I can not keep silent anymore!  I can’t recall ever writing a newspaper or public forum because of a personal situation but the irony of my situation is too great to not share it with others.  You see, I’m writing from overseas where I am a proudly serving my country as an Active Duty Officer in the military.  I consider it a privilege to have served my country faithfully for 21 years in the Air Force flying F-16s and I strongly believe in the rights and freedoms that our Constitution affords all Americans.  One of those rights is the right to own property.  And there is where the irony comes in; while I serve in the military to uphold our Nation’s Constitutional rights, my retirement property in California is being seized through eminent domain actions.  As a Colonel in the Air Force I have had the privilege to be in command positions and I know what it is like to make decisions that affect others and to make tough choices.  I also know what it means to put service above self.  I expect local authorities who are trying to seize my retirement home to act in the same manner, to put their service to the public above self interests.  I have sacrificed many hours away from my family over the last 21 years and we all look forward to my retirement in a few years with the goal of having more time together.     

The Armona Community Services District wants to take my family’s land forcibly through eminent domain actions.  Our modest land is a 19 acre farmland parcel in the middle of the San Joaquin valley just south of Fresno and a few miles east of Lemoore Naval Air Station.  It has been in the Davidson family since 1917 and is very fertile farmland used for crop farming since that time.  Even now the corn stalks stand tall in the field.  I spent my summers growing up there and helping my grandfather with this small cotton field.  There is a small wooden farm house on the property built in 1902 which has been the birthplace of a few generations of Davidson’s – my heritage.  I was planning on retiring there to live full-time.  I was also planning to build a large “green” (solar and energy efficient) house after my service in the Air Force – it was a dream that made the future bright.  I knew that the citizens of Armona would warmly welcome a Davidson living on the property fulltime again.  I also had hopes that my solar and energy efficient house might add value to the small farming community.  But my dream is fading rapidly.

When my grandparents passed away the farm went to my father and Uncle.  After my Uncle passed away, the farm was owned jointly by my father and Aunt.  I purchased my Aunt’s interest about a year and a half ago in order to prepare for my retirement from Active Duty.  My father, mother, wife and I are co-owners of the property.  I share this info so that you may get a sense of the emotional and legacy value of the farm to all of us - we could have sold the farm over the last few years but we much too great of an attachment to have it leave the family.  We will do all that we can to keep our right to property and heritage. 

My story is a long one with many twists of emotions and unethical behavior and I intend to share the whole story with whoever is willing to listen.  Let me start with the urgent message and follow-up with the “rest of the story” in a moment.  On December 13, 2006 at 7:00PM the Armona Community Services District Board (ACSD) in California intends to hold a public hearing to adopt a "resolution of necessity" to acquire my property by eminent domain.  The board orginally planned to hold the meeting on November 8, 2006 and I gave the District Board notice that I want to exercise my legal right to speak at that meeting, only I was unable to attend because of my military commitment overseas.  I am stationed in Germany and right now I am on temporary duty to another base in Germany where in essence I am “sequestered” while running an accident investigation.  I provided the ACSD a copy of my appointment letter of duty to prove that I am unable to attend on November 8^th. 

Their orignal response was;  I should have my parents (77 years old living in Texas) or my wife (a mother homeschooling 3 of our 6 children) attend and represent me instead.  Surely, they are kidding?  They already know that my father has health problems; he had to make a trip a couple of months ago to meet with them on this matter– they’ve heard his voice already and ignored him.  I reminded the ASCD of the Servicemember’s Civil relief Act which in essence permits:

Active duty servicemembers, who are unable to appear in a court or administrative proceeding due to their military duties, to postpone the proceeding for a mandatory minimum of ninety days upon the servicemember's request.

To date they have ignored this Federal Law.  They did decide on November 8th to postpone the public hearing until December 13.  I am grateful that the meeting was moved but it doesn't answer the question on why they are ignoring Federal Law.  The meeting should have been pushed to at least February 8th.

The fact that they voted unanimously to move the meeting gives the perception of goodwill.  I wish that were the case.  The truth may be closer to the fact that they were required to have received comments from the Department of Conservation and Kings County prior to ever holding the public hearing to condemn my property, it's a California Law!  They do not have those comments yet.

That's where you come in.  I would be most grateful if you would contact the Armona Community Services District and give them your opinion on this matter.  I encourage you to read through the rest of this letter to get a clear picture of what my family and I have gone through.  Contact information for the ACSD is on the button to your left labeled "How to Help."  

By now you are probably wondering why the Armona Community District Board so desperately wants our land.  You might be surprised to hear from me that they have a legitimate need.  The Armona Community Services District is responsible for the management of drinking water and wastewater for the community of Armona.  Their #2 water well sits on private school property adjacent to our property.  This well does not meet the recently mandated federal levels for arsenic and they have to develop a plan to mitigate the arsenic levels.  This is a public health issue and I do feel a civic duty to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  The crux of my issue with the Board is not the problem itself; it is the method in which the Board has pursued the issue.  Let me explain.

The Board plans to take our 19 acres in order to install an arsenic treatment facility.  The obvious question – why do they need 19 acres for a water treatment plant?  Maybe it’s just my perception but I can’t imagine a 19-acre water plant is required to serve a population of 3,500.  The rub is in the type of plant they want to install.  The ASCD plans to install 3 evaporation ponds on our property along with the treatment equipment; they must be very large evaporation ponds indeed.  Their plan includes removing the arsenic by trapping it with a media and then back-flushing the trapped arsenic to the evaporation ponds. This method requires extensive back-flushing to remove the trapped arsenic. The water is pumped to the ponds where it evaporates, leaving the arsenic and other chemicals/minerals behind.  The process of back flushing is done at regular intervals until the concentrated arsenic sludge in the ponds reaches a hazardous level.  The sludge is then dredged and disposed of as a hazardous waste. 

Let’s put this picture in context – there is a private school adjacent to the west of our property, there are typical residential houses adjacent on the south of us, and there are more residential homes on the east side amidst vacant land.  The ponds will be “lined” so the arsenic does not leach back into the ground water.  That means there will be acres of stagnate ponds adjacent to a school and residential areas.  Wow – do I need to state the obvious? Mosquitoes, smell, aesthetics?  What about the concentrated arsenic when local children go to catch tadpoles in the ponds?  Surely the ponds will also be a watering hole for wildlife.  How will this high arsenic level affect birds and other wildlife like the endangered San Joaquin Valley Kit Fox that is known to reside in the area?  How will they remove the acres of arsenic sludge?  Where will they dispose of such a  large quantity of hazardous sludge? Is water in such great abundance that Armona can afford to pump acres of drinking water only to evaporate and raise the surrounding humidity?  The citizens of Armona have not been told of ASCD’s plan; I suppose they want to keep it quiet until construction is complete. 

If you do a quick search on the web you will see that there are much better methods of arsenic removal being used around the country.  Many small water districts are dealing with this same problem but I have not been able to find any references to ones that use evaporation ponds.  There have been great strides in technology and the most efficient method that I’m aware of is it to use a filter media that chemically traps the arsenic.  When the filter media has trapped all the arsenic it can hold the filter cartridge is replaced with a new one.  The used cartridge is then disposed of in accordance with environmental rules.  This method does require a minimal amount of back-flushing.  The media in the filter needs to be “stirred-up” occasionally so that is does not become compacted and less efficient.  The big difference in this backwash besides the large difference in quantity is that the arsenic is not backwashed – it is chemically attached to the filter media and therefore the backwashed water is the same quality as the water entering the filter.  This back-flushed water can be used for many normal purposes such as farm land irrigation.  I am certainly willing to use it for irrigation purposes on my property.

I’ve raised a lot of environmental concerns; isn’t the Armona Community Services Board required to do an environmental assessment for this project?   Yes, they are required and they have.  Only their reports make no mention of the issues I’ve raised.  There is no mention of concentrated arsenic levels in the evaporation ponds.  There is no mention of how they might mitigate the dangers.  There is no mention of mitigating smell or mosquito problems.  The report is generic and does not properly address the environmental impacts.

Okay, so they filed an incomplete report, what’s the big deal?  There’s more – they actually filed a false report.  One section of the report (filed Feb 7, 2006 and signed by the Board President)  asks if the project will emit or handle hazardous materials within one-quarter mile of an existing school – their response; “no.”  What?  The well is sitting on school property right now and will be adjacent to the evaporation ponds.  Did they forget that they’ve been leasing school property for their well or do they think that my property is more than a quarter of a mile away?  Is arsenic not a hazardous material?  Somewhere I recall hearing about people dieing from arsenic poisoning…

But wait – there’s more.  The same report asks if the project conflicts with a Williamson Act contract and their response is explicitly “no.”  Once again I am flabbergasted.  Yes our property is in the Williamson Act and has been since the act was established!  Let me briefly explain the Williamson Act for those who aren’t familiar with its intent.  The Williamson Act is designed to protect the fertile farm land of California from the pressures of urban development and, in essence, establishes an agricultural preserve.  The Act is an agreement between landowners and the government.  The landowner essentially agrees to an on-going 10-year contract that the land will only be used for agricultural purposes and must abide by the imposed limits on how many houses can be on the property.  If you want to take your property out of the Williamson Act you must either give 10 years notice or pay a large fine.  In return for this commitment the government reciprocates with a property tax break and giving the land owner special protection from eminent domain actions.

Yes, you read correctly – the Davidson’s 40 years of commitment to the Williamson Act is supposed to provide us a level of protection against eminent domain actions.  The law states:

·        No public agency or person shall locate a public improvement within an agricultural preserve unless the following findings are made (§51292):

(a) The location is not based primarily on a consideration of the lower cost of acquiring land in an agricultural preserve (§51292(a)).

b) If the land is agricultural land covered under a contract pursuant to this chapter for any public improvement, that there is no other land within or outside the preserve on which it is reasonably feasible to locate the public improvement (§51292(a)(b))."

Our property is the only property adjacent to well #2 that is in the Williamson Act.  There are two other parcels of land adjacent to the well; one being the school which is not in the Williamson Act, and the other is property in which the owner has given notice to withdraw from the Williamson Act (it is in the 10-year withdrawal period).  All property east of us is in not in the Williamson Act, to include about 10 acres of vacant land.  The property north of ours is Williamson Act crop land.

So why has my family had to spend a few thousand dollars in travel and legal expenses to date?  I don’t exactly know.  I consider it an abuse of power and have the perception that the ACSD is attempting to use “strong arm” tactics to get us to sell.  From my perspective, the Armona Community Services District Board have ignored statutory regulations, falsified environmental documents, and have lied to both me and my father.  My father was first contacted by the Board in the spring of 2006 when they first made their intentions known to us that they were interested in purchasing our property for the arsenic treatment project.  My father told them we would be willing to discuss the issue with them.  Once I found out of their proposal I contacted the lawyer representing ACSD to open a dialogue.  During this period my father and I both asked the lawyer if there were any special considerations regarding our property with regards to the fact that our land was in the Williamson Act.  Every answer we received was “no;” one of those times being in an official ACSD public meeting.  Initially, our discussions leaned towards selling them 9 acres and they made an offer at an official monthly board meeting to purchase 9 acres once a new property appraisal was completed (their initial offer to us was based on a two-year old appraisal.)    

It was after this meeting that I did my own digging and discovered that the Williamson Act clearly was central to this issue and afforded us special rights with respect to eminent domain.  It was clear to me at that point that we had been purposely misled.  I stopped all contact with the ACSD and sought legal council.  I have since learned that the Environmental Impact Report was completed before we were ever contacted by ACSD with their intent to purchase our property.  It seems that they wanted to make sure that the statute of limitations for our opportunity to respond to the environmental study expired before they made their intent known to us.  The environmental report clearly states their intent to “acquire” our land.  All these actions were carefully planned out and mark a clear trail of deception.

We have written documentation that they were willing to acquire only 9 acres but all their eminent domain actions to date state they plan to acquire all 19 acres.  This is clearly in violation of the basic eminent domain law that states only the minimum amount of land required shall de taken.  It was at a public ACSD board meeting when a relative of ours challenged their requirement to take the 9 acres when one of the board official’s responded and said “if that’s the way you are going to be we will take all of your property!”  Since that time they have continued to take action to seize the whole 19 acre parcel.  They have written the California Conservation Board in order to get the Conservation Department to approve the seizer of the land since it is in the Williamson Act.   It is a loop hole in the eminent domain law to get the Conservation Board to agree to “turn over” my land (even without my knowledge or having a say.)  The told the Conservation Board directly that they need 19 acres.  They also stated there is no other land nearby that is not in the Williamson Act.   I’m hopeful that such dishonest actions and statements will finally come to light and the Kings County District stands up and takes notice.  

All the actions of the ACSD to date raise another issue that I don’t think is in the public’s awareness.  Our property is outside the boundaries of the Armona Community Service District. That’s right - this public body has the right to seize land outside their jurisdiction.  I assume this means they can exercise eminent domain action against any person owning any property in the state of California.  Such power must clearly be handled responsibly and the acts of omission and negligence in our case indicate an abuse of publicly sanctioned power.     

Where do I go from here?

I specifically ask the Armona Community Services Board to do the following:

• First and foremost, remember that you are a board designed specifically to serve the good of the citizens in your district. 
• To this end, you must accomplish all of your transactions in accordance with laws and remembering your role as a public servant. 
• You owe it to the community you serve to be completely transparent with all of your plans and make sure those plans benefit the community as a whole.

• You owe it to the citizens of Armona to reconsider your plans to install evaporation ponds and research current technologies that are much more advantageous to people and the environment. 
• The arsenic treatment plant can be built on a much smaller footprint – I suspect two acres of land will be more than adequate. 
• I am willing to negotiate selling a 2 acre parcel of land located north of the last chance ditch provided you deal openly, ethically, and with no impropriety.

• Immediately stop all eminent proceedings against our property. 
• Re-evaluate the project based on known laws
• Re-file a true and correct Environmental Impact report. 
• If you elect to not stop eminent domain proceeding than I request a formal written reply as to why you have denied my right to a “stay of proceedings” for a minimum of 90 days in accordance with the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act. 
• This reply will be considered public property and will be made available to the public.
• Immediately provide all public records on this matter, this is a follow up to a previous request that has only been partially met.     

• Recognize that your actions to date have caused undue stress and financial burden on me and my family and that your improper actions have contributed greatly to this stress.  

Concerned citizens can address the Armona Community Services District Board via email at:

acsd@lemoorenet.com

Additionally, their mailing address is:

Armona Community Services District

P.O. Box 486

Armona, CA 93202

(559) 584-4542

You can contact me for further information at email address: savethefarm@armona.com

Respectfully,

Peter Davidson