Kudos to both Ken Minn, Groundwater Resources Mgr. for Zone 7 Water Agency and Valerie Pryor, Zone 7 General Mgr. for their thorough and thoughtful presentation to City Council last night. They managed to lay the PFAS/PFOS/PFHxS cards on the table in terms the public can grasp, no easy task with such a technical topic. And to make it clear they are monitoring and managing diligently, to ensure the Tri-Valley continues to receive the safe drinking water it needs and deserves.
Zone 7 recently addressed water rates as well, and they are to be commended for recognizing the need, in this 4th drought year, to do some reserve policy adjusting in order to minimize the already high financial impact on ratepayers. Yes, we'll be paying more, but substantially less than had first been deemed necessary.
Credit is due also to Pleasanton's Water Operations Staff for choosing again not to raise its rates on top of Zone 7's, instead sufficing with a passthrough of the Zone 7 increase. It makes for a leaner water budget and will rely on conservation cooperation from us, but keeps the financial burden to a minimum while ensuring we won't run out of clean water.
Seeing the two entities cooperate and compromise over these difficult few months of hard decision-making is most refreshing. Including the public before, not after the fact and greater openness is a welcome approach. Let's hope this is a harbinger of better water works going forward.
Spend a little time watching the presentations on YouTube. I bet you'll learn something of value