Water cops get reinforcements

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:54 PM PST ∞

San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties' undermanned water cops finally got badly needed reinforcements Wednesday when the governor appointed three people to four-year terms on their board.

The appointments to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board included two first-time members, and the reappointment of Eric Anderson ---- whom the Building Industry Association unsuccessfully asked to have removed in June.

The control board enforces water quality laws from Laguna Beach in Orange County to the U.S.-Mexico border, levying fines for polluters, issuing discharge permits to businesses and governments, and instituting important pollution regulations for the region.

State officials never publicly released any finding after the local Building Industry Association charged that Anderson, vice president of a La Costa nursery, violated conflict-of-interest laws in January when he helped amend the region's new stormwater permit to benefit nurseries.

However, on Wednesday, Michael Lauffer, the state water Resources board's top lawyer, said by telephone from Sacramento that he found no conflict in his investigation. Lauffer said he did not notify the Building Industry Association of that determination, which came several months ago. Officials from the governor's appointments office said Wednesday that they relied on Lauffer's opinion for their decision to reappoint Anderson.

Meanwhile, the control board had been limping along for several months with barely enough board members to conduct business, and, in fact, had canceled two meetings because it did not have enough voting members to legally decide upon many issues.

The nine-seat board has had just five members for several months, and would have dropped to four except that Anderson's term was extended past September, when it would have expired.

With Anderson's reappointment and the addition of Wayne Rayfield, the former mayor of Dana Point, and Kris Weber of Ladera Ranch in Orange County, the board now has seven members.

"Seven out of nine, I'm very pleased," John Robertus, the agency's executive director, said Wednesday. "We have a meeting on the 12th and I intend to mail out agendas to our new members and we'll move forward from there. This is good news."

As for Anderson's reappointment, the 50-year-old Escondido resident said he was pleased to be named to the board again, but did not see it as vindication.

"It's not like that," he said. "You've got to expect to take some criticisms."

Building industry officials, however, said they were very disappointed with Anderson's reappointment, and had filed a complaint with California's Fair Political Practices Commission.

"His reappointment is absurd," said Paul Tryon, chief executive officer of San Diego's Building Industry Association. "I guess it still shows that the governor's office is inattentive at best, and perhaps not very interested in the public trust."

Tryon and the association said Anderson "blatantly and narrowly" helped amend the stormwater permit to benefit nurseries, and therefore, himself.

Anderson said when the association filed its complaint in June that he felt he had done nothing wrong when he proposed the amendment allowing nurseries to let "clean" water, such as rainfall, run into the ground, rather than be collected.

Lauffer sided with Anderson.

He said the stormwater permit Anderson and the control board approved did not directly regulate nurseries, businesses, or the public. Instead, Lauffer said, the permit tells government -- the county, local cities, the Port District and Regional Airport Authority ---- to implement regulations that will govern the businesses and public.

Lauffer said if the association's charge was correct, no one would be able to serve on the control board because "everyone" -- businesses, government and the public -- were polluters that would be regulated by the board. Control board members are appointed to represent specific industries, such as agriculture, industry and government.

Tryon, however, said that nobody ever bothered to tell the Building Industry Association of the finding. The association filed its complaint with the state resources board, the state attorney general's office and the San Diego County district attorney's office.

Tryon and Lauffer said the attorney general's office chose not to pursue the complaint because they often serve as the control board's legal counsel. Lauffer said the district attorney's office had also not pursued the charge.

When the association registered its complaint against Anderson in June, a number of local environmentalists suggested the development group was really trying to attack the stormwater permit by going after Anderson. The association had vigorously opposed the permit, and unsuccessfully tried to have the state overturn it after the January vote.

The stormwater permit is an attempt to stop pollution from running down gutters and storm drains and carrying pollution ranging from fecal matter and pesticides to sediment and chemicals to the sea.

The association has said the permit puts too much of the cost of stormwater cleanup on developers.

Tryon said Wednesday that the association still did not like the permit, but that its charges against Anderson were not an attempt to attack the permit.

"Our complaint is not an attempt to rescind the permit. We've not taken any action to do that," he said.

-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, email addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.