Dear Editor, There should be no increase in the water extraction
fee, better known as the pump tax, in fact I am advocating a
reduction in the pump tax.
Water rates need to be reduced
Dear Editor,
There should be no increase in the water extraction fee, better known as the pump tax, in fact I am advocating a reduction in the pump tax. Here are some compelling reasons why:
– In 2002, the water board approved the $4.6 million Solar Natural Gas Generator and Heat Recovery Project. I wondered why the district needed to spend so much money on a project that is only going to give them 10 to 20 percent of the district’s energy needs and will take 25 to 30 years to pay back. I thought it would be more cost effective if they had invested in a quick-start power generator like most hospitals have. The district said the project was a hedge against future blackouts and surging electric prices. When I looked into the project, I was surprised to found out how it was paid for. This $4.6 million project was paid for by first taking $2,955,000 from the Water Utility Enterprise Fund, which is a direct violation of the District Act, Section 26.3. The rest of the money came from the Watershed and Stream Management Fund, the Lower Peninsula Watershed Fund, the West Valley Watershed Fund, Guadalupe Watershed Fund, the Coyote Watershed Fund and the Uvas/Llagas Watershed Fund. Just thinking, that $4.6 million could have been used to pay off the perchlorate cost that the district is charging us, the well owners, in South County.
– In 1987 the Central Valley Water Project was completed and the water district turned on the spigot and started charging well owners with a pump tax. It brings water from the Delta via the San Luis Reservoir. The new tax was to pay for the imported water and operating system that moved the water. Also, it was to be used to repay the Bureau of Water Reclamation for the loan of $248,000,000 to build the project.
The water district made one payment of $900,000 in 1987 and for the next 20 years made no more payments to the Bureau of Water Reclamation. Granted, the district was in litigation for many years with the Bureau of Water Reclamation and amended the CVP contract in 2007. That is no excuse for not paying back this loan.
When you look at past Comprehensive Financial Reports, you see where the district set aside millions of dollars to pay back the cost of the Central Valley Water Project. These funds were not used to pay off this project, they were spent on other projects.
In 2007, the district renovated their contract with the Bureau of Water Reclamation. The Bureau said OK, but it will cost you big time for not making payments on the project. Now this $248,000,000 project is going to cost $440,492,081. So, from 2007 to 2036, the length of the new contract, the district will be making payments for the next 29 years. Currently they are paying $14,933,733.58 per year. That means that we the well owners are paying 77 percent more for this project. Just think, that 77 percent which amounts to $192,500,000 could have been used for updating the five dams with seismic problems. Over these 29 years, I along with my children and possibly my grandchildren will be paying for this humongous cost.
– Since 1987, the pump tax has gone up by 1,150 percent. Do you know of any other utility that you are currently paying for, that has risen anywhere near that amount, in that short of time? I don’t think so.
There were times when we were told by the water district that the price of water from the Bureau of Reclamation was going up through 2000 to 2007 time frame. This was not true, because the cost of water to the water district was flat during this time period, yet the district kept increasing the cost to the well owners over the many years. In 2005, for an example the cost per acre foot was raised by 90 percent over their cost for the water from the Bureau of Water Reclamation.
– Since 2000, the water district has given themselves increases in their salaries to the point where they are earning 25 percent more than the private sector for similar jobs. Their retirement pay has increased to 2.5 percent of the CalPer’s Retirement Program. They are able to retire with 75 percent of their pay for the rest of their life. Currently, the average employee is earning $150,000 a year in salary and benefits. The water district has taken care of themselves while they are working and while retired. In the meantime, we the well owners have to keep paying these ever-increasing escalating cost for water.
Over the past 11 years, the salaries and benefits for water district employees have increased by 136 percent. Who in the private sector has had this kind of increase in this short of time? When you look at the 2009-2010 year budget, you see where salaries and benefits make up 38 percent of the total budget. I don’t think you will find a private company in Santa Clara County, whose budget for salaries and benefits is anywhere near 38 percent.
The water district has too many employees and needs to reduce their staff.
Robert J. Cerruti, San Martin
Irony abounds around local Japan earthquake relief fundraiser
Dear Editor,
Like most immigrants coming to California, many were seeking a better life and future for their families. But who knows all of the reasons for leaving one’s country of national origin?
Concerning those immigrants leaving Japan for California … could the long history of earthquakes in Japan, also have been a factor in the minds of many, to leave that country? In 1923, just before a major wave of Japanese immigrants departed for California, one of the worst earthquakes in world history, the Kanto earthquake and tsunami leveled Tokyo, Yokohama and surrounding areas. There were more than 140,000 people who lost their lives and countless homes, farms and businesses destroyed.
Were it not for these first generation (Issei) leaving Japan, perhaps many of these present third-generation Japanese American (Sansei) would be the homeless, radiation exposed victims in Japan we see today. We certainly would not have the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, WWII’s most highly decorated combat unit, the contributions of Norman Mineta, after whom San Jose’s Airport is named, Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi, or the many who as ordinary citizens have contributed to our local communities as well.
As one reads the April 19 Morgan Hill Times which features the longest continuous festival of South County, the Morgan Hill Haru Matsuri, and the front page of the April 19 Gilroy Dispatch featuring Gilroy Hot Springs, and the history and contributions of the Japanese Americans have provided as noted at our Morgan Hill Historical Society’s location at Villa Mira Monte to the National Japanese American Memorial in Washington D.C., it reminds us how remarkable an ethnic group representing less than a 1/2 percent of our country’s population has contributed. It is also impossible to enumerate all the cell phone, automobiles, and other science and industry items we all rely on in our everyday lives from Japan.
Saturday, at the Morgan Hill Buddhist Community Center, 16450 Murphy Ave., an opportunity will take place to express our philanthropic feelings for a disaster we hope will never happen here. Japanese American organizations ranging from the Salinas Buddhist Church to all the major Japanese American organizations in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, and San Jose to the San Francisco-based Japanese American Community Cultural Center of Northern California will be supporting a drive to collect unwanted electronics and ewaste items from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
With the recent anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, it is ironic to note on that 105 years ago, the people of Japan donated more than $250,000 to help in that disaster. We hope to see your car trunks full of these qualified items. This fundraising event is also accepting checks made out to the “Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.” Prior to the event, one can send their checks to Drs Jon Hatakeyama and Don Nguyen’s office, 370 W. Dunne Ave. Ste. #3, Morgan Hill, CA. 95037. Call (408) 779-7391 or email jy****@sm********.com with any questions. For technical questions regarding suitable ewaste items, contact John Varella, marketing director for Pacific Corporate Solutions at (408) 408-218-9174 or email jo***@pa***************.com.
Lexus of Stevens Creek will be offering a 10 per
More information and forms can be downloaded at http://www.lexusstevenscreek.com.
John Hatakayama, Morgan Hill
Let council know you disapprove of developing Southeast Quadrant
Dear Editor,
I am often astounded by who we think we are and what we should be doing. We are literally billions who travel this Earth like ravenous ants, extracting every resource without regard to measure or affects. We do this out of habit, without restraint and responsibility. As concerns arise, we point fingers, from a disassociated distance at big government, big business, an elected leader or faulty science, and continue on like nothing is happening. We do this repeatedly without impunity as we scorch and skewer this precious land on the belief that it will all just go away and like a fairy tale, we will live happily ever after.
We seem to be seduced into a false reality that all is well because each day we are still able to turn on the faucet, go to the grocery store and fill up with gas. Why be concerned? We drive to work, five or more days a week with tens of thousands of others following with extended antennae beaconed by a reassuring tail light only to be stricken by panic at the thought of not finding a parking space. Upon the return from the frenzy we pay no mind to massive doses of hydrogenated, autolyzed and extracted by products we called dinner and quickly flip on the tube to watch the Real House Wives of Beverly Hills as we reconnect to the world. What?
This reality could not be more distorted and we are foolishly lulled into a sense of complacency by a painted media and our own denial until we are confronted with truth and that truth is about to be knocking at your door, and right quickly I imagine. No, not at your neighbor’s door or the other side of elsewhere but this time it’s your door, your street and your city. It will be millions of fellow human beings without water, food.
The world cannot sustain itself on this massive scale of self-consumption. It astonishes me that not a single drop of water from the massive 1,000 mile Colorado River that shaped and sculpted much of the western United States for more than five million years ever reaches the sea. The once thriving Sea of Cortez supports no life. The water is sickened with salt, the surrounding wetlands and all the wildlife it once supported have vanished and the farms have dried up. I am taken back when I realize that more than 50 percent of our very own water supply is pumped by megawatts from the Delta. There is not enough water in the aquifer directly under our feet to sustain what we have. Tomorrow it will be 60, 70? And when we take it all, what will sustain the bays, inlets, salmon, steelhead, shad and other migratory fish, birds and other wildlife? Sigh …
We are doing our part locally to hasten this ecological and humanitarian disaster when we allow a misguided Morgan Hill City Council to annex 1,300 acres of prime agricultural land in Morgan Hill’s Southeast Quadrant for the simple want of a very few influential developers for track homes, parking lots and asphalt streets. There is no need to do this. There is enough vacant land within the city limits for development for decades to come. But it is happening none the less.
I must remind you that this project of plunder is not in the next state, or county but here in Morgan Hill and it remains undetected by our limited antennae. But it will be gone soon enough, and gone will be the water, clean air, views of our hillsides, fresh fruits and vegetables, and the indigenous wildlife we will only come to know through photographs and paper sketches. Greed is the likely culprit and the victim will be our children and theirs. It does not have to be this way.
Write to our City Council at Morgan Hill City Council, 7555 Peak Ave., Morgan Hill, CA 95037-4199 or email c/o Irma Torrez, City Clerk, Ir********@mo********.gov.
Let them know you want to preserve our rural heritage and country charm and that you wish to preserve our precious farmland and open space.
Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill
