By CJ Dablo
Staff Writer
At Tuesday night’s Signal Hill Council meeting, a candidate for Council challenged the value of keeping the City’s water department, arguing that the City could purchase higher-quality water from Long Beach.
Following a presentation on the City’s water resources by Signal Hill’s Department of Finance and its Department of Public Works, Matt Simmons, a real-estate businessman and candidate for City Council, criticized the municipal water department.
“My top concern is regarding our water safety,” said Simmons, citing information from a database that analyzed water quality for cities nationwide. The database, a collaborative project between the New York Times and Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental advocacy organization, offers historical information of contaminants— including arsenic— that have been found in municipal drinking-water systems.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal regulation agency that oversees water quality, arsenic is a semi-metal element that can enter the water supply from natural earth deposits or from industrial and agricultural practices. Arsenic has been known to cause cancer.
EWG determined that Signal Hill’s water does not violate the standards set forth by the EPA. “No violations were reported for this system since 2004,” states EWG on its database. However, EWG did report in the years from 2004 through 2006 and in 2007 where arsenic levels exceeded legal limits. And arsenic levels tested above the EWG’s recommended health guidelines.
However, EPA standards are concerned with testing average levels of contaminants.
Through 2009, EWG noted that while the average has been 5.4 parts per billion (ppb), which is well below the legal limit, the level in Signal Hill has been tested as high as 24 ppb. Current EPA guidelines for maximum contaminant levels (MCL) allowed for arsenic is 10 ppb. Prior to 2006, EPA guidelines allowed up to 50 ppb for arsenic.
Signal Hill’s average levels for arsenic measured at 4.2 ppb, according to the city’s most recent consumer report that tested water for arsenic and other potentially harmful elements from 2007 to 2009.
Because the Council wanted to ensure that residents understood that the city’s water is safe, they posed direct questions to Deputy Public Works Director Rick Olson.
Councilmember Tina Hansen asked if the public health department would shut the water department down if the water was found to be unsafe. Olson confirmed that the public health department has never shut the water department down and further acknowledged that the state has never told the city that there is too much arsenic in the drinking water.
After the reputation of Signal Hill’s water department was discussed at length, Mayor Ed Wilson weighed in on whether the City should consider eliminating it. He argued against giving up water rights. “I would say that water is probably one of the most important issues that any place is going to have because you cannot survive without water,” Wilson said at the conclusion of the meeting. “It is not a trivial matter. It is something that if you control it, you’re in a better position than someone that does not.” He warned against any proposal that would favor purchasing water from another city rather than keeping local control over municipal drinking-water systems. According to Wilson, losing local oversight would cost the city.
“You do not want to give that up. If you look at Long Beach, they are already paying higher rates than we are,” Wilson said.
But water has been a key topic of Simmons’s campaign for a seat on City Council, and he is proposing to end the water department.
“Is it worth controlling a water department at the expense of our residents’ health?” Simmons asked in a short emailed statement Wednesday.
In an interview after the City Council meeting Tuesday night, Simmons reiterated his concerns about water quality and proposed his own plan.
“I agree we should control our water and our future,” Simmons said, indicating that he is not proposing to permanently give up pumping rights. “What we could do is we could lease those rights to Long Beach and in return they could offer [those] pumping rights to our residents. So, we will still own our pumping rights in the future if we want— if we need to go back— but the bottom line is the city still owns its pumping rights. So we still own it; we still control it. It’s just now our residents will benefit from cleaner water with less arsenic and our city will no longer have the multi-million dollar liability which is our water department.”
But his proposal may have a disadvantage. According to a report by the Public Works Department, currently the City of Long Beach charges about 17 percent more for water than Signal Hill does and adds about a five-percent utility tax on top of the water bill.
Olson also pointed out that the City does provide a high level of customer service to its residents. “I certainly feel that our staff is very proud of the fact that we do provide. . .a high quality and responsive service for our community,” Olson said, noting that the customer service is available 24 hours a day. “I think we’re extremely responsive to the community, and I think you lose a lot of that if you go with. . . another agency. So, I think it’s a big benefit for the city operating its own department.”
Other City Council highlights:
• The Council voted to enter into an agreement with Gateway Cities Council of Governments in order to fund a new engineering project to ease traffic. The Cherry Avenue Widening Project will address the problem of ongoing traffic congestion near the intersection of Cherry Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway.
• Reservoir Park is set to open in March. The new park features exercise equipment geared toward active seniors.
• The mayor introduced two new city employees: City Librarian Gail Ashbrooke and Public Works Director Steve Myrter. Ashbrooke formerly worked as a librarian at Alvarado Elementary and Butler Middle schools in the Long Beach Unified School District. Myrter formerly served as a public works director and city engineer in the town of San Anselmo in northern California.
• Interim Chief Campos of the Signal Hill Police Department announced that they will be participating in TAGRS, a new program to help identify graffiti suspects in collaboration with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and other law-enforcement agencies.
