LB Mayoral Candidates Account OXYGEN TRANSFER IN for Their Decisions CLEAN WATER —Paid Advertisement—
By Zamná Ávila, Assistant Editor
Moderator Dave Wielenga challenged candidates’ past and present choices during the Feb. 28, Long Beach Mayoral Debate at First Congregational Church. Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, Long Beach Board of Trustees member Doug Otto, Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske and nonprofit CEO Jana Shields participated in the Yes We Can Democratic Clubsponsored debate.
to pay Tom Dean almost $22 million and that was what I objected to.” Lowenthal also found herself defending her record. In 2011, her vote helped dissolve the redevelopment agency at the urging of Gov. Jerry Brown. She said several representatives resisted. “Two years ago the state had a $26 billion deficit,” she said. “Today, we have over $1 billion surplus in our last budget…. So, we had no right to continue a program that was hurting
Long Beach mayoral candidates from left, Gerrie Shipskie, Doug Otto, Robert Garcia, Bonnie Lowenthal, and Jana Shields on Feb. 28 at the mayoral debates. Photo by Philip Cooke.
the majority of the community.” The alternative idea was to keep a very small portion of redevelopment. “We didn’t end redevelopment, The League of Cities, completely outside of the legislature, sued the state for that vote and it went to the courts and the courts agreed with the League of Cities. And, that’s what ended redevelopment.” Garcia took the opportunity to promote his support of bringing down the Long Beach breakwater as a means to spur the economic development of the city. “I really believe that one of the single most important things we can do to support economic development is to restore the shore and bring back the waves,” Garcia said. “We have the largest piece of unused beach park in the entire state of California, adjacent to a city and a downtown.” However, Schipske called him out on the matter. “We got to stop pandering about the breakwater folks,” said Schipske, citing the Port of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles River as factors that may impede that vision. “It may not be feasible to be able to take that breakwater back and to have the waves that we are talking about.” Garcia said he’s had conversations with the Army Corps of Engineers, which he said does believe that restoration can take place. LB Mayoral Forum/ to p. 19
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Wielenga, the publisher of GreaterLongBeach.com, first questioned Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske. Schipske was the lone vote against declaring a state of emergency that would allow for simple majority of voters to pass Measure I. Measure I, was a $551 million parcel tax that Mayor Bob Foster promised would be spent on infrastructure. But to be implemented, the city charter required Long Beach voters to approve Measure I by a two-thirds majority, unless the city council unanimously declared the situation constituted a state of emergency. Voters approved Measure I by a 52 percent margin, but falling short of the two-thirds, it did not pass. “Council member Schipske, please explain why you didn’t vote for the state of emergency that would have enabled Measure I’s passage,” Wielenga requested. Schipske explained that the issue was railroaded through. “First of all, it wasn’t an emergency,” she said. “The other difficulty with this particular parcel tax is that it was not specified in the list of the projects that were to be funded by your parcel tax, which by the way also didn’t have a sunset provision. So, it could go on forever and ever and ever…But what was stuck at the end was wetlands. And it was because a real estate transaction was in the making behind the scenes
March 7 - 20, 2014
For reason of the fact that the BOD and Suspended solids of sewage varies at agencies and throughout the day, the American Society of Civil Engineers decided that in order to make sense of the capabilities of the various types of equipment and practices offered for sale to agencies, that they decided to use clean water instead of sewage for comparison of performances. So they developed the protocol “Measurement of Oxygen Transfer in Clean Water.” Clean water normally has a saturation level of dissolved oxygen (DO) of 8 to 10.5 mg/L (ppm). This protocol provides for lowering the DO, of the clean water being used, to near 0.0 mg/L. The practice of installing air diffusers at bottom of tanks with a 10-foot water depth is a very common practice. Air has about 21 per cent oxygen. Air bubbles compressed through the diffusers rise in the water. The smaller bubbles have the greatest surface area to volumes ratio so have greater transfer efficiency. A test run identified as CLN525C shows a time of 0.0 and a probe reading of 0.83 DO. At a time of 100 minutes the probe reading is 4.75 mg/L of DO. At a time of 200 minutes the probe reading is 6.88 mg/L of DO. At a time of 400 minutes the DO is 8.15. At 580 minutes the DO is 8.32 mg/L. Using the Van Drie technology with 2 test runs the following was found to exist: Test No. 1 at 0.0 minutes a DO 0.4 and at 28 minutes a DO 8.9 mg/L; Test No. 2 at 0.0 minutes a DO of 0.7 mg/L and at 17 minutes a DO of 8.8 mg/L. The Van Drie technology makes use of the forces of buoyancy and gravity for mixing and a 2-deck paddle unit that collects bubbles input from diffusers at the bottom of the tank. The bubbles not yet in solution, flatten out on the underside of the two decks for very efficient oxygen transfer. Also the oxygen not yet in solution must travel horizontally in the mixer unit with the air to escape the mixer unit. I have offered to the staff and directors of the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, to make a test run at no cost to them, using my portable mixer and tank unit, for purpose of making a test of their activate sludge process at their Long Beach treatment plant. When including set-up and take down time, the total time for the test run could be about 4 hours. My request has been turned down. El Segundo Councilmember Carl Jacobs chaired the meeting when the item was on the District’s monthly meeting agenda. He immediately called the meeting into executive session and directed me to leave the room. Later, I was called back into the room and was informed by their attorney that my request was denied. The staff is well aware that the test run would prove that my technology is superior to theirs. At various times at the District, over the past 15 years, a savings of over one billion dollars may have been lost by their staff, their directors and Councilman Carl Jacobson of the city of El Segundo by not using the Van Drie technology at the Sanitation District’s 12 sewage treatment plants. Mayor Bill Fisher has supported Carl Jacobson’s representations at the Sanitation District. The fee payers of the district could have received 90 percent of the savings outright at no expense to them. I would have received a royalty fee of 10 percent of the savings at no expense to the district. This income would have reimbursed me for R and D and patent expense. The new replacement equipment would have been bought by funds from their annual equipment maintenance fund. I have had previous bad experiences with Mayor Carl Jacobson. Kathleen Brown Rice, Chair of the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, (sister of California Governor Jerry Brown) and I formed the Hyperion/El Segundo Citizens Committee and I was the first chairman of the committee. The committee was very successful at reducing the odors from the digesters entering El Segundo and affecting the homes and schools. Carl Jacobson could not stand having a citizen’s committee being so successful in El Segundo, so he tried to take it over. The Hyperion/El Segundo Citizens Committee had a monthly meeting scheduled at the Joslyn Center. Mayor Carl Jacobson scheduled a city council meeting for the same night, at the same hour, in the same room at the Joslyn Center as the Committee. I kept objecting to the start of the city council meeting. I was told that if I did not stop objecting the police would be called to remove me. I did not stop objecting, so the police were called to carry me out. I placed an ad in the local newspaper explaining what Carl Jacobson had done. By reason of citizen objection Carl Jacobson stopped his control for the time. He then brought many of his friends to the next monthly Committee meeting and then voted me out as the chairman and voted in one of his friends as chairman. Money wasting by public agencies destroys good government. Add to this then what the document “CLEARWATER PROGRAM” Master Facilities Plan, Final, dated November 2012 has to report about the Los Angeles County Sanitation District. The Carson Plant (JWPCP) has 2 onshore tunnels that have not been inspected for over 50 years. If the tunnels were to be damaged, treated JWPCP effluent would be bypassed to the Wilmington Drain. It is cited on page1-9 “the sewers tributary to the JWPCP could overflow and untreated wastewater could enter various water courses such as the Dominguez Channel and the Los Angeles River.” Treated or untreated wastewater in the LA Harbor could cause over a billion dollars of damage to the hundreds of businesses located and operating there. The sewage effluent at the regional plants should be fully treated for local recycling instead of sending it to the JWPCP and then to the ocean. The efficient Van Drie technology makes this option financially possible. —Gerhardt Van Drie, R.C.E., MPA www.aaaliquidmixer.com
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