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September 17, 1998

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FILNER TOURS WATER SITES SUPPORTS 125 FIGHT

Local water officials, James "Ski" Wolniewicz (Sweetwater Authority Chairman) and W.D. "Bud" Pocklington (South Bay Irrigation District President) recently hosted a tour of Sweetwater Reservoir, construction at the Lower Sweetwater River Demineralization Plant, and nearby neighborhoods, for Congressman Bob Filner and staff. The purpose of the tour, said officials, was to acquaint the Congressman with potential impacts from Interstate 125 and seek his support in the Authority’s fight to protect Sweetwater Reservoir from airborne contamination generated by freeway traffic.

In the briefing, officials explained that discussions of traffic, noise, and air quality are common when the issue of a new freeway impacts a neighborhood. They stated that threats posed to drinking water supplies are less common, but no less serious. The nature of such threats, and their severity, has been the topic of several meetings and letters exchanged between Sweetwater Authority and the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) regarding Interstate Route 125.

While many of the issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties, Sweetwater Authority and South Bay Irrigation District representatives believe that microscopic particles of heavy metals, brake and tire dust, and petroleum and exhaust products from vehicles using the

new freeway, will reduce the quality of water in the Sweetwater River. This, in turn, could lead to higher costs or unacceptable quality for water treated at the Authority’s Perdue Water Treatment Plant at Sweetwater Reservoir, and at its Lower Sweetwater River Demineralization Plant, currently under construction near 2^nd Avenue and Sweetwater Road in Chula Vista.

Sweetwater Authority directors and managers advocate a plan which calls on CalTrans to share the cost of an air and water monitoring study to measure the levels of contaminants which reach Sweetwater Reservoir from I-125. In addition, the Authority has asked CalTrans to agree to pick up its share of the costs for improving treatment, if necessary, to assure that water impacted by the exhausts and debris from 125 traffic will still meet drinking water standards.

"Our ratepayers should not have to pay more to treat their water, just because other people want to drive near the reservoir," said Wolniewicz.

"The Sweetwater River and its aquifer will serve almost three-fourths of our customers’ water needs when we complete the demineralization facility in 1999," said Pocklington; "we have an obligation to protect the water for our future customers."

Representative Filner agreed. "Residents of Chula Vista, National City and Bonita, who use this water, will create only a small percentage of the traffic on the freeway. It would be unfair if they have to pay for the freeway by losing a drinking water supply," he said. "I want to make sure this project provides equity for those I represent."