Tucson Weekly: CAP Is Still Crap (October 23

Proposition 201 Is The Snake Oil Sleaze They Want Us To Swallow
By Vicki Hart
HERE WE GO again. Proposition 201 on the November 4 ballot, introduced by the deceptively named Safe and Sensible Water Committee, seeks to repeal 1995's Water Consumer Protection Act, passed by 56 percent of the voters in reaction to smelly, corrosive CAP water delivered to tens of thousands of local homes from 1992 to 1994.
Prop 201, which would reintroduce CAP water to our homes, comes on the tail of the city-funded Customer Focus on Water Quality Program in March, which was directed toward "consensus building, with the focus on acceptable, affordable water quality."
And Tucson Water is in the process of replacing almost 200 miles of water mains (See "Flow Job?" Tucson Weekly, October 9) and busily promoting its "At the Tap" program, which involves supposedly concerned bureaucrats meeting with citizens and trying to smooth out rough waters.
Currents Hey, we have a question: With all this public relations blather about wanting to please its customers, why is Tucson Water planning to reintroduce CAP water to our homes at twice the hardness levels of our current water supply? Tucson Water officials must be heavily invested in the replacement water heater business, which will be booming soon after all those additional minerals are flowing through our pipes.
Also, in a related attempt at cynical manipulation of an ignorant public, you may have caught Tucson Water's full-page mea culpa in the May 28 daily newspapers. In part it read: "The decisions Tucson Water management made about the delivery of CAP water failed to meet the one standard we should have been focused on all along--the quality of water in your homes and businesses."
Earth to Tucson Water...If you weren't focusing on that standard from the beginning, what the hell standard were you focusing on?
BUT TIGER FISH seldom change their stripes, and while Tucson Water officials may have publicly apologized, they're certainly not willing to pay the legal consequences.
Case in point: Tucson Water is currently fighting a class-action lawsuit, Tidwell Vs the City of Tucson, filed by attorney Barry McBan on behalf of 300 people who say the city still owes them for the damages caused by the last CAP water fiasco.
Ask these plaintiffs--some of whom say they're as much as $20,000 in the hole due to damages caused by CAP water--if they're ready to believe Tucson Water deserves a second try to convert CAP water in to potable water. Go ahead, we dare you.
One victim, who asked not to be identified because she's part of the suit, claims to have experienced thousands of dollars of damage to her home and rental properties. "Tucson Water has shown the public no reason to trust them again," she says, adding she finds the bureaucrats' apology and appeals to the public to be ironic, considering they're blatantly ignoring the public's approval of Proposition 200 in 1995 directing Tucson Water to recharge CAP water.
She laughs at their apology ad, especially the part that says, "We want to work together with you to determine what's important to you in your water and how to deliver a product that's acceptable to you in both quality and price."
The Tidwell suit contends the City of Tucson's tests and studies before the delivery of CAP water were "inadequate and insufficient," and alleges the city ignored warnings by consulting firms retained by the city regarding potential corrosion problems, as well as by engineers who built the water treatment plant.
The suit claims, "The city was specifically advised to analyze the distribution system flow patterns, pressure zones, reservoirs, and the impact of the disinfectant changes and CAP impact on the water quality at the tap. Also, recommendations were made regarding thorough operator training for plant operation and monitoring the distribution system in order to ensure adequate corrosion, taste and odor control throughout the system."
Though similar recommendations were made by the city's in-house engineer, Bruce Garrett, they were also ignored, the suit alleges.
An affidavit by former Pima County Supervisor Ed Moore, included in the Tidwell suit, says his office received hundreds of calls from residents and business owners complaining of "dirty, foul-smelling water, property damage, dead plants and fish, ruined clothing, body rashes, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea." CAP victims claim their water pipes blew out, and CAP water ruined dishwashers, water heaters, toilets and swamp coolers.
Although the City of Tucson offered a "no fault" claims policy in the fall of 1993 and paid out $1.9 million dollars for more than 5,300 claims related to CAP water, McBan believes only a fraction of the people whose property was damaged even knew about the claim procedure. He adds those who were paid got about 10 cents on every dollar's worth of damages.
SO NOW TUCSON voters are faced with Proposition 201, designed to strike down the Water Consumer Protection Act, while supposedly assuring "safe, affordable and high-quality drinking water to all city water customers by establishing mandatory water quality standards."
What bullshit.
Gerald Juliani, of the anti-Proposition 201 Pure Water Coalition, asks: Where's the real substance of 201, and what changes have been made at Tucson Water to address problems like those cited in the Tidwell suit? He cautions voters to beware of "smoke and mirrors."
Juliani points out that the water quality standards set out for us to adopt through Proposition 201 are mostly already mandated through the Federal Clean Water Act of 1980--which means the Prop. 201 folks are selling us something we're already entitled to. He notes the previously delivered CAP water met federal standards.
So what we're left with in this new proposition is the creation of a "Citizens Water Quality Oversight Committee, which is to be established by the Tucson City Council."
Hey, just what we need! Another appointed group monitoring our water problems. Of course you can bet this new entity will soon be converted into an independent Water Authority, depriving the voters of any control over water policy, as well as our collective future as a community.
We said it before, and we'll say it again: CAP is crap. Vote no on Proposition 201.

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