Theodore Daly Heyck
Attorney at Law
2106 East Live Oak Drive
Los Angeles, California 90068
323-630-4180
Licensed to practice:
States of New York and California
Supreme Court of the United States
14 April 2024
sergio.alonso@waterboards.ca.gov
Mr. Sergio Alonso
State Water Resource Control Engineer
California Water Board
Lahontan Region
Victorville Branch Office
15095 Amargosa Rd., Bldg 2 - Suite 210
Victorville, CA 92394
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CC: Eric Oppenheimer, Executive Director of the State Water Board, Eric.Oppenheimer@waterboards.ca.gov
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RE: The State Water Board’s Permissive Allowance granted to LACSD to continue the distribution of recycled water with unsafe PFAS levels over turf in a residential area of Lake Arrowhead: Specifically, the Lake Arrowhead Country Club.
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Dear Mr. Alonso:
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When Mr. Garin Vartanian earlier last year brought to your attention that the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District (our water company) was engaged in the distribution of unsafe water in excess of 4 PPT not only for drinking but also for the unnecessary irrigation of a wealthy private golf course serving 350 private club members; and that it was PFAS contaminated irrigation that not only trickles down into Lake Arrowhead, the community drinking water source, but was actually piped into Lake Arrowhead at various time when the area sustains a major rain event, you responded that there was nothing that you, as the local SWRCB inspector, could do to control LACSD since the EPA and the State Water Board had not officially set unsafe limits for PFAS.
On April 10th limits were set: in particular the EPA and the State Water Board set enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels at 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, individually. As you know, the drinking and recreational water at Lake Arrowhead, under the care of LACSD and your supervision, exceed the new limits.
At the present time LACSD admits that Lake Arrowhead, the major source of all Lake Arrowhead drinking water, is suffering from increasing amounts of PFAS. LACSD claims that the source is unknown suggesting that perhaps persons are washing their clothes in the lake and/or throwing bubble gum wrappers into the lake and/or wearing too much sun tanning lotion when sunbathing and/or using boat wax polish which is dissolving into the lake.
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Everyone, including the State Water Board, knows that the highest source of PFAS in the area is LACSD’s sewage system now currently under an ignored cease and desist order. Common sense tells every resident except LACSD and LACC and evidently the State Water Board that since the PFAS are high in the lake the logical place to look for a source is the nearest major source, the sewer and recycled water system being utilized by LACSD.
There are no manufacturing facilities anywhere near Lake Arrowhead; which leaves only its sewer system and the irresponsible annual distribution of several hundred PFAS laden acre-feet of recycled water on permeable soil for the benefit of 350 private club members while jeopardizing the lives and health of 10,000 Lake Arrowhead residents.
This PFAS laden recycled water is a luxury for few, now not only not being investigated by the Water Board but being permitted by the State Water Board, with your personal encouragement and allowance. Please take immediate action to terminate this needless hazard: at least institute a tracer system to verify the origin of the unsafe levels of PFAS in Lake Arrowhead.
The logical source is the sewer system whose correction is now in arrears under CEASE-AND-DESIST ORDER NO. R6V-2013-0022 WDID NO. 6B360107001. LACSD takes the remarkable position that there are no exfiltration problems since at Lake Arrowhead water only seeps into broken sewer pipes not out. I am not joking: it is a local phenomenon that when a crack occurs in a LACSD sewer pipe, no sewage flows out due to the pressure of the water in the ground.
Common sense tells the local residents that the sewer line that is within the “Lake Easement” which extends around the lake from within approximately 20 feet of the shore to, in some instance, under the lake should be considered one of the possible sources. LACSD has been endeavoring to repair it, keeping in mind the magical traits of Lake Arrowhead’s one-way cracks.
The pipes of our most concern lie within the “lake easement” and those consist not of the LACSD sewer line and also several hundred very old private laterals made of Orangeburg Pipe which leads from private homes down slope to connect to the LACSD sewer line.
LACSD has not maintained those private lines. It leaves them to be maintained by the private homeowners of the multi-million dollar homes that surround the lake. The majority of those laterals (pipes) were installed between 1932 and 1980 when the homes were built. All of them connect to LACSD’s lake easement sewer system.
Orangeburg pipe is an old civil war era pipe which, as you, is now forbidden for good reason. It was made of wood pulp and asphalt or tar. Created in Orangeburg, NY circa 1860, it was a cheap substitute for metal and particularly popular at Lake Arrowhead during WWII when metal was a scarcity. Today it is known for its catastrophic leaks.
When it reaches its life estimate, it simply dissolves. The majority of the sewer laterals which have been left to private care by LACSD are now at least 30 years past their “collapse” dates. Tracers should start there with those pipes which circle the lake in approximately 40-60 foot lengths.
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I am therefore requesting on behalf of myself and the 10,000 residents (who are now being systematically poisoned by high PFAS in Lake Arrowhead which is being incorporated into their drinking water system and will remain that way, or worse, until 2026 according to LACSD) that the State Water Board immediately institute a tracking system to discern where the PFAS are originating since LACSD has proven incompetent to track the source.
Please stop ignoring the situation at Lake Arrowhead and act to protect our population. I understand that you are inconstant contact with the management of LACSD which monthly brags that it has a good relationship with the SWRCB inspector who not only compliments LACSD on its sewer system, but has even awarded it.
The only award that I am aware of is the Cease Desist Order which in 2013 ordered LACSD to fix its 200 miles of sewage lines. At last glance, as of this month, about less than 20 miles had been fixed.
Mr. Alonso, no one is doing anything to stop the infiltration of PFAS into our drinking water source, Lake Arrowhead. No one. Would you please act to do something? Clearly the Cease-and-Desist Order NO. R6V-2013-0022 WDID NO. 6B360107001 has not worked in 11 years.
Could you tell me why the Cease-and-Desist Order has not been enforced; why LACSD is being allowed to ignore it and pretend that exfiltration is not a problem?
If you need additional help, perhaps I could get you some.
Yours,
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Theodore D. Heyck
Attorney at Law