Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act – Oppose
Dear Assemblymember Ting and Senator Mitchell,

The Foothill Family of Water Agencies submits this letter to convey our opposition to the Brown Administration’s budget trailer bill to implement the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act. The Foothill Family of Water Agencies includes Foothill Municipal Water District, a wholesale provider of imported water and the following retail suppliers of water: Crescenta Valley Water District, La Cañada Irrigation District, Valley Water Company, Mesa Crest Water Company, Las Flores Water Company, Lincoln Avenue Water Company, Rubio Cañon Land and Water Association, and the Kinneloa Irrigation District.

This bill seeks to establish a new Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund to assist communities and individual domestic well owners who lack access to safe drinking water, particularly those in small, rural disadvantaged communities. This effort, while laudable, fails to achieve a more effective and equitable financial solution.

As proposed, the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act will be partially funded by a permanent assessment based on customer meter size to be borne by the ratepayers of community water systems. This places disproportionate financial reliance on urban communities who already invest in and recover charges for the cost of providing safe drinking water. Providing safe drinking water is as fundamental to California as educating our children and providing health care and nutrition to our most needy. As such, the state General Fund should play a substantial role in solving this problem. Beyond the General Fund, the state should also maximize federal funding from the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and prioritize capital funding to disadvantaged communities in future general obligation bonds.

In addition, the budget trailer bill proposes this permanent assessment on urban water ratepayers and, to a limited extent, fees on agricultural operations that contribute to legacy nitrate contamination. By shifting the financial burden for remediation of nitrates disproportionately to urban water customers, the legislation erodes long-standing state and federal policy that responsible parties be held accountable for the cost of cleaning up contamination they have caused.

Finally, we believe there are many factors that led to the challenges small and disadvantaged water systems currently face, including inadequate oversight, management, and expertise in governance. A better solution should be found by other legislative means.

For the above reasons, we oppose the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act unless it is amended to address our concerns.
Nina Jazmadarian, General Manager, Foothill Municipal Water District; Bob Fan, General Manager, Valley Water Company; Tim Flynn, President, Mesa Crest Water Company; Lisa Yamashita-Lopez, General Manager, Rubio Canon Land and Water Association; Ron Mitchell, Admin. Services Manager, Crescenta Valley Water District; Doug Caister, General Manager, La Cañada Irrigation District; Robert Hayward, General Manager, Lincoln Avenue Water Company; William Kimberling, General Manager, Las Flores Water Company

Weighs in on Sign Issue
Like many in our community I have been following the ongoing saga of the “Welcome to Glendale” signs on Foothill Boulevard.

Personally, I don’t like them and aside from the aesthetics it’s clear to me that they are dangerous. The City of Glendale now sees the need to surround them with traffic cones, reflective signs and flashing lights – prima facie evidence of the danger that they pose to passing traffic.

Clearly the sign issue has raised strong feelings among many of our neighbors. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and views on this and on every other subject. But the disparaging and malicious comments made towards some of our neighbors who share different views are troubling and disappointing.

We are fortunate to have a few “La Crescentans” in our community who volunteer hours and hours of their time towards making our town a better place. Although I don’t always agree with them on every issue I do appreciate their hard work. Keeping tabs on our local government and local goings-on is very important and most of us don’t have the time or inclination to do it ourselves. These community-minded people don’t deserve to be attacked and berated in meetings or on social media whether we agree with their views or not.

I urge everyone to speak up and let the CV Town Council , CVCA and other elected officials know what they think – but in a constructive manner. The world is a contentious enough place right now without bringing that level of vitriol into our wonderful town.
Doug Kilpatrick
La Crescenta