Los Osos, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Los Osos is an unincorporated community located in western San Luis Obispo County, California. The community is combined with Baywood Park to form the Census Designated Place of Baywood-Los Osos. According to Rand McNally in 2002, the population estimate for the community was 10,500, although current town border signs read 14,377 occupants. The community is served by the 93402 and 93412 Zip Codes.

1 Geography
2 Description
3 Sewer Controversy
4 External links

[edit] Geography

Los Osos is located at 35°19'0" North, 120°50'8" West (35.316795, -120.835605)^GR1.

[edit] Description

Los Osos is essentially a picturesque bedroom community for Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, with a small business district concentrated in just a few blocks along Los Osos Valley Road. Except for a few shops near the bay, the rest of the town is almost entirely residential. Los Osos has two major grocery stores, a post office, a pharmacy, a bakery, several banks, a hardware store, two gas stations and various restaurants and other businesses. The town has a golf course as well. The locals frequent what is often called the area's best burger restaurant, Sylvester's Hamburgers. For other needs, residents must travel to San Luis Obispo.

Los Osos has three public schools; Baywood Elementary, Monarch Grove Elementary, and Los Osos Middle School. To go to high school, Los Osos students must go to Morro Bay High School (12 miles away) or San Luis Obispo High School (23 miles away).

There are only two roads in or out of Los Osos, South Bay Boulevard and Los Osos Valley Road. Inclement weather and road construction occasionally forces the closure of one, or rarely both routes. Depending on one's destination, this requires a substantial detour. However, this has been much less frequent since the Chorro Bridge replaced the Twin Bridges on South Bay Boulevard.

Los Osos' proximity to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant means that warning Klaxons are located throughout the town so that the residents will be able to evacuate if the power plant should suffer a meltdown. The sirens are also found in other cities nearby, including Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo and Avila Beach. Except for early tests, the sirens go largely unnoticed. Most of them are on telephone poles so they blend in with the others.

[edit] Sewer Controversy

The community is deeply divided over the issue of where a sewer should be built. The cost of the sewer is well over $150 million and many are worried they will have to move because they cannot afford a potential $200- to $300-dollars-a-month sewer bill. There has been a building moratorium for decades because the town's septic tanks are too numerous and concentrated to dissipate nitrates, which are not broken down by septic tanks. Nitrate levels are regulated by federal and state environmental agencies because of the pollutant's health hazards. The Los Osos Community Services District is the agency in charge of building the sewer. It also provides for the town's drinking water, drainage, parks, recreation, and street lighting. Fire and rescue services, and trash services are franchised to outside companies. The CSD was formed after citizens balked at the cost of the county's proposed sewer. However, the price of the current plan has ballooned as a project is repeatedly delayed.

There is also a controversy about where the sewer should be built. A location in the center of Los Osos (also known as the Tri-W site after the name of the property) was chosen, partly because of a desire for an additional park. Despite critic's claims, Tri-W proponents assert that the sewer will not smell because it will be largely underground and have an extensive filtration system. The environmental reports done to determine the best site for the sewer, however, indicated that the Tri-W site was the most environmentally damaging and more expensive than a site out of town. The CSD board in power at the time approved a statement of overriding concerns in order to proceed with the project at the Tri-W site despite the environmental concerns.

In August 2005, the CSD began building a sewer at the Tri-W site, weeks before a special election initiated by activists who opposed the location. Contractors began work on the project and were advanced payments from State Revolving Fund loan proceeds that were intended to reimburse the district for design costs and to provide a contingency fund. The election replaced the majority of the CSD board and enacted an initiative measure that would require relocation of the project. As required by the initiative measure, previously found illegal but under appeal, the new board stopped building the sewer, despite a letter warning them of severe consequences from the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Five lawsuits that had been lost and under appeal, brought in an effort to stop construction of the Tri-W project were settled and legal and administrative changes were made. The state refused to disburse additional funds from the State Revolving Fund for the agreed upon construction that was completed prior to the recall and initiative election, stating breach of loan contract. As a result, contractors hired to complete that work have sued for more than $23 million in purported lost profits and costs.

The state water board and supporters of the Tri-W site have brought more than 15 lawsuits against the district in an effort to recover funds and cripple efforts to move the facility out of the center of town to an unknown site. State and regional water boards have used their regulatory power to impose fines against the district in the amount of $6.6 million as punishment for abandoning the Tri-W project in the face of the voter enacted initiative measure which has been found illegal twice and under appeal. During February 2006 the Regional Water Quality Control Board, state agency, threatened it would issue cease and desist orders to 45 random citizens of Los Osos, and eventually to the entire town. Hearings were held, and following extensive discussions, the regional water board acknowledged that the proceedings had been tainted by board prosecutors who both prosecuted the individuals and advised the board on legal matters. Those hearings have now been stalled and may be reinitiated at some time in the future. If imposed, updated orders may dictate recipients to pump their septic systems every three years, and to stop using them by 2011. Environmental issues concerning such mandated pumping, however, may preclude the regional board from imposing that requirement. The proposed cease and desist orders are designed to remain in place until 2011. Theoretically, use of septic tanks after that would be prohibited and property owners could be compelled to leave their homes. This is as of Dec. 6, 2006.

On August 25, 2006, the district filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in federal court. This action stays the legal actions against the district related to money owed. Contractor lawsuits and other actions seeking monetary damages or claims against the district will be held in abeyance while the district addresses its financial situation. No plan for getting out of bankruptcy has been submitted to the court as of Dec. 9, 2006

Additionally, legislation has been approved by the California legislature that would return control of construction of the wastewater treatment facility to the County of San Luis Obispo. The bill, AB 2701, is no longer waiting to be signed by the Governor. It was signed into law and goes into effect Jan 1, 2007.

The region’s daily newspaper has written many stories on the sewer. The San Luis Obispo Tribune’s editorial board has written editorials supporting and/or condemning many of the agencies, and elected officials involved with the sewer. The paper’s Los Osos reporter, Abraham Hyatt, has written about AB 2701, the bankruptcy, and the CSD’s financial and legal problems.