tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4039563145970308239.post7657438556485160464..comments2023-10-24T08:25:49.233-07:00Comments on Ojai Valley News Blog: Sewer Water Use DefendedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4039563145970308239.post-44413103476106933752007-08-23T12:25:00.000-07:002007-08-23T12:25:00.000-07:00Dear Mr./Ms. Kelley,As the leader of the study tea...Dear Mr./Ms. Kelley,<BR/><BR/>As the leader of the study team evaluating the potential feasibility of re-use of the Ojai Valley Sanitary District Effluent, I wanted to clarify some important mis-conceptions presented in your article of 24 July. This is important from the perspective of protecting the integrity of the process, as well as maintaining the perceptions of the professionalism of project participants. First, Matt Stoecker was not “late” with his comments as you have indicated. The schedule for the draft report was driven by constraints imposed by the funding agency, and Matt’s schedule had other commitments that precluded his involvement at an earlier date. We now have his comments, and are in the process of reviewing them. Further to that process, I did not “insist” at the meeting that Matt agreed with the “conclusions” of the draft report, only that he was in general agreement with the uncertainties in the analysis noted in the report. Matt’s comments, among others, are being incorporated into the report as it is finalized. <BR/><BR/>I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasize to your readers that this is a “feasibility” study, and not a recommendation for specific instream flows. Rather, it is an assessment of whether a project is potentially “do-able”, in this case as determined by comparison to historical flows and the likelihood that possible effects can be offset by a reasonable level of mitigation. It also appropriately identifies uncertainties that will need to be addressed before any re-allocation of the discharge is undertaken. Finally, the general focus on upstream areas for spawning and rearing has nothing to do with the presence of contaminants in the lower river; we did not identify any evidence that contaminants are limiting fish production in this reach. There is some thought that low dissolved oxygen concentrations associated with dense macrophyte beds may be limiting, but this is not a contaminants issue. <BR/><BR/>Thank you for the opportunity to clarify these issues. <BR/><BR/>Howard Bailey<BR/>Nautilus EnvironmentalAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com