Browsed by
Month: September 2016

Leading by Example

Leading by Example

Comments 0 Comment

By Dennis Heiman ~

I came to the State Board in 1975, rescued after a year in the desert (Region 7) by Planning and Research Division chief Michael Campos and assigned to work under James on the completion of the individual Regional Board Water Quality Control Plans (Basin Plans). I spent the next five years working with and learning from James before the urge to move north took me to the Region 5 Redding office. We were a close group in the Basin Plan unit, James, myself, Merry Benard, Peter Lee, Tess Smith.

James was not a stickler for agency policy or protocol, his focus was on important problems and issues and getting them addressed. He expected his staff to approach their work assignments in a professional manner and led by example.

James and I discussed the concept of ‘stream health’ as a more holistic approach to beneficial water use protection/enhancement, as opposed to a single minded focus on numerical standards for individual water quality constituents. In that regard, he was a ‘man before his time’.

I will always remember James as an imaginative and intuitive thinker and not just a supervisor concerned only that the required work got done and on time. He was often a person of few words but they were always meaningful. After leaving the State Board Sacramento office, I was fortunate enough to have another 30 years of what turned out to be a very enjoyable and rewarding career with the Water Board, and I honestly believe much of that is due to the time I spent with James and what I learned from him.

Great adventures!

Great adventures!

Comments 0 Comment

By Jim Brow ~

I’ve known James since I was a teenager, when he and Carole were in Berkeley. He seemed very proper in his manner at first. He was probably just over whelmed by our boisterous family and didn’t know how else to react.

One summer when I was about seventeen or eighteen, James and Carole drove the old blue Capri out to Utah for a visit. One day, the rest of the family was going fishing or something, but James, Carole and I went to explore the West Desert. We had such a great time that day, driving down empty roads and stopping to take pictures. Like the staged one of James and me, one of us trying to sell the other an old used Capri in the middle of the desert.

Or the time the three of us rode our ten speed bicycles from their apartment in downtown Sacramento all the way out to Sunrise Mall. It was almost sundown by the time we got there and we were so exhausted, we took the bus back downtown. What great adventures! What great memories!

James was an incredible person and I will never forget him for his caring, his wit, his kind nature, and his love and devotion to all our family.

Friend & Mentor

Friend & Mentor

Comments 0 Comment

By Kevin Graves ~

James was a friend and mentor.

He trained in college as a wastewater engineer, and it was central to how he viewed other water supply issues.

He worked on cross-border wastewater issues with Mexico.

In the early 90’s he moved out of wastewater engineering into groundwater cleanup.  This included UST issues like MTBE, dry cleaners with PCE contamination, and unlined leaking landfills. Also, the impact of nitrates from agriculture.

He did pioneering work with the Lawrence Livermore Lab on the stability of petroleum contaminant plumes in groundwater.

He championed and paved the way for the GeoTracker online GIS database.

He was always looking for ways to make government run more effectively and efficiently.

James at the SWRCB

James at the SWRCB

Comments 0 Comment

By Allan Patton ~

James had 20 years experience with the Board before I started working with him.  He worked on the Clean Water Grants program, Operator Certification, the Border Program including the New River and Salton Sea, and probably every other program at the Board except Water Rights.

MtBE – James was the leader in getting MtBE removed from gasoline in California.

Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Program – James challenged the basis for this program by asking “Where is the problem?”  His questioning of the need for investing so much time and money in the cleanup of petroleum led to the “Plumathon,” wherein the Board’s contractor Lawrence Livermore National Lab concluded that benzene never moved far from the leak source and sites could be closed after the leak was stopped and some of the worst stuff was cleaned up.  He fought the Regions for most of the rest of his career to instill some sense into this program.  The addition of MtBE to gasoline was a major setback to this effort.

Geotracker – James was the major force in making the State Board’s online cleanup site database, Geotracker, a reality.  It was cutting edge at the time.

Site Cleanup Program – In the early 1990s, it was James who came up with the idea of using the Cleanup and Abatement Account to provide cash flow for staffing at the Regions to oversee the investigation and cleanup of sites where the responsible party wanted to pursue cleanup but there was no money for staff to direct the work.  For the State Board it really became a reimbursement program where we billed the owners.  Still going as far as I know.  Important but boring!

Toxic Pits Cleanup Act – James inherited this program after it had languished somewhat for four or five years.  In true form James challenged the Regional Boards to close many of the minor non-cases that had been included in this program and focus on the cases that posed a real risk to water quality.  I don’t think this one exists anymore.

DoD/GAMA/Land Disposal.  All groundwater programs.

Cat Person

Cat Person

Comments 0 Comment

By Carole Brow ~

If you knew James at all, you knew that he was a cat person. Over the years we have been the staff to over 3 dozen cats, each of which was loved and pampered by James.  For example, “his” cat Squeaker was a People-Cat who hated (I mean, really hated!) other cats.  As a result, she had to be sequestered so we didn’t have WW III every time she came face to face with another of our cats.  That meant that she lived in his home office where she had her own food, water, litter box, comfortable recliner, and James.  He even built her a balcony outside the window so she could nap outside on warm days.  With a river view…

Squeaker

In December 2010, we adopted a kitten named Mittens just before I needed to leave for Utah to be with my Mom who was in failing health. So James had the privilege of taking care of her full-time.  Because she was so tiny, she lived in James’ office where James could protect her from the other cats who might harm her.

Mittens & James
Mittens & James
Mittens in James' office
Mittens on James’ lap in his office – hard to get anything done…

James had a special place in his heart for our kitties when they were getting older and were having health problems.  He put up with a lot from them.

Butch loving on James
Butch loving on James

 

James trying to read the paper and have lunch despite Fuzzy.
James trying to read the paper and have lunch despite Fuzzy.
While Out Walking

While Out Walking

Comments 0 Comment

By Pegg & Bill Knapp ~

It is hard to believe that James, our neighbor and friend, is gone.  Our favorite memories are of running into him while out walking and having incredibly great conversations that often lasted longer than the walk. James was so knowledgeable, so full of interesting ideas, often with a biting dry wit, and an excellent sounding board. His interests were wide and varied: tomatoes (he was such an avid grower), water conservation, solar power, Port wine, politics, and the beautiful Mokelumne River that flows past our homes.  Even in failing health, he continued to work on his grape vines every day that he could manage to walk.  As we pass by the vineyard, we can still feel James out there working and getting the sun that he loved.

We shall miss James.

 

The Garden

The Garden

Comments 0 Comment

By Steve Morse ~ One of my remembrances on this early and warm September day…

I still remember James visiting my garden one Saturday in August maybe 15 plus years ago. The occasion was when I invited my Regional Board Division (many had worked on projects with James) to a backyard BBQ here in Martinez… Ravi was the BBQ master… I don’t think Carole came, but somewhere I seem to remember a teen-age niece. It was late summer and one of my better tomato years… I think even James was impressed… not knowing that was what was in my backyard garden… times do change though and no more tomatoes this year as I didn’t prune my trees back enough to get enough sunlight into my now much smaller garden… if he knew, I’m sure James would not let me forget for next year…

Editor’s comment by Carole: Despite his declining health, James grew his best tomato garden ever this year. When I brought him home from the hospital the Saturday before he died, he asked to have tomatoes with dinner that night.  They were delicious!

The JGG Tree

The JGG Tree

Comments 0 Comment

By Ravi Arulanantham, PhD ~

I like to share a story that will explain the nature of James and how much he liked and cared for his coworkers. Sometimes back in 1998-1999 time period I was working with James on some amendments to a policy document (SWRCB Resolution 92-49). One day he sent me a recommendation suggested by a staff member from another region and asked me to give my feedback on the 3-4 page suggested language. After reading the document, I simply wrote back to James saying that the content did not have any salt and lime juice to it. He called me the same day and asked what did I mean by “no salt and lime juice” (of course in the context of a State groundwater policy document). I told him that my grandmother used to say that if you did not add salt and lime juice to a curry and in the right proportion, the curry will not taste good and no one will eat it.

Several months had passed and one weekend we had a party at our house and James and Carole were among the invitees. James walked in the front door with a five pound bag of salt in one hand and holding a lime tree (in a five gallon size container) in the other hand and with his famous smile on his face. We planted the tree next to our deck and named the lime tree “The JGG Tree”.  Even today the JGG tree is  very healthy and bears abundant fruits each year for us to enjoy.

The JGG Tree

One bad winter, I wrapped the tree with my mother’s saree to protect from the frost. I used to send James regularly pictures of his tree with full of fruits and he enjoyed seeing them.

Recently a humming bird built a nest in the JGG tree and you can see the two young ones in the nest waiting for their mother to come and feed them.  Of course, We did not buy salt for our cooking for many months at our house as well.

Hummingbird Nest in the JGG Tree