The article in Wednesday’s Enterprise reads like a city public relations release. Maybe the reporter should have left her name off. Op-eds and articles have been heavily weighted in favor of the wasteful and unnecessary water project that will increase city staff and drain thousands of dollars each year from the pocket of every homeowner over the next 20 years — or 40 years, if the “new” payment plan proposed by city staff is adopted by the City Council.

Just to review — Davis must meet the new sewage standards by 2017 (except that we can obtain a delay of up to 10 years, until 2027). The so-called water experts refuse to examine a much cheaper means of accomplishing the same goal, using ferrates (just google the term), a process that has been certified for use in the United States to produce clean drinking water. This technology only became known a few months ago.

Groundwater can supply Davis for many decades, so long as the city does not grow at a faster rate than it has in the past decade. But let’s look at Sacramento River water. First, Davis’ rights are secondary, and not only that, they are subordinate to everyone else’s. In drought years, there’s no guarantee that Davis would receive any water at all from the Sacramento River. And the quality of that water is questionable. Of course, it would have to be treated.

The city should not impose an unnecessary burden of nearly $400 million (before interest) on property owners — a cost that will be passed on to every renter, restaurant customer, etc. The City Council should postpone a decision until some independent research can be done to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of using ferrates to clean our groundwater. If the council proceeds to adopt the current plan, a referendum surely will follow that will overturn their decision.

In the meantime, I call on property owners who have not yet sent in their protest forms to do so now.

Shneor Sherman

Davis

Comments

comments