied
to subsidize agricultural pumping rates, of $6.5 million per year is enough to
service the debt on $65 million in revenue bonds, providing funds for acquisition
of 6500 acres @$10,000/acre.
I
followed this effort with discussions with four of the seven sitting directors
of the SCVWD Board and received favorable responses.
In June 2013, I attended a SCVWD stakeholder meeting reviewing the Open Space Credit currently applied to commercial agricultural water rates and presented this proposal for their consideration as well.
This may
well be the biggest pollution prevention project ever funded by the District,
but one that will benefit future generations with a clean, safe and reliable
groundwater supply in perpetuity.
After
that, maybe I can really retire. What that will look like would involve
continuing to raise fruit and vegetables at home and in the Guadalupe Community
Garden, the first one in California permitted to use recycled water. It would
also include continuing my campaign to extend that previously mentioned farm
water subsidy to urban community agriculture, including larger commercial
ventures like Veggielution in San Jose and Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale. I’ve
asked Senator Jim Beall to consider a bill to remove the “commercial”
restrictions for receiving the subsidy so all community gardens in the county
could receive irrigation water at the lower rate. After all, the Valley of Heart’s Delight still exists; it’s just hidden beneath our feet.
