LADWP’s Haynes Power Plant: polluter
The city of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Haynes (electrical power) generating station is Leisure World’s immediate neighbor on our west perimeter wall, opposite Seal Beach Mutual corporations Two, Three, Four, and Eight.
The Haynes power plant has been a long-term polluter of the air over all of Leisure World. Founding members of Concerned Shareholders of Leisure World held their first meeting in 1989 specifically to confront LADWP over coal dust and soot pollution from the Haynes power plant.
For more than two decades, LADWP has updated its generators to reduce air pollution.
The most significant improvement was when the Haynes plant switched from coal to diesel fuel for heating its steam boilers.
Just a very few years ago, the Haynes plant further reduced its air pollution by switching from diesel fuel to natural gas.
For the past year, the Haynes plant has created a new source of air pollution for Leisure World residents to have to endure.
The removal of the no-longer needed diesel fuel storage tanks, and the construction of new water storage tanks and new “peaker” power generators has created a great deal of dust pollution.
There have been reports LADWP has been required to remove hundreds of tons of contaminated soil from the sites where the fuel storage tanks has stood. Dust from that contaminated soil certainly posed a health hazard to Leisure World residents.
It is time for LADWP to “come clean” on its operations at its Haynes plant.
It is also time for Leisure World residents to demand that GRF management be assertive in making the Haynes plant behave in a more neighborly manner.
At the very least, the managers of the Haynes plant should give timely and direct notice to GRF management when major maintenance activities are to take place, and to perform noisy scheduled maintenance activities during daylight hours. “Blowing the stacks” should not be performed in the middle of the night. They have disturbed the sleep of Leisure World residents far too many times.
Surely the Haynes plant can make a better effort to be a good neighbor.
In a message dated July 21, 2012, Tom Waterham of Mutual One has brought up a new concern of the potential for “explosive dust” being generated by the operation of the Haynes plant.
Personally, I would doubt that the Haynes plant currently produces sufficient quantities of soot from hydrocarbons to pose an explosive threat, but the possibility deserves some consideration.
Dave Lyon
Seal Beach Leisure World
Dear Long Beach Transit
The news about severing connecting service to Seal Beach because “some” people there have a hard time with diversity sounds short-sighted and is incompatible with the very nature of public transit.
Good public transit operates on the premise that connectivity to as many nodes and hubs as possible is the MOST important goal. What would car drivers do if the PCH bridge was closed to travel? Seal Beach people couldn’t work in Long Beach and LB residents couldn’t spend their money in Seal Beach. This policy serves no one. It hurts me, my friends, business and our freedom. Our taxes and fares went towards paying for streets and transit EVERYWHERE.
Please reverse this policy decision so I can continue to see movies at The Bay Theater, shop at the Bay Hardware Store and enjoy dinning at The Abbey.
Chris Quint
Long Beach
Mutual ‘Association’ ruling important to Leisure World
(Editor’s note: The Orange County Superior Court recently ruled that Leisure World Mutual 5 is a homeowners association as defined by the Davis-Stirling Act, a California law that regulates homeowners associations. The Sun reported on the ruling on Thursday, July 9.)
This ruling is important because, since the California Appellate Court ruling that the Golden Rain Foundation is an association under the Davis-Stirling Act, most if not all of the Mutual Corporations in Leisure World are saying through their attorneys that the Mutual Corporations are NOT. One of the very important D-S laws state that the reserves MUST be kept in FDIC insured instruments.
Since 2004 when all of the mortgages were paid off in advance (to get out from under FHA’s rules), all of the Mutual Corporations and the GRF have been putting our reserves in municipal bonds.
So if one Mutual Corporation (Mutual No. Five) has been found by the Court to be an association and subject to the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, perhaps all of the Mutual Corporation will have to stipulate to this as well. This would be great news to many, many shareholder/members with the concerns regarding the reserves as well as many of the safe guards that are provided by the Act. This Act not only holds the Mutual Boards accountable, but also helps to give options to remedy many situations that involve the shareholder/members as well.
Carol Franz
Leisure World
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