William Kopper, former mayor of Davis and member of the Davis Water Advisory Committee, is responding to the Dec. 9 editorial "Is Davis set to scuttle Woodland water deal?" The editorial stated: "Opponents have attacked the proposed plan and rate hikes for various reasons – some legitimate, some less so."

The Bee's editorial is stunning in its bias and misinformation. It ignores the "water deal's" impact on Davis ratepayers who will be burdened with paying for a $100 million wastewater treatment plant concurrently with a $200 million bill for surface water infrastructure. The Bee avoids looking at affordable options that allow Davis to meet its effluent requirements at this time without surface water.

The Bee has no concept of the cost to the Davis community of funding the new wastewater plant and the surface water project at the same time. A $300 million infrastructure bill for a small town, where almost half the residents are students, is unmanageable.

The capital cost of the new wastewater treatment plant and the surface water project will be more than $13,000 per Davis house. The $13,000 figure does not include bond interest, the cost of surface water and operating costs. The capital cost per ratepayer for the incinerator that bankrupted Harrisburg, Pa., and the sewer project that plunged Jefferson County, Alabama, into default is in the same range that The Bee asks Davis taxpayers to bear.

To pay for the two water projects, the city will have to triple its water revenues to a point about equal to the city's entire general fund which pays for police, fire, parks, administration, and other city programs and services. Tripling the current utility rates will severely harm seniors, low-income residents, restaurants and many other businesses, and will make it nearly impossible to pass tax overrides to fund schools and other needed city services.

Davis well water is of very good quality. It is clean and meets all state and federal drinking water standards with virtually no treatment. As Davis has developed deep wells, the water has become softer, and the salinity is much less. This trend will continue as two new deep aquifer wells are completed.

Davis water usage has also gone down dramatically through conservation and is expected to decrease further. In the near future, most Davis household water will be deep aquifer water, which is softer and tastes better.

A third to one-half of the salinity in Davis' effluent is from salt-based water softeners. With the softer water from the deep aquifer, water softeners are not required in Davis. If necessary, the city can meet the proposed salinity standards by regulating water softeners. For fiscal survival, Davis must postpone the surface water project until it has paid for the new wastewater treatment plant.

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William Kopper, former mayor of Davis and member of the Davis Water Advisory Committee, is responding to the Dec. 9 editorial "Is Davis set to scuttle Woodland water deal?" The editorial stated: "Opponents have attacked the proposed plan and rate hikes for various reasons – some legitimate, some less so."

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