Purpose of the Coastside County Water District

By Eva Coleman

The current board is determined to spend at least $18 million to build additional capacity for up to 9,000 new residences on the coastside and, thus, to further over-stimulate residential development and traffic on the coast. Despite the lack of agreement from the City, Midcoast Community Council, and Coastal Commission, the incumbents and the current board refuse to reconsider their plans, or even to discuss them in public. The incumbents have also actively refused to coordinate their plans with other coastside infrastructure capacity, which is a violation of the ordinances governing their activities. They are instead holding closed sessions (aka secret meetings) with newly hired PR consultants to figure out how to "sell" their plans to us and public agencies. In addition, the incumbents have not shown how their plan to add up to 9,000 houses worth of additional capacity is affordable. We would be paying today for capacity that will not be fully usable for 86 years under the 1% initiative! We think our resources would be better used to improve the maintenance, reliability and quality of our existing 50-year old system rather than for this immense expansion.

The incumbents and current board have continually said that the CCWD is not political. Their consistent unresponsiveness to their constituents, their expansion plans, their secret meetings belie their statements. Their actions speak louder than their empty words.

The job of the CCWD is to focus on supplying high quality and reliable water at the best possible price. The CCWD should not dictate, slow or encourage residential development on the coastside. We will bring the focus of the board back to its proper task - ensuring that we have a reliable, high-quality, robust and efficient water system. We will keep our egos out of our decision-making and open it to the public, support the law, and adhere to the evolving General Plans of the City and County. We will act to support the desires of the majority of voters. We won't have to hide from you.

If the incumbents remain in office, our water bills will continue to rise, just as our sewer bills have risen, to pay for the excess capacity the incumbents want to build. Our quality of life will eventually suffer because a too large water system will lock us in on obsolete, high-intensity development plans that both the City and County are already revising downward.

Please support us, Carol Cupp, Eva Coleman and Eleanor Wittrup, by voting for us in this election. Thank you.