North Marin Water must suspend new hookups

According to a statement on its website, the North Marin Water District: “carries out its mission with a highly-motivated competent staff, empowered to conduct business by placing customer needs and welfare first.”

If one takes this at face value it is reasonable to assume NMWD would be ready, given current conditions, to require a temporary moratorium on new hookups for water service.

Before building any new housing, NMWD is already calling for harsh cutbacks — including the elimination of low-drip watering for landscaping. Many of us have invested thousands of dollars in landscaping. We will be limited on flushing toilets and washing solar panels to make them operate more efficiently. It will hinder our ability, in general, keep our house clean, as well as wash dishes and clothes.

New housing will only cause further deterioration for living conditions. If one goes to sell a house surrounded by a failing landscape and additional restrictions, the value to the property is diminished.

Bay Area officials must adjust their last outrageously large housing allocations to Marin while considering the pending drought in the county. I have been told natural hazards, including drought, will not be incorporated into any modifications at this time. Officials are failing to consider critical conditions at the expense of current residents and insist on arbitrarily large amounts of housing based on jobs in Silicon Valley.

The last 15 years have made it clear that climate change alters our future water supplies. Until this is resolved, all new hookups should be suspended until a reasonable solution is determined.

— Al Dugan, Novato