June 26 Steering Committee and Board of Directors meetings
	5PM, the catered truck unloads the gourmet goodies served to the "good Directors" who get assigned to the various Committees. This "steering committee" is like the conning tower on a submarine, directing the behaviour of the great beast below.
	Notice the place settings of the Steering Committee: only 6 Directors, the rest of the "steerers" are staff members! Does this tell something about who is really running the show? Blake usually runs this meeting with an iron fist, disallowing giggles, guffaws and bellows of laughter from any stray, unwanted public observers; however, you can address them and speak frankly to the real bad guys: talk turkey--or salisbury steak, or chicken parmisan, or whatever else is on the menu.
	Will anyone come? Does anyone care about the dumping? The security guards are told, '...maybe no one will come?". But when there is any chance of the Ratepayers coming to one of these things, they always call out the police and put up extra security. One wonders what they are afraid of? After all, we are the ones paying for all of this, and using the facilities. Why the police?
OCSD, despite all attempts to baffle and confuse the public, was attended by about 300 opponents of the sewage dumping at the June 26 meeting. Meeting times and conditions are constantly changing, but fickle management was unable to avoid getting the message from at least 150+ who spoke. OCSD moved the meeting up to 6:30 -- but if you came then, you were locked out until 7:45 by an unusual "closed session". This did not get by the Earth Resources Foundation and Sierra Club organizers, who advised people to start drifting in around 7:30. OCSD staff had never seen such a big fuss over their ocean outfall. Up until now, they have conducted their dumping in secret, confining the public to "advisory" groups where they control the agenda -- and the kind of questions that can be asked. And the answers, that left us in our present pickle -- allowing them to buffalo their way through the 1988 waiver process, allowing them to get a "stealth" renewal until 1998, and allowing them to suppress the 1996 study showing what they denied until 2002: the sewage plume comes at least as close as a half-mile in heavy concentrations. It could be closer, since that was the last testing station, and they never did install any closer! Well, all that will change, now and forever. Secrecy is out, and they better be prepared for an audit of all their operations, not just the sewage outfall waiver scandal. OCSD staff had 114 little blue tickets, if you got one of them, you got to go inside; if not, you had to wait outside in the cold, standing around or squatting on the damp grass. One pregnant lady had no chair, OCSD staff took one of ours! After the 114 went inside, there were still about 150 people outside. You could not hear what the other comments were, since the speaker system was horrible. So effectively, if you were outside, you were denied your right to attend the meeting. OCSD staff and the bad Directors, as well as the growing band of good Directors, had to listen to speaker after speaker excoriate them, their organization, and the horse it rode in on for the disgrace that OCSD is the worst in the USA -- the biggest sewage waiver. A few Junior Lifeguards, many of the old faces, and lots and lots of surfers, Sierra Club, San Clemente beach people, people from Orange, from L.A., Whittier, Long Beach, HB, SB, of course. This was not even drawing on all the people that will be asked to come next time, on July 17, when the actual VOTE TO KILL THE WAIVER is taken. Also attend the July 19 meeting of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, stop them from putting chlorine in the sewage. They can go to 190 million gallons per day (from the current 120) with existing equipment; that should eliminate the need to chlorinate, when they give up the waiver. But it won't happen unless EVERYONE shows up on July 17!
	People started to gather, locked out, milling around the entrance. Security guards allowed people to use the rest room, and allowed one pregnant lady to use the lobby, but everyone else was expected to wait outside.
	Gathering outside, many familiar faces -- also many new people from all over, as the Sierra Club and Earth Resource Foundation began to flex the muscle of their massive membership and resources to focus on the sewage dumping problem. Orange County, outrageously enough, is the largest sewage waiver in the USA -- number 16,024 out of 16,024. Even Los Angeles does a better job. But what is OC's excuse?
	Some of the people milling around. Everyone was supposed to take a little blue tag, if you did not get one of them, you had to wait outside until your name was called -- then run like heck to get to the podium!
	Waiver opponents.
	Security guard watches to make sure the Ratepayer does not act out, supposedly. The many speakers braved the hostile, threatening environment to upbraid the Board for its poor performance, for the dumping, for the lack of trust, for the phony studies, for the hidden studies, and so on. Not to mention the accounting problems, with the District sitting on hundreds of millions hidden in "reserves" for questionable events -- meanwhile, arguing they can't afford full secondary!
	Not all Directors feigned boredom, but many seemed to lose affect as the evening wore on. Next time, they are planning to try to limit all public comment to 45 minutes total -- but not legal, according to the Brown Act! Latest rumour is that they are hiring a Blue Ribbon Panel of USC Biostitutes to testify that it's OK to hide things from the public. $300 per diem, will say anything for cash!
	The big bosses at the long panel in front. Yes, they look glum, because their empire of sewage dumping is now exposed to Ratepayer scrutiny.