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Time for the Cadiz Project to Evaporate –
Speak out at tonight’s public hearing!
By Debbie Cook
Special to the Surf City Voice
John Schatz, departed General Manager/General Counsel of Santa Margarita Water District. Photo Surf City Voice.
Things are heating up in the fight to stop the misnamed Cadiz Valley Water Conservation Project—cultivated in secret backroom meetings held by corporate water brokers and public water officials—that we are told conserves water that would otherwise evaporate by sucking it from a desert aquifer under the delicate Mojave Desert and transporting it 200 miles to Orange County to water the lawns of future urban sprawl.
The growing allegations of Cadiz-related conflicts, incestuous political relationships, and self-dealing had reached a peak last month when Santa Margarita Water District’s chief champion, John Schatz, abruptly retired from his lucrative job there as General Manager/General Counsel.
Schatz even cancelled his last scheduled regular board meeting after learning that a group of desert residents planned to attend.
And just when the going got rough, Schatz jettisoned before the public could let loose on him at a final public hearing to be held TODAY, Wednesday, July 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Norman P Community Center, 24932 Veterans Way, Mission Viejo, CA.
But what a mess he left in his dust.
(Click to sign petition to oppose the Cadiz project)
The Cadiz Water Project is the hare-brained idea of Cadiz, Inc. founder and political operative Keith Brackpool. And the political connections of Cadiz and its board contain ample material for a sequel to the 1974 Roman Polanski film, Chinatown.
First proposed in 2000 and rejected in 2002 as a joint effort with the Metropolitan Water District, it was resuscitated by the Santa Margarita Water District’s Board of Directors as a revised scheme. Last year SMWD arrogantly signed on as the “Lead Agency” for the Environmental Impact Report, despite the fact that it has no regulatory authority in San Bernardino County where the proposed project is located.
Both SMWD and San Bernardino County (the latter already approved the project) are now being sued by Tetra Technologies, a salt mining operation that depends on water from the aquifer.
Brackpool’s timing couldn’t be better. The print media has all but abandoned coverage of local government, campaign contributions have corrupted all levels of government, and the public is too busy making ends meet to see that its water rates are about to go sky high…
[read the rest of this article at Surf City Voice]
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Geography of the swindle.
A water corporation led by a guy named “Brackpool”? Either you’re making that up or Charles Dickens is looking down upon us with great envy.
Jake Gittes:
So there’s this guy Walsh, do you understand? He’s tired of screwin’ his wife… So his friend says to him, “Hey, why don’t you do it like the Chinese do?” So he says, “How do the Chinese do it?” And the guy says, “Well, the Chinese, first they screw a little bit, then they stop, then they go and read a little Confucius, come back, screw a little bit more, then they stop again, go and they screw a little bit… then they go back and they screw a little bit more and then they go out and they contemplate the moon or something like that. Makes it more exciting.” So now, the guy goes home and he starts screwin’ his own wife, see. So he screws her for a little bit and then he stops, and he goes out of the room and reads Life Magazine. Then he goes back in, he starts screwin’ again. He says, “Excuse me for a minute, honey.” He goes out and he smokes a cigarette. Now his wife is gettin’ sore as hell. He comes back in the room, he starts screwin’ again. He gets up to start to leave again to go look at the moon. She looks at him and says, “Hey, whats the matter with ya. You’re screwin’ just like a Chinaman!”
[laughs hysterically]
And nobody else laughs, BECAUSE…
I don’t know – ask Roman Polanski.
Because freakin Faye Dunaway was standing in the foyer you dolt – what kind of Chinatown fan are you?
What can I tell you, kid? You’re right. When you’re right, you’re right, and you’re right.