City backers go YouTube-ing on water change

With less than a week to go until a Yuba City hearing, the Hillcrest water issue is heating up to a boil — now with a video on YouTube.

Opponents of a city proposal to pipe in city surface water to 4,000 Hillcrest residents and charge nearly $20 per month have spoken out at public hearings and gathered signatures in an attempt to block the move.

Supporters of a city proposal to hook Hillcrest homes up to a city water plant have rolled out their own campaign in the last few weeks. Their goal is to try and get some of the people who have put their protests in writing to take back their signatures.

Door hangers, fliers sent by mail, and a video on YouTube are supporting what some say is a city plan to provide clean, safe, affordable drinking water.

At stake for both sides is a proposal to hook Hillcrest residents up to city water that could be derailed if just over 50 percent of the property owners oppose the city's plan.

Hillcrest resident Darin Gale, who supports the city's plan, said he and about 20 others want people to have the facts and have put out the fliers and the video. The move is in response to what Gale says is misinformation given by some opponents of the city proposal to tie in Hillcrest with surface water.

"As long as they have the facts, make an educated decision on it, that's what we want," said Gale.

Gale said one piece of misinformation being put out is a claim that water bills will raise to $80 or $90 a month for Hillcrest residents after they put in water meters and pay the $19.80-per-month cost of the tie-in. Gale said the average water bill is likely to be about $45, a figure which he says is from the city.

Gale is legislative advocate for the North State Building Industry Association, a trade organization. But he says he is acting out of a desire for better water for his family, which includes three children.

Lynn Horn, a Hillcrest resident who is gathering signatures to protest the city's plans, denies telling people there will be $80 to $100 water bills. He sees the plan to bill residents as a plan to pay for part of a pipeline needed for growth.

"The story that I'm telling you, and the story that I'm trying to tell everybody, is that this 30-inch pipeline is not necessary to provide water for the citizens that live here now," said Horn.

Utilities Director Bill Lewis, who has viewed the supporters' YouTube video, said the video is accurate except for a statement that the Hillcrest water system is out of compliance.

Technically, the system is in compliance because the city is providing surface water to replace the water from a well contaminated with nitrates and taken out of service, said Lewis.

Hillcrest residents have been battling —and applauding — the city's proposal to provide surface water for just about a year.

At the time, the city announced plans after Hillcrest strayed out of compliance with tougher federal standards on arsenic in drinking water during 2006.

Online
To see YouTube video in support of the Yuba City water plan to Hillcrest residents, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zlk6mDUrV0

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey at 749-4711 or jdickey@appealdemocrat.com.