According to Mule Creek Officials yesterday’s population count was at 3961  . CAO Patrick Blacklock suggested that it is time for a lobbying trip to Sacramento to meet with Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi and Senator Dave Cox while the prison expansion issues are being sought after by the state. Blacklock reported that the County has also started working with the Department of Fish and Game to determine if Fish and Game Codes are being violated as a result of MCSP’s wastewater disposal issues.

The County’s Environmental Health Departments is working in coordination with the Department to gather needed information. Ione Mayor Jerry Sherman addressed the Board and invited them to a City Council meeting on February 6th. He reported that the City has invited Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi so they can share their concerns with him about the beleaguering problems with the prison and the state. He said one issue they hope to address, that wasn’t addressed in the recent town hall meeting is the backwash water, which he indicated takes up 25% of the Ione Treatment Plants capacity. Backwash water is the byproduct of the water treatment plant that is flushed into the wastewater system. He said that any increase in prisoners doesn’t help the situation especially since “they use they use two and a half times the water… that Ione does.” He also reported that the Prisons efforts to conserve water through limiting the inmate’s showers and timing them, had gone awry. “The showers are going continuously,” said Sherman. Sherman concluded by saying if the prison population continues to expand then the residents of the city of Ione can expect to see tents in the day yard to accommodate the inmates.

Community member Richard Gonzalez read a letter written by Dominic Atlan to Senator Dave Cox reviewing the repeated violations and the CDCR’s unfaithful track record.  Gonzalez commented, “There’s a thing called fair play and the state is not playing with us fairly. It’s time for us to take the gloves off and go bare knuckle with them. Take them to court, take them to test, get the media into this,” he urged. Ione resident Karl Knobelauch addressed the inmate to citizen ratio by saying, “ (in other places), you won’t find an inmate population or ratio anywhere light years close to 1 inmate for ever 6 citizens,” like you find here in Amador County he said. Gene Rddtel then spoke about the chemical Perchloroethylene, otherwise known as PCE or PERC,  a solvent used by dry cleaners. Riddel stated that is a cancer causing agent that moves fast in groundwater, spreading rapidly and far. He said the reason for concern is that, “Mule Creek State Prison has a dry cleaner on its site about 50 feet from a broken sewer line. That was identified in the notice of violation by the Regional Water Quality control Board back in November or October of last year.”  Riddel said that he realizes test have been done, but he requested that the board authorize testing and re-sampling of the private wells to see if Perchloroethylene is in the drinking water.” He was informed that Mike Israel of the Environmental Health Department is looking into it.