news story / By Heidi Walters

Water Boarding

The big issues facing the district drive her candidacy. “When that water bag guy showed up several years ago, that really scared me,” she said.

Democrat Edward “Buzz” Webb, 71, is a retired Humboldt State University V.P. of student affairs, and a former associate dean at San Diego State University. He’s served on a gazillion boards: school, Six Rivers Planned Parenthood (SRPP), Patrick Creek CSD and more. He’s a literacy tutor. He, too, has big endorsements: Assemblywoman Patty Berg, Humboldt County Supervisor Jill Geist, SRPP and more.

Webb first got interested in the water district when he realized McKinleyville didn’t have fluoride — which he figured it ought to have “like 75 percent of the rest of the country.” But he’s been interested in water for a long time. He’s read Cadillac Desert, Mark Reisner’s ode and caution to Western water law, and others like it. And now the big issues concern him: the pulp mill’s closing, tripled water rates, aging infrastructure, the quagga mussell. “I’m not in favor of selling to a private interest,” he said. “Only to another public water agency.”

His strength, he said, is problem solving. “I’ve got the skills and experience, and I’d like to put them to use.”

One thing neither he nor Prucha have is the HCDCC’s endorsement — twice the committee voted on which of them to endorse, and twice it came to a draw.

Finally, there’s Ben Shepherd, 68, a Republican. A retired teacher and school administrator, Shepherd’s in tight with the McKinleyville and Fieldbrook CSDs, several of whose members have endorsed him. He’s run five times for the MCSD himself, and won. He also ran three times unsuccessfully for county supervisor.

Shepherd is an averred wonk. You push any button — quagga mussell, infrastructure, pulp mill, water rights — and he will respond in energetic detail.

“My big thing is local control,” he said. “We are already exporting water from the Klamath and Trinity system. We need to have at least one river that stays here, and the Mad River is it.”

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