I am of the belief that the Fontana Water Co.'s Chair is right, that no matter what the Solution of this case that the needs of the people regarding Water will not be met. The people the Inland Empire (namely Rialto) need to know that the people that have been Elected to make sure that there is ample SAFE Drinking Water to have should be available to the Citizens in which they became obligated to, though the election process.
The problem with the statements here is that the Chair from Fontana's Water Co. has been the most honest, with this report. I have seen that there is something that is bigger then what one man Owen could do, even when he said he could do it through the DVD he had mailed out to every Rialto Resident. But now the Truth is being told and with Owen being Let Go for poor Performance, via this water Case and the Police Department Case, that the City Council Originally wanted the city of Rialto to swallow!!
Now I wonder since Owen is gone, what is Rialto going to do with the case, but I can say one thing for sure, With the statement that the Fontana Water Co. Representative stated, they should look to close the case and go with the EPA to clean the water the best way they can.
BS Ranch
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge was scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday regarding whether state cleanup hearings held by the State Water Resources Control Board can go forward.
But state officials working for the Riverside-based Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board and three suspected polluters wanted 60 more days to continue negotiating a settlement to the contamination dispute instead of going through hearings before the state board.
"The parties want some additional time to continue the talks," said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the regional board.
In case those two-month-old talks unravel, the parties are also trying to agree on a schedule to resolve the court dispute over whether the state hearings can even take place. In November, the parties also decided to push off a court hearing on the fairness of the state hearings so they could begin the settlement talks.
Rialto's water is contaminated with perchlorate, a chemical used to produce explosives, and trichloroethylene, an industrial cleaning product.
The courts got involved shortly before the state hearings were supposed to begin in August. Three suspected polluters - Black & Decker, Goodrich and Pyro Spectaculars - sued in Los Angeles County Superior
Court, claiming the state hearing process was so flawed that it could not go forward.
Judge Dzintra Janavs, who recently announced plans to retire, halted the state hearings in August until she could resolve whether the state hearings were fair and could go forward.
The state regulatory agencies have tried to force three suspected polluters to clean up much of the contamination for years.
On separate fronts, Rialto has filed a federal lawsuit against dozens of suspected polluters. The case is scheduled for trial in October. Most recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has become involved in Rialto and may declare one of the source areas a Superfund site.
Rialto and many of the local water agencies are upset with the regional board's negotiations with the three suspected polluters.
"We need to move ahead one way or the other. If we were allowed to be in the secret meetings with the water board, I'd be much more comfortable extending the court hearings tomorrow," Rialto Councilman Ed Scott a member of the city's perchlorate subcommittee, said Monday.
Michael Whitehead, president of the San Gabriel Valley Water Co., which owns the Fontana Water Co., said he does not have confidence that a possible settlement will even lead to a solution that meets the public's needs and restores the water supply.
"All the major affected parties should be at the table," he said.
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