Letter: Hillcrest 'victory' saddens resident

On June 7, 2007, my husband, Mike Vinsonhaler, was diagnosed with “Metastatic (Spread) Transitional Cell (Urothelial) Cancer of the Renal (Kidney) Pelvis,” a rare type of cancer. After a year of chemotherapy and radiation, we are still looking for a cure. Thank God he has good medical insurance because he has had excellent care.

After statements from several medical doctors, we have discovered that arsenic may cause kidney, bladder and other cancers. Hillcrest Water has tested positive for arsenic in the water we drink. We have been drinking Hillcrest Water since 1975 – that’s 33 years. Could it possibly be the water? We’ll never know for sure. Of course not everyone will get cancer from arsenic-laden water, and of course not everyone will get cancer from smoking.

Hundreds of you signed the petition against hooking up to city water, feeling this is the city's problem and everyone in Yuba City should share in the cost of Hillcrest Water converting to surface water. If it is true that arsenic in water causes cancer, you may have subjected yourself and especially your children to cancer, just to be able to say you defeated the “change to surface water” proposal and now don’t have to pay an additional $20 per month? This is our problem – Hillcrest Water users. Tierra Buena didn’t ask us to help them fix their problem; they solved their own problem.

“Yes” you Murky Water people have spoken. “Yes” you have voted “Yes” for unsafe arsenic-ridden Hillcrest Water by signing the petition. “Yes” you won, but what did you really win. I am truly saddened by all the people who signed the petition against the surface water hookup.

Thank you, Rory Ramirez and the Yuba City Council, for trying to provide the Hillcrest Water District users with safe and clean water at a very nominal cost. We are in Region 1, so hopefully we will be connected to city surface water. Others in Regions 2 and 3 may not be so fortunate. It really is sad that this issue was voted down.

Shirley Vinsonhaler
Yuba City