Not on my land!

Property owners say no to Rio Dell’s treated wastewater and sludge

(Oct. 25, 2007) Photos by Yulia Weeks

Until recently, county residents living just outside of Rio Dell’s city limits didn’t think there was any reason to worry about the machinations of Rio Dell’s public works department.

GALLERY >

But now, because of tightening regulation of the city’s sewage system, some property owners in the bucolic Metropolitan Road area — nestled between the Eel River and Highway 101 just north of town — are worried that treated effluent and sewage sludge from Rio Dell’s proposed new wastewater treatment facility might one day end up on their pastures.

The consequences, according to them, would be deleterious and irrevocable.

“This is a neighborhood of people who have invested their lives in keeping this land flourishing with wildlife and keeping it pristine, and also supporting the organic dairies that supply milk to people, including the population of Rio Dell,” said long-time Metropolitan resident Roseann Potter last Saturday. The area has two dairies — one grazes organic milk cows.

“If you look at the zoning you’d think it was just a bunch of cows,” Roland Potter said, echoing his wife, “but this is a neighborhood that watches out for each other.”

Roland Potter is a formidable man and a Vietnam veteran. With his thinning hair pulled back into a small ponytail, you’d never guess he makes his living as a Certified Public Accountant. Roseann, a nurse, is intensely energetic, and when the two of them get worked up about something they resemble a pinball machine with multiple balls in play.

In 2006, when the Potters were contacted by the city of Rio Dell and informed of a proposal to use their fields for the city’s sewage disposal, Roland Potter was less than copacetic.

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE >SHARE