news story / By Heidi Walters

Water Boarding

Now, however, she’s immersed in all of the issues: working on a plan to update the infrastructure; devising a multi-stakeholder planning process to shape the district’s water future; promoting the new “Drink Local Water Campaign” to tell people that the perfectly fine, treated water coming out of their taps, for which they’ve already paid, is a superb alternative to the bottled stuff; making a plan to inspect boats at Ruth Lake for the dreaded quagga.

“I think we’re one of the more functional boards in the county,” she said. “And we have a broad diversity of backgrounds. … I would like to complete some of the bigger issues we are into now.”

Division 2, McKinleyville and Fieldbrook area

Five people are vying for the seat left open after Director Randy Turner left for graduate school. First, Democrat Jake Pickering: When the avid screed-writer went to the elections office to toss his hat in the ring, he refused to give a telephone number. That baffled at least one staffer there, who said last week, “He’s very fanatical about protecting his privacy, so I don’t understand why he’d want to run for public office.” He’s unlisted, so no help there. In 2006, Pickering ran for the water board’s Division 4 seat (has he moved?), against incumbent Bruce Rupp, and hilarity ensued (see “Scare Quotes,” Nov. 23, 2006). He’s run for office elsewhere, as well: HCDCC, Humboldt County Board of Education).

Adrienne Floreen, no party affiliation, ran unsuccessfully for the McKinleyville CSD. The 25-year-old student — undeclared major, but possibly education — actively campaigned against the water district’s proposal to add fluoride to the regional water system. (When the Manila CSD balked, the water district dropped the matter, leaving it to individual municipalities to decide.)

“I’ve since found out they’re trying to put a different type of chlorine into the water that could be more dangerous,” said Floreen last week by phone. She talked animatedly about chemicals — those added by the district, and those people dump down their sinks. But she seemed minimally versed on the other pressing issues of the day — the pulp mill’s closure, the shaky water rights situation, long-term planning.

Democrat Tera Prucha, a 48-year-old water quality analyst, has big endorsements: Central Labor Committee, Carpenter’s Union, Sopoci-Belknap, Chris Kerrigan, Bay District Commissioner Pat Higgins, Sierra Club and more. Shehas had a long-time interest in social justice issues, she said last week, as well as in organizing. She worked for Planned Parenthood; she’s a founding member of the Humboldt Watershed Council; and she’s worked on local water-related issues as an organizer and, more recently, as an expert in water quality analysis — she recently went back to get a degree in the subject.

“I’m freshly degreed,” she said. “So I’m very up on regulations, state water policy law and some of the things that other communities are doing to solve the problems that we’re facing here in Humboldt County.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NEXT PAGE >SHARE