Since I moved here 20 years ago I have been hearing about the water problems of San Benito County. When I became involved in politics, some local officials explained to me the long-term problem of treating our hard water with salt in our water conditioners. That results in the salty waste making its way into our water basin, only to be pumped up from the ground again from a well in the county. Every cycle adds just a little bit of salt to the mix and someday it will become a problem.
I get that.
But I did not really get it until I received a notification that our water and sewer rates were going up…a lot. Too much. I believe that we as a community should say No! to the increases for the time being. Concerned citizens need to let the City of Hollister and Sunnyslope Water know by August 6 if they do not want increases to go through. Here’s why.
I attended the Hollister Urban Water Project meeting held in July. Instead of getting sold on the need for a new plant, I was told that if I only stopped drinking bottled water, I would save enough money to pay for the increases in water rates. Never mind that for me and the families I know, drinking bottled water is a convenience that only costs our family about $8 a month, much less than the $40 increase a month we are scheduled to experience in the first year and $84.40 per month the next year. When I pointed out that the increases will really hurt families on a limited budget, the representative explained that he observed “…all those people had smartphones and a lot of fireworks on July 4th, if they can afford those things, they can pay more for water.” Yes, that is a quote from a county official. He also totally disregarded my comment that some of “those people” have smartphones because it is their only internet access, and for children in school, having access is pretty much a key to success in their education.
I moved on to a consultant that was proudly standing in front of a picture of kids drinking from a water fountain. I asked him if he thought that truly was a reality in today’s world. Naturally, he said it was. When I explained that from a real person’s point of view, most parents have trained their kids not to use public water fountains because of germs and viruses, he responded that “HIV only lives two seconds outside the body.” He did not know how long Hepatitis C lived when I asked. The only answer I received about why the high cost of washing disposable water bottles (with the cost be energy to heat the water used to wash and rinse) was not included in their figures, he said that one did not have to wash reusable water bottles. These guys are definitely never going to be babysitting my grandchildren (when I have them) and I wonder if it is still okay to wash our hands over visiting the bathroom.
The real kicker comes from the City of Hollister and Sunnyslope documents where they explain how higher water users, such as my family of 3 with our really modest yard, receive a higher percentage increase than those using less. Let me put it this way. When I take my Suburban to the gas station, I buy 36 gallons of gas at about $3.90 a gallon. When I take my Toyota, I buy 18 gallons for about $3.90 a gallon. In the scheme our local utilities have worked out, I would pay $5.26 per gallon for the Suburban. When you dig deeper, you find they did this so that a majority of the people would see the least percentage increase and have the least reason to protest, whereas those that they think can afford to pay more, will simply pay more because being in the minority, cannot easily block the increase. The only problem is that we, the middle class, are just barely getting by, and cannot pay more. As a side note, that Suburban of mine has 130,000 miles, and our two Toyotas have 135,000 and 175,000 miles each. Can you figure out why? It’s the economy. The documents also glibly state “Those higher users can manage their costs by adjusting their water usage. Oh sure, we moved to San Benito County to take Navy showers? Sorry. No one is going to convince me that my family of 3 living here are high water users.
Further bolstering my intuition that our leaders need to reconsider the project and come up with a different solution is that we had a booth at the Hollister Street Fair (see picture) where we highlighted the increase in water & sewer bills. From 9 until 4, it literally was nonstop with people signing protest letters. The People are not happy and our elected leaders need to understand that.
To be fair, we do need to recognize that driving the higher costs is an increase in California regulations and onerous repayment terms of a loan that Sunnyslope has with the State. Also, the general manager of Sunnyslope Water did meet with me recently and answered all of my questions. To my knowledge though, no one has contacted our Assemblymember or State Senator, both up for re-election, and asked them to intervene and get waivers in these hard economic times in our area. I am not aware that they have banded together with other water districts from around California and protested increased regulations to the State. I would do these things.
For too long our leaders have taken the easy way out of problems, the easy way out typically being more expensive. Leaders have been lucky enough that We The People, especially the middle class, have just rolled over. I think that is over and that it is time that our leaders truly study over problems and use creativity in their thinking to come up with solutions that may be more difficult, but better for the People. I say “No!”, for now, and let’s choose perhaps a more difficult path but one better for the People both in water quality and in cost. More importantly, those in charge need to be connected to the reality of people’s lives in San Benito County. You know, “those people.”
Robert Bernosky, San Benito County Republican chairman
