Mark Wisterman's Paradise & Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

With the controversy over the Lake Oroville Area Public Utility District’s (LOAPUD) decision to unfairly place nearly the entire burden of repairing a major portion of the sewer system infrastructure solely on the backs of home sellers who have their Oroville homes in escrow still brewing, I want to be sure that you have the most up to date information available to you in the event LOAPUD fails to see the light and insists on moving forward with their program in its current state. It will be at that time that I will be calling ALL customers of the district to show up at the district’s next Board of Directors meeting. 

For now though, here is what is happening:

The Oroville Association of REALTORS® (OAR) is actively involved in the struggle to make LOAPUD understand that, while we agree on the need to have a properly functioning sewer system, we highly disagree with the district’s repair plan as it will ABSOLUTELY NOT address what they seem to be saying is an imminent threat to public safety. Depending on how you calculate the numbers it could take between 30 and 50 years to correct the deficiencies in the system that the district is attempting to correct with requiring repairs at the Point of Sale.

If this sounds a tad inefficient that’s because IT IS. Even if sales of homes in the District DOUBLED it would still take 15-25 years to address the problem, assuming all homes in the district sell at least once in this time frame, which they won’t.

If there is such an urgent need to get these repairs made, why is the district willing to wait over 30 years to get it done. This simply makes no sense, or does it? Could this actually be political maneuvering on the part of the district?

Everyone put on your speculation cap now and follow this logic:

Not that long ago the sewage treatment plant became overrun with sewage inflows. It was apparently so bad that there came the possibility that untreated sewage would spill from the plant, creating a potential for contamination of the local waterways. (Here’s the speculation part) Upon hearing of this, the State of California threatens LOAPUD with possible sanctions or fines if they don’t submit some sort of plan to mitigate the potential of a spill at the undersized treatment plant. The State doesn’t much care what the plan is, or even if it will be effective. They just want a plan that they can file away in case the EPA or some other FEDERAL agency wants to check up on the State’s waste water treatment plans.

Again, speculation on my part. But, if true, it explains why LOAPUD is bent on pushing this ordinance through.  Why else would otherwise intelligent people be so willing to brush aside the facts. 

Your Association of REALTORS® is going to do anything and everything that it can to stop this ordinance from being implemented in its current form. Resources from OAR, neighboring Realtor Associations, the California Association of REALTORS®, and the National Association of REALTORS® have either been pledged, or soon will be pledged, in order  to fight this; and will be used if necessary. We will not stand silently by and watch your property rights being trampled upon.

We now need you, the citizens, to be prepared to mobilize in the event diplomacy does not work. A working committee of REALTORS® will be meeting with LOAPUD officials this week to once again state our case on your behalf. If that does not work, it is going to be up to you to roll up your sleeves, with help from your REALTOR® friends, to get it stopped.

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