After they talked for about an hour, it still wasn’t exactly clear why Supervisors Linda Arcularius and Matt Kingsley wanted to get more seats for Inyo County on the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control Board and why now.
The agenda said The two board members were requesting the Air Pollution Control Board to recommend and the District’s member agencies to concur in modifying the agreement between Inyo, Mono and Alpine counties forming the Air Board to provide the County of Inyo with representation on the Air Pollution Control Board “proportional to Inyo County’s relative population and responsibility for District liabilities.”
As for liabilities, Deputy APCD Director Duane Ono told the Inyo Board that Inyo County pays “zero towards lawsuits and damages.” Ono said the Inyo County Counsel is reimbursed for expenses. He said the City of Los Angeles is obligated to pay legal expenses.
But Supervisor Linda Arcularius said if APCD did lose a lawsuit, damages could fall back on Inyo County through a Joint Powers Agreement. Inyo’s County Counsel will look into that, which still doesn’t explain how more seats on the APCD board would change anything.
Arcularius and Kingsley did bring up population and change over time, but Supervisor Rick Pucci told the two officials that population is not the only factor when it comes to the make-up of the Air Board. Arcularius said things have changed over time with the Owens Lake clean-up nearly done and the need to conserve on water and create public access to wildlife. Those ideas lead to LADWP’s plans to cut back water use at the lake and Arcularius’s plans to use more water for ranchers.
Supervisor Kingsley repeated that he wants to “serve his constituents.” He did not say exactly how. More seats on the APCD Board could give Inyo more power over matters, although Arcularius said, “Power is not even a word I know how to articulate.”
Supervisor Jeff Griffiths said he would defer to the two board members to explore any solutions and initiate discussions with the City of Bishop regarding the opportunity for a member from the City of Bishop to join the APCD Board.
On Monday, Mono County Supervisors Larry Johnston and Byng Hunt said any changes on the Air Board should wait. Hunt said he could “only guess that relations between LADWP and Inyo County are so fragile that Supervisors Arcularius and Kingsley are looking for ways to better control their political interactions with LADWP. Population numbers,” said Hunt, “have nothing to do with the make-up of the Air Board which has been functioning well according to mutual design over recent years. I suspect that the honorable Supervisors from Inyo County will face some strong opposition in their efforts to modify the make-up of the Great Basin Board if they choose to proceed.”
Johnston said any changes should wait until the new members take their seats next year. He said the changes proposed by Arcularius and Kingsley would not sit well with him. APCD Director Ted Schade could not attend Tuesday’s Board meeting. He had gone to his annual conference. Before leaving, Schade did say he strongly recommends the current balance of authority not be changed. He said, “The existing make-up of the Great Basin Board has allowed air quality standards to be met in Mammoth Lakes and Coso Junction and soon at Owens and Mono Lakes. There is no reason to change the makeup of a very successful environmental protection authority.”
This issue will come up at the Great Basin Board meeting on Friday which starts at 10:30 am in Suite Z in Mammoth Lakes.
“If it aint broke don’t fix it” GBUAPCD is working just fine. Any water saved from dust mitigation at Owens Lake will not be used for ranchers in the Owens valley, it will be sent South to LA were it can be sold for the highest dollar. To think otherwise… Read more »
PS – Remember that one of the best things that ever happened to Inyo County was Ted Scahde being in charge of the GBUAPCD. He stands for public health via clean air and he stands up to Los Angels the bully on the block. Do his own two Inyo County… Read more »
Where did this idea of Inyo County needing more representation on the Great Basin APCD come from? Ted Schade doesn’t support it. Mono and Alpine Counties don’t support it. So that leaves Supervisor Arcularius or Kingsley or Inyo County Administrator Carunchio. I say keep it to two supervisors from each… Read more »
This seems fairly cut & dry to me: additional seats on GBAPCD would give the honorable supervisors leverage to mitigate dust mitigation – and hence the political hammer to free up more water for ranchers. Ranchers win, LADWP wins, everybody else looses. I wonder if Ms. Arcularius can articulate ‘misrepresentation’… Read more »
There is an agenda. You can count on that just as sure as you can count on the reasons behind the sudden interest having nothing to do with the air quality what so ever. In case anyone has noticed theres been an excessive amount of news coverage on the long… Read more »
If Ms Arcularius says that the change of Air Board Membership would bring more water to the ranchers I for one would like to know just how this will happen. Ms. Arcularius and Mr Kingsley please explain your agendas at a public forum so we can see just where you… Read more »
“Something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear”. No doubt , these words of Steven Stills recorded by Buffalo Springfield in 1966 will live forever given the unfortunate, mostly unintended I trust, of public officials and this attempt to discuss and with out a clear understanding communicate issues of… Read more »