Letter: Letter writer refutes mischaracterization

Steven A. Elliott’s Aug. 8 letter stated I had “completely mischaracterized” the ongoing water issue, and also said the “well vs. river water” is just a deceptive strategy by “the city.” He also stated his water bill included a “$27.63 sewer bill.”

It is not a mischaracterization to say there  is arsenic in our well water, nor that “the city” cannot, simply, pay for the needed improvements. “The city,” after all, is not the city council, nor the mayor. It is the citizenry. When the residents of the Tierra Buena area had a water problem, nobody in my area offered to pay for improving it. Now it appears there are those in my area who want residents in the Tierra Buena area and the rest of the city to pay for our water problem. Spreading the cost to the entire city would lessen our bill by about $16 a month, and cost everybody else an additional $4 a month.

To include the cost of sewer services as a part of the water issue because it is on the same piece of paper is a mischaracterization in itself. By law, water and sewer pipes have to be several feet away from one another, and they are two different systems.

I’m sorry that some people don't think the city council should make decisions for the city. I’m sorry that some people are offended by the mayor’s comments. I’m sorry that some people think city employees are unworthy. I’m sorry that some people don’t trust any form of government. Those are, sorrily, beliefs, not facts, and should not enter into the water issue. When the trenches are dug, the pipes are laid, and clean, safe water comes into my house, I am responsible for the reasonable costs, not my former neighbors on Main Street, nor the businesses on Plumas Street, nor the residents of the Tierra Buena area.

In a prior letter I inquired as to what the agenda of the opposition was. I do not believe it is water, but something else. I’m still waiting for the answer.

Bob Bush
Yuba City