Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Welcome! We hope that you enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in or create an account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribe purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Thank you for signing in! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Checking back? Since you viewed this item previously you can read it again.
Editor’s note: One in a series.
Leading up to the Nov. 8 general election, the Appeal-Democrat will be running a series of candidate profiles that will allow each person running for a significant contested office in the Yuba-Sutter area the chance to either introduce themselves to the voting public or remind those who they are and where they stand.
The Appeal-Democrat sent five simple questions to candidates. Each candidate who is running has been given the opportunity to respond. Profiles will run in the Appeal in the order in which they are received.
The following are answers provided by Sarah K. Napierski, who is running for the North Yuba Water District Division 5 seat. Napierski is facing off against Ginger L. Hughes and Ann Plumb.
Q: What can North Yuba Water District do to ensure everyone has access to water, including during wildfires?
A: Four actions are needed:
1. Connect our hydrant system directly to the Forbestown Ditch using a pressurized system. Hydrants are currently connected to the Forbestown Treatment Plant which means if people try to wet down their property and home during a fire, the demand is too high to sustain providing water to CalFire and residents and the domestic system collapses.
2. A complete overhaul of the 70-year-old infrastructure.
3. Dig out, compact, and increase capacity in the Forbestown Ditch so that all 23,700-acre feet of our water can be utilized by the community.
4. Develop a series of cisterns throughout the area and ponds on every property for fire protection.
Q: Do you support the piping of the Forbestown Ditch (please explain your answer)?
A: Absolutely not. That is not a smart way to spend the money. There is no need to spend millions of dollars on a plastic pipe that cannot convey all 23,700 acre feet of our water and will only deliver 15% of that. That pipe will cost a minimum of $25 million. It is a huge waste of money. Also, an above-ground plastic pipe will melt in a fire and it will destroy the greenbelts we currently have as a result of our earthen ditch.
South Feather Water and Power Agency (SFWPA) offered to get our conveyance system repaired and increase capacity by 100% (double the current capacity) – for less than $1 million. I favor a mixed solution where some areas are shotcreted, some are dug out and compacted and a very few vulnerable sections that need piping piped with metal undergrounded pipes.
Q: Do you think North Yuba Water District should be selling water to other water districts (please explain your answer)?
A: No! We have people who were annexed to North Yuba Water District (NYWD) in the early 1960s, who have been waiting 70 years to receive the water they were promised and for which they have paid taxes for all those 70 years and not received one drop of water. We have irrigation customers who have received no water for three of the last five years. We have people who would love to receive irrigation water. There are people who want domestic drinking water. We need to take care of our community first. Our water can give our community a robust fire protection system. I do not want to sell any of our water. Keep it here!
Q: Is there anything North Yuba Water District can do to improve the wellbeing of farmers and irrigation users within the district?
A: Besides increasing the capacity of the Forbestown Ditch by letting SFWPA clean it out and increasing capacity from 24 cfs to 50 CFS?
Yes, the irrigation canal has been neglected for the last 12 years and it needs to be dug out and compacted. Irrigation needs to be expanded to expand the customer base and allow our community to become the self-sustaining area it wants to be. We need all the 23,700-acre feet of water we are authorized to receive to expand irrigation and promote family-centered and for-profit farms and ranches. This community can look like Loma Rica – it can become a hub for agribusiness and agritourism – if we focus on supporting and increasing our farms and ranches.
Q: Why should voters choose you for the North Yuba Water District board?
A: I am a stay-at-home mom who is very worried about our future and fed up with the leadership at NYWD. I will work hard for this community. The current water situation directly affects my kids, my friends, and my community, and the lack of accountability or even a response by NYWD convinced me that the only way to get the needed changes on the NYWD board is to get involved and run for the seat for Division 5. As a paralegal, I understand the legal implications of NYWD’s recent actions, and I want to bring transparency and honesty to the agency. I want an agency that works for all of us, and I want safe, abundant drinking water, abundant irrigation water, and a robust fire protection system.
My kids and all the kids in Brownsville deserve safe, abundant drinking water and to feel as safe as possible from a fire. The current agency is not listening to their people. For years, community efforts to get NYWD to do something or listen to our concerns results in nothing happening – you call and it goes to voicemail, you leave messages that are never responded to. The NYWD takes no responsibility and no action to fix any problems. The current board has ignored the community for far too long now. This must stop. This must change. Water is life.
I will fight for the community to get its water and to be taken care of with a new board. Together – all of us – we will fight for the future of Brownsville!
A mainly sunny sky. High around 90F. Winds light and variable..
Clear skies. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.
Express your opinion! Fill out this form to submit a Letter to the Editor.