H. The Respondents have persistently failed to comply with CDPH orders, rules, and regulations.

On December 23, 1997, in Citation No. 03-13-97C-007 CDPH cited Yermo for failing to comply with the requirements of the California Safe Drinking Water Act ("SDWA").⁷ Specifically, Yermo failed to notify customers that it had violated bacteriological quality standards, i.e., the Total Coliform Rule. The Citation further stated that Yermo had failed to comply with prior Citation No.03-13-97C-004 and fined Yermo $1,500 for all the violations.

In an enforcement letter dated May 14, 1998, CDPH found Yermo failed to comply with Citation Nos. 03-13-97C-004 and 03-13-97C-007. Subsequently, on August 14, 2000, in March 2000 according to Citation No. 03-13-00C-004 CDPH found Yermo failed to comply with the primary drinking water standards for total coliform.

On June 28, 2004, in Citation No. 03-13-04C-009, the CDPH cited Yermo for noncompliance with requirements of the SDWA. Specifically, Yermo failed to conduct any lead and copper tap monitoring following the completion of the first round of the two six-month monitoring dated November 1995.

From July 3 to August 10, 2006, Yermo's customers experienced water outages depriving them of tap water. Under a CDPH Boil Water Advisory, Yermo had to provide customers with bottled water. Yermo did not have qualified personnel to run the water system which prolonged the water outage. During this period, Donald Walker was living in Florida where he has been residing for the past several years prior to 2006.

On October 3, 2006, CDPH issued Citation No. 05-13-06C-010 and fined Yermo $250 for failing to comply with its advisory letter dated July 27, 2006, which required immediate bacteriological monitoring to lift the boil water restrictions. Because of Yermo's failure to comply with CDPH's July 27 advisory letter, the boil water restrictions remained in effect for approximately six more weeks. According to the Citation mentioned above, since 1993 inter alia Yermo has failed to submit water quality monitoring report and has been operating without a certified distribution operator since 2003.

On January 23, 2007, CDPH wrote to Yermo, that its December 2006 Annual Inspection found many deficiencies in operations, maintenance, and management of the water system that required remediation. For example, Yermo had not provided customers with an annual Consumer Confidence Report by July 1 of each year, which is required by CDPH administrative regulations. CDPH directed the Respondents to formulate a plan of action and schedules to correct the deficiencies and violations specified in its Annual Inspection Report, which had to be submitted to CDPH by February 9, 2007. CDPH warned Yermo that if it failed to respond to the CDPH findings as directed, CDPH may seek a court appointed receiver for Yermo to ensure adequate public health protection of the public.

In Citation No. 05-13-07C-015 dated April 20, 2007, CDPH cited Yermo for failing to comply with Citation No. 05-13-06C-010 (issued on October 3, 2006), and for violating Safe Drinking Water regulations in Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations. In a letter to Yermo dated June 29, 2007, CDPH listed the following eight violations of Citation No. 05-13-07C-015:

· Absence of source production records and well pump tests;

· Lack of Technical Managerial and Financial ("TMF") capacity assessment including a five-year budget projection and capital improvement plan;

· Absence of any annual budget projection and capital improvement plan;

· Overdue or omitted sampling results for all wells;

· Lack of any engineering evaluation of water system hydraulics;

· No water system schematic;

· Failure to submit 2006 Customer Confidence Report due by July 1, 2007 and certification of distribution; and/or

· Failure to provide action plan and schedules to correct deficiencies noted in CDPH Annual Inspection letter of January 23, 2007.

In a written response to CDPH dated July 19, 2007, Donald Walker stated:

[CDPH's directives would] require inordinate amount of time and labor that I am unable to expend the additional funds to accomplish....[Further] according to the Annual Inspection Report conducted on December 5, 2006, there has been significant improvement made in the system.

In an e-mail dated July 19, 2007 to Commission Staff, Sean McCarthy, CDPH's District Engineer for the San Bernardino District, concluded:

[Yermo is] unwilling to submit any TMF documentation or additional response to our survey in December and citation directives in April to correct the physical and operational deficiencies of the water system other than water quality monitoring. . . . [CDPH has] given Donald [Walker] more than enough opportunities to work with us and comply with the directives in two citations and the survey deficiencies over the last twelve months.

On July 19, 2007, CDPH imposed another "Boil Water Advisory" on Yermo, because a routine water sampling on July 18, 2007 indicated positive for coliform. This Advisory was cancelled on August 14, 2007. The Respondents' apparent failure to comply with CDPH orders, rules and regulations in turn violates Commission rules and regulations, according to G.O. 103.⁸

⁷ The CDPH Citations mentioned in this Motion are on file with DRA and available on request.

⁸ See G.O. 103, sec. II, subsec. (1) et seq. ("Quality of Water").