<h1 align="center">Public treads water issues</h1><H3 align="center">
Oakhurst residents look at possibility of purchasing
Hillview Water Company during meeting last week</h3>
By Irene Thirlwall
editorial@sierrastar.com</p>
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There are no free lunches, not in Oakhurst said Jim Watkins, chairman of the SB 621 committee, at last Thursdayâs community water meeting at the Oakhurst Community Center Pavilion.
The SB 621 committee is a group of residents and businesses from the Oakhurst area who have been appointed as an oversight committee, by the Madera County Board of Supervisors, to handle a grant of $1 million to use for improvements of the water system in Oakhurst.
The more than 60 Mountain Area residents that attended the meeting were given handouts from Gary Gilbert, supervisor for District 5 and from Carl Carlucci, senior sanitary engineer for the California Department of Health Services.
Gilbert dispersed a position statement regarding Hillview Water Company. The statement discussed the background, present and conclusions for the future of Hillview Water Company.
Carlucci dispersed a document that discusses Hillview Water Company-Oakhurst/Sierra Lakes Water System Chronology, as of Aug. 10.
During the course of the evening, those in attendance discussed how to solve the long-standing problem regarding lack of water. Both Gilbert and Watkins stressed the importance of the need for a public entity to purchase Hillview.
The reason for this is that because Hillview is a privately owned company, state law preempts county jurisdiction.
In the position statement, and also brought up at the meeting, was the fact that about 90 percent of the water consumed in the summertime by Hillview users is for outdoor irrigation.
And that every summer since 1999, Hillview has asked its customers to halt outdoor watering during the summer months, primarily due to system overuse. This summer Oakhurst was issued a state of emergency ban by the Madera County Sheriffâs Department, which was lifted at the Aug. 24 board of supervisorâs meeting.
At the present time Hillview, has two of its wells full and operational and according to Carlucci has plans to drill four or five wells in the Sierra Lakes plant site.
In January of 2001 a report was submitted to the Department of Health Services stating that a test hole had been drilled, pump tested and sampled in the Sierra Lakes area. The report indicated that new wells in the area would probably produce between 50-100 gpm (gallons per minute). Also, the water sample results from the test hole showed that it met all drinking water standards, including uranium.
âWe hope this will take care of uranium issues, one well was tested and met standards. We hope the rest will also,â Carlucci said.
However, Carlucci explained that this plan is to fix existing Hillview customers, not for growth.
âHard rock wells are not reliable, you donât know âtil you drill,â Carlucci said.
Watkins later stressed what needs to be done in the future. âThe county is not in the water business...itâs terribly important to emphasize that a public entity is needed.â
âMerely having an entity in place will not solve the problem, money will be needed, there are no free lunches, not in Oakhurst,â Watkins said.
As the crowd continued to discuss how to move forward, it was decided that the word needed to be spread throughout the Mountain Area, that a public entity needed to be formed, and that money will be needed for a feasibility study of the Hillview infrastructure.
Both Watkins and Gilbert said that a mailing list would possibly be gathered to inform Hillview customers of what needs to be done in the future and that they will hold another meeting in 35 to 45 days.
âThis was a very positive meeting, we went beyond the blame, to whatâs the solution,â Gilbert said.
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