Breeze:
State Parks is getting dumpsters from Harrison and Son that can’t be dumpster dived. It would be great if the City and Harbor followed suit. Dry up the vagrants source of stolen recyclables and maybe some will go elsewhere. It is a win win…Harrison gets its recyclables, our community gets these vagrants to go elsewhere. Note that most of the revenue from these stolen recyclables goes to buying either booze or drugs. And, of course, it’s legal to drink at the State Parks and State Beach so that where they go to get drunk.
Jorge Bertson-Ventura
Sheldon:
I would love to hear why the city of Ventura has the gall to raise my water bill while their fire department is watering asphalt. I am not sure why they have not one but three fire hoses going at once full bore with no flames in sight.
Joe
Joe: We asked the fire department to respond to your concerns. As you know this is at the fire department training facility off of Allesandro and Seaward.
Mr. Brown:
Thank you for sharing the concern of one of your readers with us. Although the Ventura City Fire Department has made a concerted effort to spread the message and move towards realistic environmental sustainability practices, there are always those situations that arise that beg an explanation. Water purveyors throughout the state have had to call for mandatory water use reductions and have given incentives to homeowners to install drought tolerant gardens. The City of Ventura and its fire department are no different. Within the fire department we have issued two “Operational Standing Orders” over the last two years calling for first a 10% water use reduction, then increasing to a 20% reduction. These reductions are for water use at city fire facilities and include “training practices”. We have worked closely with the City’s Environmental Sustainability division to create and implement water saving practices at fire stations and related to the care and maintenance of equipment. We have installed low flow devices, planted drought resistant landscaping and built rainwater collection systems to name just a few things.
I understand the expressed concern about seeing water apparently being wasted during a “training exercise.” I am confident that our personnel know and understand the situation with water use and the directions I have personally administered. Firefighting is a necessary and at times dangerous occupation that requires personnel to be highly skilled and proficient in all aspects of their job. These skills include the safe operation of a water pump on a fire engine to supply water to a hose line. Without getting into the technical aspect of hydraulic water flow calculations, it isn’t quite as simple as turning on the valve and hoping for the best.
Hydraulic calculations are compounded further while using multiple hose lines. Another skill is the safe and proficient handling of a fire hose while applying water to a fire. Somethings such as feeling the true weight and recoil of a pressurized hose stream can’t be simulated with a dry fire hose. Our desire is to have a dedicated, low impact, environmentally friendly training facility that even recycles water used for training. That hasn’t yet been a realistic possibility within our budget. Our policy dictates that water is not to be flowed longer than necessary to provide effective training for personnel. We also only let the water run into and soak into the ground rather than enter into the storm drain system. This practice is another mandate that we follow preventing domestic chlorinated potable water from reaching the ocean. Finally all water use whether for training or an emergency is logged and reported to Ventura Water on a monthly basis by each unit in the fire department.
We will remain committed to doing our part to conserve all of our valuable natural resources. I will share the observation and concern from your reader with our supervisors and managers in order to make sure the Ventura City Fire Department is presenting best practices always.
Matt Brock – Assistant Fire Chief Ventura City Fire Department
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
~ Noel Coward
