Sanitary District Responds to Grand Jury Report

A day after the Marin County Civil Grand Jury issued its third report in five years about the Ross Valley Sanitary District (RVSD), the district fired back with a press release addressing what it called "false and/or out of context information to the ratepayers of RVSD."

In its summary, the initial grand jury report released on June 21 called into question RSVD's cooperation with the Central Marin Sanitation Agency (CMSA), characterized the district's use of litigation as extensive while calling its business practices "outside the norm."

The report called for RVSD to work with CMSA on a study of the pros and cons of consolidation of Central Marin sewer districts, use mediation rather than litigation for dispute resolution, and adopt a zero tolerance for spills of any size.

In the RVSD response, the agency addresses each of the jury's findings, in particular providing justification for four lawsuits, two of which RVSD was named as a defendant. 

With regards to the agency's relationship with CMSA, the district claims that it is the fault of the CMSA whose commissioners "repeatedly shun, exclude, isolate, and verbally abuse RVSD representatives...".

The RSVD said in their release that the agency's zero tolerance for spills of any size is and has been their number one concern.  They also countered that they continue to study the pros and cons of consolidation.

You can read the Ross Valley Sanitary District's five-page response in full in the pdf file on the right, along with the grand jury's initial report.