Santa Cruz – On Saturday, April 7 at 3pm, five former City of Santa Cruz mayors and neighbors will assemble on the Mitchell’s Cove bluff to support the “Right To Vote on Desal” (RTVOD) citywide petition campaign. The event will include a walking tour along the 1.3 mile route of the ocean intake and brine discharge pipelines leading to the 7-acre site proposed for building the 2.5mgd - 4.5mgd “expandable” seawater desal plant on West Delaware Ave. (see attachment).
If built, the desal factory would cost an estimated $140M – making it the most expensive and extensive infrastructure project in the history of the city, with far-reaching impacts that are still being evaluated in an environmental impact report (EIR).
Former Mayors Tim Fitzmaurice, Chris Krohn, Celia Scott, Bruce Van Allen, and Jane Weed will speak at the beginning of the event. Also, Gary Patton, former chairperson of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will attend. Volunteers are canvassing the “ground zero” neighborhoods in advance of the event.
The community-driven ballot measure would amend the City of Santa Cruz Charter to guarantee citizens the right to make the final decision on a desal plant. A charter amendment can only be approved by the people and
cannot be reversed by the City Council without a further vote of the electorate.
Former-mayor Jane Weed says, “Now that the voters will be weighing in on desal, the City should immediately provide the community with its Plan B alternative for achieving a sustainable water supply and managing demand in the event that the proposed desal project is delayed, shelved, or rejected. She added, “City officials have not answered key questions about desal, such as how much more our cash-strapped, downsized city intends to spend on pre-construction planning, design, permitting, and marketing prior to holding a vote.”
According to Gary Patton who wrote a ballot initiative to preserve Lighthouse Field which was adopted by City voters in 1974, "My experience absolutely convinces me that democratic self-government demands personal involvement. There is no better way to get people involved in the political process than by giving them the right to vote on key policy issues. Right now, water policy issues are central to our future, and I think that Santa Cruz voters should have the right to vote on desal. The initiative is the only certain guarantee that they'll get to do that."
Petition circulators are gathering signatures through early-May from registered City voters to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
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