Was another screw-up committed by FPUD?

I heard a member of San Diego’s Minutemen inform a group of patriots who were demonstrating at the front gate of Camp Pendleton that something unusual occurred in Fallbrook at or near Red Mountain during the recent fires.

He said that 6,000 gallon tanks of chlorine disappeared and implied that FPUD did not know exactly what happened to them. He also said that one FPUD employee he knows who was assigned to guard that area accumulated a considerable amount of overtime.

Sheriff’s deputies assigned to every Fallbrook entrance prevented anyone from entering Fallbrook from any direction on Thursday of “fire week” for what we were told were problems associated with FPUD and SDG&E.

A recent publication in the Village News by FPUD General Manager Lewinger verified that gaseous chlorine has been used in the past but FPUD will soon be shifting to liquid chlorine. In WWI, Germany used chlorine as a deadly weapon of murder.

I worked as chief engineer in Baltimore’s CONOCO chemical plant, which stored chlorine in railroad tank cars for use as a building block for a chemical product. It is a deadly poisonous gas heavier than air and was a periodic source of problems.

If those FPUD 6,000 gallon tanks were destroyed by the fire, Fallbrook residents should have been so informed. Was this another screw-up by FPUD that could have caused injuries or deaths?

When will FPUD’s Board of Directors start acting like management and protect the rights of existing ratepayers as we elected them to do? I suggest that General Manager Lewinger has total control of FPUD’s Board of Directors, rather than Board Chairman Don McDougal. I question if ratepayers were properly informed of water reduction decisions by the board.

If any FPUD director cannot perform his/her job as FPUD’s overall manager, then resign. The $40 per meeting paid to FPUD directors (which is, overall, less than $2/hour for time spent) is designed to prevent highly qualified personnel from vying for a directorship.

Lewinger makes at least $150/meeting attending SDCWA meetings. Does this make sense?

Archie McPhee