This is an archive of a past election.
See http://www.smartvoter.org/ca/alm/ for current information.
Alameda County, CA November 5, 2002 Election
Smart Voter

MAJOR ISSUES

By Mohinder Khanna

Candidate for Director; Alameda County Water District

This information is provided by the candidate
  • Reliability of water supply
  • Implementation of a Long-term Capital Improvement Plan
  • Continous improvement in water quality
As a Director, I will strive to ensure:

  • Reliability of water supply

Reliability will be greatly improved with the replacement of old piping that carries Hetch Hetchy's water through the Tricity area. For us, their repair/replacement is also important from the standpoint of safety. In addition, we need to repair other critical components of this system such as repair of the 10.5 ft diameter, 3.6 miles of Irvington tunnel that is sitting on the Hayward fault, construction of its bypass facility, and repair of structurally inadequate Calaveras Dam.

  • Long-term Capital Improvement Plan for dependable source of water during water shortage.

This plan is for a dependable source of water during water shortage. The shortage could arise from consecutive years of drought, increase in population, urbanization, etc. I suggest that the water district should pay more attention to alternatives, such as construction of regional desalination facility, a reclamation plant, more underground storage facilities, conservation, etc.

The Alviso wastewater Treatment plant in Union City presently discharges an average of 32 Million gallons per day of secondary treated wastewater effluent in the Bay. A study by a consultant indicates that there is a demand for about 5 Million gallons per day (MGD) of reclaimed water in golf courses, playgrounds, several manufacturing processes, cemeteries, cooling towers, common landscaped areas of various homeowners Associations, fire extinguishing, etc.

Since the use of reclaimed water requires a higher (Tertiary) level of treatment and installation of separate piping, the initial cost is high. Therefore, I suggest that we should experiment with a smaller, say a 5 MGD facility. Depending on the public acceptability, further expansion of the plant can then be done. The other reason for construction of a reclamation plant is that the regulatory agencies are encouraging the dischargers to discharge less amount of treated flows into the bay. This is because these flows still contain traces of heavy metals like Mercury, Zinc, Cadmium, Arsenic, etc. that over the years have cumulative harmful effects on the marine life.

  • Continuous improvement in water quality

Even though the water delivered to the Tricity residents meets all the drinking water standards, its aesthetics including hardness of water need to be improved.

Candidate Page || Feedback to Candidate || This Contest
November 2002 Home (Ballot Lookup) || About Smart Voter

ca/alm Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 22, 2002 11:11
Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org/>
Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund.
The League of Women Voters neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office or political parties.