CSA 40

     What the heck is CSA 40? If you own property in PMC, your tax bill has a line item for CSA 40. The CSA stands for county service area. 
     When Tenneco first proposed the Pine Mountain Club project to Kern County, there was some reluctance to approve such a large project. I say some reluctance, because almost 3000 lots with more than 2000 dwellings is a LOT of potential property taxes. County planners were worried that allowing all those dwellings to use septic tanks instead of off-site sewage treatment could lead to environmental concerns. After some "negotiation" (no accusations here, but Tenneco was flush with money, and county executives had acquired an affinity for it), it was decided that a "County Service Area" would be formed, to be funded by an annual fee on each lot, and the funds accrued would be used to build a sewage treatment plant within PMC when it became advantageous or necessary to do so.
     The CSA agreement also had a provision that septic tanks had to be pumped on a regular schedule, but this was not enforced for the first several years. prior to this provision, septic tanks were only pumped when they were failing. Several years ago, a Frazier Park businessman, whose main business was a restaurant and bar in Lebec, bought a couple of pumping rigs and went into the septic tank pumping business. Shortly thereafter, the county announced that septic tanks in CSA 40 would require inspection and pumping every two years, regardless of their effectiveness. Coincidence?? (Short answer: NO). 
    The "pumpage" from the septics had to be trucked to a dumpsite (pond) in the San Joaquin Valley, which added considerably to the expense. One day, while reading the Mountain Enterprise, I saw a Notice of Public Hearing before the Kern County Zoning Commission, about a proposed sewage settling pond project. The details of the hearing just gave map coordinates (latitude-longitude), but also said approximately 13 miles west of Frazier Park. I looked up the location on a USFS map, and it was approximately at the north ends of Nesthorn Way and Nadelhorn Way. I called the then GM of Pine Mountain Club, Mike Duffy, and told him to read the notice and see what he thought. Mike was also a civil engineer, so he knew right away what was up. 
       CSA 40 had been quietly collecting money for years, and now there was several hundred thousand dollars in it, just aching to be spent by Kern County public works department. The County proposed, instead of a sewage treatment plant, to build a "settling pond" where the pumping trucks would dump the raw sewage from local septic tanks, and then allow Mother Nature to work her magic in the open air. If you've ever been near a sewage plant and unfortunate to be down-wind, you know what that smells like! The project was sailing through the various levels of the County permit process, primarily because the project was fully funded (with OUR money). The last hurdle was the zoning commission. (the project required a zoning change to be in that particular location). 
     If you're familiar with the geography of PMC, the eastern boundary is roughly in the area known as San Emigdio Canyon. If you use the turn-out on Mil Potrero Hwy just west of Yellowstone Drive, and look north, the large canyon before you is San Emigdio Canyon. The canyon's southern end is actually two canyons, one leading east up to the CSO camp at the intersection of Mil Potrero and Cuddy Valley Road, and the other branches southwest, opening up at Nesthorn Way. Being familiar with this area, and having looked at the maps and charts that used to hang in the Pine Mountain Real Estate office, I knew that the site the County proposed to use for the sludge pond was actually NOT San Emigdio Canyon at all, but Cloudburst Canyon. Mike Duffy organized a delegation of PMC Board members and residents to attend the zoning commission hearing, and armed with the appropriate USFS map, convinced the commissioners that sewage probably didn't mix with Cloudburst!