Five candidates for the Purissima Hills Water District board voiced opinions last week on the call by some Bay Area environmentalists to un-dam the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, the source of district water.
The candidates addressed the issue at the Mountain View League of Women Voters Candidate Forum Oct. 12.
“It’s a terrible idea at this stage in the game,” said incumbent Ernest Solomon, who has spent eight years on the board and 20 years as an engineering geologist. He cited the two and half million people served by the reservoir and the fact that the dam is a source of hydroelectric power for California as reasons not to remove the dam.
Challenger Robert Anderson, a forensic consultant who works on water system issues and professor at San Jose State University, opposed un-damming because it would “deprive people of the finest water in the country” and Bay Area residents would have to depend on desalination plants as their water source.
Candidate Maynard Stevenson, a retired engineer, called the idea “preposterous.” And Diane Brauch dismissed the idea as “something of a joke.”
“We couldn’t do it and still have the water we need,” she said.
Only incumbent Daniel Seidel did not dismiss the idea outright. “We have to take it seriously because of the people promoting it,” he said of the group of environmentalists behind the movement, including the Sierra Club.
Seidel, a consulting engineer in pollution and water control who has been on the board for 12 years, said it would be impossible to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley because there is no alternative water supply. He added that restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley would create yet another Yosemite Valley, full of smog and traffic congestion.
Other issues discussed included water rates, with which most candidates are satisfied, and how to ration water in a drought. Brauch favors allocating a percentage using a household average of use over three or four years. Seidel favors a formula to show residents their allocation. Solomon supports the district’s current work developing a plan that is not based on property size or the number of people in a household.
Candidate Bruno Ferrari was not present at the forum. For more candidate information, logon to www.smartvoter.com.
