Water District Candidates Look To Future Supplies

All three candidates for the Marin Municipal Water District's Division 2 Board of Directors seat say it is essential to pursue reliable water supplies that will keep flowing during the county's dry years. 

And while they have different ideas for how to reach that goal, all cite conservation as integral to any plan.

The incumbent Armando Quintero, 54, is a former National Parks ranger and director of development for the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at U.C. Merced. He faces two opponents on the Nov. 2 ballot. 

His challengers are John O'Connor, 63, a business lawyer in San Francisco, and Glenn Dombeck, 40, a water treatment engineer.

District 2 encompasses San Rafael, East San Rafael, Bret Harte, Sun Valley, the Dominican area, Bayside Acres, Country Club, Point San Pedro, Loch Lomond, Glenwood, Peacock Gap and China Camp.

Plans for a desalination plant on the San Francisco Bay have been put on hold due to successful conservation efforts and all three candidates say alternatives should be considered for more cost-efficient water supplies.

Quintero is against taking desalination off the table completely but said methods should be explored to ensure reliable water supplies. 

"I think desalination is a high-tech solution in a time of critical need but it shouldn't be a solution that we rely on for basic needs," Quintero said. "I think we can continue to conserve water in Marin."

He said the district leads the state in its conservation and education programs. It has the lowest leakage in California at just 5 percent because it has focused on things like leak detection. 

O'Connor finds the lack of an alternative water supply to be worrisome, saying it's not too late for the district to change directions. He is concerned about fire conditions in the watershed and said it is important to determine how much water will be needed to protect it in the event of a dry period.

O'Connor said he is not a big proponent of desalination but if it is the best way to make the county less vulnerable to drought, it could provide a solution.

"We have to have an alternative water supply and at the lowest costs and with the least environmental impact as possible," O'Connor said. 

Dombeck said the district has to get more substantive information about how much water is really needed and how gray water from homes and businesses can be used when potable water is not required. He calls desalination "overkill" for the actual problem.

"They are now recognizing that the desalination plant isn't needed based on the knowledge we have today," Dombeck said. "You can't just do it with a little conservation. You have to look at where the most savings might be and do that with a concerted effort."

Dombeck said the water agency has been focusing on the most costly solutions at the expense of finding more efficient ones.

"It's been hard for me to see the district leaving leaving good opportunities off the table," Dombeck said, adding he would like to see incentives to get customers to use systems that allow such things as laundry water to be reused and rebates offered for dual-flush toilets.

The desalination debate will also come before voters on the Tuesday ballot in two competing measures that have become something of a dividing line in races to decide four of the district's five board seats.

Although district desalination efforts were put on hold when water consumption dropped, a citizen initiative that gathered more than 18,000 petition signatures generated Measure T, which requires voter approval before the water agency could move forward with any construction, funding, or essentially anything involving desalination.

The district, in response, brought forward its own Measure S, which would also require public vote to proceed with construction, but allows for study of the technology that, it says, could ease reliance on the district's limited water supply and costly, decades-old water contracts with Sonoma County.

 Quintero and O'Connor favor the district's Measure S.

Dombeck calls Measure T, "What should have been done in the first place." 

O'Connor is especially alarmed with the fiscal state of the district, saying its pension plan and labor contracts will throw it into crisis. 

"No one at the bargaining table is looking out for the interest of the general public," O'Connor said.

Quintero said the agency has cut $10 million from its budget, reducing it to $50 million and has had a hiring freeze in place since he was appointed a year ago. 

He said the district has a A+++ bond rating, the highest a utility can get.