[AT] Agriculture in Coastal Central California and weather, now a state agency story

[Cecil Bearden]

Lou:
I have to agree
I do some consulting engineering.  I have a small town of 175 residents that 
needed a sewage lagoon and I designed it for them.  However by the standards 
of the DEQ, they must either build an additional 1 acre lagoon, or prove 
that they do not need another one.  The only design information we had for 
the existing lift station that served the lagoon was the nameplate capacity 
of the pumps and the run time.  By calculation the town needed an additional 
.25 acres of lagoon.  However we all know you do not size a pump for the 
maximum capacity to run constantly.  I specified a doppler flowmeter to be 
strapped on the lift station piping to check the flow.  This requires a 
construction permit.  I spent more than 40 hours trying to get the flowmeter 
specifications in the format the construction div needed.  They had to have 
everything on 11x17 paper with a cover sheet that had a picture of the state 
of OK on it with a county map showing the county where the town was located 
then a map of the town and a location of the lift station in the town.  A 
town with only 7 streets!!!  I am taking a night class to learn Autocad. 
However, I am not proficient with it.  I worked all one weekend trying to 
get what they wanted, and just had to quit.  I had paying clients that were 
being let down while I tried to get this appproved.  I told the town to just 
atach the Doppler ( the equivalent of putting Duct Tape on the pipe in 2 
places) and start recording data.  DEQ threatened to shut them down 
immediately if we did it.  I told them to go ahead and we would settle it in 
the newspaper and with the state representatives who were on the 
appropriations committee.

They told me if we installed it I could not ever send another application to 
the DEQ as an engineer.  I installed it myself.

The economic situation in most states has created a situation whereby the 
states cannot pay enough to get the experienced people who have retired from 
industry to go into govt service.  We just do not want to put up with the 
stupidity.  The morons they hire now cannot work in industry or are foreign 
born and cannot really function in the industry so they take the lower 
paying state job because the state cannot discriminate against them.  They 
cannot speak the language to us old farts who are a little hard of hearing. 
and in their society, every I is dotted and T is crossed.  The law is 
supreme.  I ran a program for 30 years for OK.  I was in charge of the 
Safety of all 4600 dams in the state, and 165 of those would kill someone 
for sure if they failed.  I had more responsibility than most state 
employees, but started work at $980/month and retired at $3200/month with a 
$2000 bonus because I had stuck it out that long..  I was required to have a 
professional engineers license.  I did get a retirement of $2000/month, of 
which they deduct $500/month for insurance.  That retirement is why I stayed 
there. and because I wanted to farm.  I could get off work nearly anytime I 
wanted.   However, I knew the law and my regulations.  I got rid of the 
ridiculous ones and wrote the rules where we could operate within them and 
still allow construction to be done and emergency work to be done without 
delay.  They have not found a fluent english speaking replacement for me and 
now require the dam owner to submit a $150 review fee with the yearly 
inspection report on the class c dams.  They have no idea what the 
engineer's recommendation is or if the engineer really knows what he is 
looking at.  I made the original inspections on 163 of those 165 class c 
dams, and with my experience I could review a new application in 10 minutes 
including the hydrology and tell if it met our requirements.  However, when 
I gave them a 2 year notice that I was going to retire, they would not find 
a replacement I could train.  They would not even hire an assistant that had 
any backbround.  The director was a meteorologist and he thought that was ll 
that was needed.  I brought in over 4 million in grants during my last 5 
years and left with 2.5 million in "the bank"  we could have hired someone 
with that.  They would not let me hire anyone with that money as it was not 
"guaranteed" to keep coming.  6 months after I left the 2.5 M was gone...... 
It was earmarked for Dam safety, but was never spent for dam safety..

However, you cannot find any of their employees that would tell where it 
went as they probably do not speak very good english.  I must say, my best 
temporary employee was a college student whose mother emigrated here from 
Mexico.  However, he could not afford to work for the statreafter he 
graduated.  I trained 4 good college students, but they told me they cvould 
not afford to work for the salary after graduation, and would not put up 
with the BS that I had to gothrough every day.

One last story:  My Div Chief was a great guy.  He was the reason I stayed, 
as he let me take care of my job and tried to keep the BS from getting too 
deep.  He handled most of the agency operation and kept the politics out of 
my job as best as he could.  I hired him!!!  He was a meteoroligist!!  He 
became my boss about 4 years after I hired him...   We had this lady lawyer 
that was appointed to be our assistant div chief as she was the directors 
old girlfriend.   I was equipping 3 trucks for a stream gauging project that 
was going to take about 2 years to install 21 remote reporting guges and 
maintain them.  I ordered 2 sets of combination wrenches for each truck, as 
we had to order off of state contract.   She had to review everything as she 
did not trust me.  She was always trying to find something that she could 
hang me on.  My Chief would straighten things out if I needed, she was just 
one of the thorns in my side..   She asked why we needed 2 sets of wrenches. 
I told her one was for left handed nuts and one for right.  She bought 
it!!!!!!!!!!!

3 months after I retired, this lady was caught speeding late one Friday 
afternoon on a state turnpike in a state car while smoking Marijuana.  She 
spent the night in jail and still works for the agency even though she 
resigned.  Someone talked her out of it and they let her come back.  The 
director retired last month...

And that is why these regulatory agencies are so screwed up.

Cecil in OK

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Sorry for the rant, I am getting really p#$$%@ off at all the stupid
regulation, and the idiots that are sent to enforce it.  Let's get back
to some common sense.

Lou