By Neil Farrell ~
A local State agency could soon have a new director, if members of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board reach consensus on a replacement for its departed chief.
Former RWQCB Executive Director, Ken Harris, left the post several months ago for a job with another State agency. He is now the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, said Tammie Olson, a water board spokeswoman. He heads up the Department of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources or DOGGR.
The Board is scheduled for a closed session, “telecommute” meeting on Friday March 4. The directors will be phoning in to the RWQCB headquarters in San Luis Obispo from six different locations, spread out from Santa Barbara to Watsonville.
Olson said the board would be considering Harris’ replacement, who would take over for the interim director, Lisa McCann. If they make a decision on a permanent executive director, Olson said they would make an announcement in a public forum, presumably to each location where a director is phoning from.
But she wasn’t sure if they were at a point to hire someone, so it’s possible the board could continue the item.
Indeed, they have a second, special closed session meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 18 in Santa Barbara with the same single agenda item.
Harris came in about 4-years ago, after the retirement of long-time director Roger Briggs. The RWQCB is responsible for overseeing water quality for things like sewage treatment, farm runoff, storm drainage and even so-called non-point source pollution, or pollutants that are not pinpointed to a single source.
One example to that would be cow manure washing down from rangelands to creeks and streams.
Whomever is chosen as the new director could be critical for Morro Bay and the Cayucos Sanitary District who are both working on building new sewage treatment and water reclamation plants, for which each will need a key discharge permit from the RWQCB.
Indeed, it was the water board that triggered the replacement of the existing treatment plant on Atascadero Road, when it asked the City and CSD to upgrade the plant to eliminate a so-called 301(h) waiver under the Federal Clean Water Act.
Also, it was the RWQCB that declared Los Osos’ septic tanks to be polluting the groundwater and ordered a sewer system be put in. That fight goes all the way back to 1983 and is only now, 33-years later, being completed at tremendous cost.
Though relatively specialized in their authority, the nine regional water boards statewide wield a great deal of authority and have an equal amount of responsibility to safeguard public health.
The local board (Region 3) covers Santa Clara County south of Morgan Hill, San Mateo County’s southern portion, a small portion of Kern County, all of Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and Northern Ventura County.
