Yuba City may annex 233 acres

Yuba City may annex a hunk of Sutter County to save 850 residents from the high arsenic levels lacing their drinking water.

Officials meet today to decide whether Yuba City will spread out to include the Wildewood and El Margarita neighborhoods, which sit north of Franklin Road on either side of North George Washington Boulevard.

If approved by the Sutter County Local Agency Formation Commission and neighborhood residents, the annexation would include about 850 residents who live on some 233 acres, according to county documents.

A quarter of them — residents of Wildewood — are drinking water with arsenic levels 21⁄2 times the legal limit, according to data from the Environmental Working Group.

"We have a problem with our water," said Carol Koelker, a Wildewood resident, but "it's not poison."

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Tapping into Yuba City's water would solve that problem. The city sucks water from the Feather River instead of highly-mineralized, underground aquifers, so its arsenic levels are nearly 30 times lower than Wildewood, and more than 10 times lower than El Margarita's, according to the working group's information.

Drinking water laced with too much arsenic increases the risk someone will get a host of diseases, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Those ailments include bladder, lung and prostate cancer along with problems tied to the heart, lungs and immune system.

Koelker doesn't drink the stuff, opting instead for bottled water since she moved to the neighborhood 15 years ago. She made that decision based on taste, however. Others use filters to pull the arsenic out, and some, like John Clause, drink with abandon.

"We haven't had a problem," said Clause, a director for the neighborhood's utility company. "We don't think the levels are that high."

Still new standards require drinking water to have arsenic levels at fewer than 10 parts per billion, he saod, and locals have to tow that line. Wildewood's levels have averaged at 25 parts per billion during eight tests over the last six years.

The Wildewood Mutual Water Co. serves about 250 people.

Water utilities serving Wildewood East and El Margarita Estates have scored better, according to the working group's readings. Arsenic levels there squeaked under the legal maximums north of 9 parts per billion but are still "over health guidelines."

If residents in those neighborhoods want water, they have to agree to become Yuba City residents. The Yuba City City Council decided a couple months ago that communities wanting city water would have to become a part of the city, said George Musallam, the city's Public Works director.

The state might pick up the tab for connecting Wildewood and El Margarita to the city's water supply. The city is pursuing a $7.5 million grant from the state that would pay for the design, construction and associated fees needed to build a pipeline along Franklin Road to serve the neighborhoods. Musallam said he expects to get word from the state on the grant's status around April.

Today's vote isn't the end of the road. If commissioners approve annexation, they still have to hold a protest hearing at a future meeting. Commissioners must approve annexation if fewer than 25 percent of registered voters and landowners file protests, hold an election if 25 to 50 percent protest and must kill the annexation if more than 50 percent protest.

CONTACT reporter Jonathan Edwards at jedwards@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4780. Find him on Facebook at /ADjedwards or on Twitter at @ADjedwards.