Marin Water board candidates talk supply, rates

The three candidates vying to represent the Tiburon Peninsula on the Marin Municipal Water District board shared their perspectives on how to ensure sufficient water supplies and prepare for climate change while maintaining affordable rates and preserving the natural environment at a Sept. 23 forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Marin in collaboration with the Marin Conservation League.

Longtime incumbent Larry Russell of Tiburon is being challenged by Larkspur residents Dave Keatley, an executive for a global agriculture planning firm, and Dawn Matheson, an artist with an engineering background, in the Nov. 5 election to represent Division 5, which also includes Corte Madera, San Quentin and portions of Larkspur south of Corte Madera Creek and east of Highway 101.

The League of Women Voters forum also included candidates running to represent Division 2, which includes areas of unincorporated San Rafael.

Russell, 77, was first elected to the board in 2004 and most recently reelected in a two-way race in 2020. He earned bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and consults with water districts across the U.S. and globally on the best practices for improving and maintaining water quality.

“I live and breathe water,” said Russell, a Tiburon resident since 1992, adding that he also places a premium on fiscal prudence. He noted he was the only person on the five-member board to vote against steep four-year rate hikes in 2023 because, he said, it wasn’t fair or equitable, especially to lower-income residents.

The district said the higher rates, where the bimonthly water bill for a typical single-family home will climb from $131 to $219 by July 2026, were intended to help invest in new water supplies, aging infrastructure and drought recovery. At the time, the district said between reduced demand and record inflation, it was running $1 million monthly deficits while facing $200 million in overdue infrastructure and maintenance.

“I am the eyes and ears of the public on the board, and I watch your pocketbook,” Russell said.

Keatley, 44, lives in Larkspur with his wife and their son. He currently works as the senior vice president for global agriculture-planning firm Agriculture Capital and previously served on the board of the Sierra Lakes County Water District near Donner Summit. There, he said, he helped restore fiscal stability and instituted a long-term plan to address aging infrastructure. He has worked in agribusiness for 20 years and has instituted several projects that promoted ecological diversity and prioritized regenerative organic farming.

“The most pressing issue before us is ensuring that we have an affordable and resilient water supply for the long term,” he said, adding that the district needs new perspectives to find solutions.

“Things that worked in the past won’t work in the present,” he said.

He said better future planning would ensure that water bill rates are affordable, adding that last year’s rate increases were due to “decades of deferred action.”

Matheson, who has lived in Larkspur since 1995, is developing a startup for emerging artists called ArtZeng and worked for 10 years as an engineer at Industrial Light & Magic. She studied engineering at Duke University and completed a post-graduate degree, equivalent to a second undergraduate degree, in computer science at UC Berkeley.

She said she has noticed a persistent lack of diversity on the water board, which currently is made up of all men. Matheson said she has faced discrimination as a woman in the engineering world, and the only way to change that is from the top.

She said Marin needs to work toward developing recycled water programs to become self-sufficient, weening away from utilizing water resources from Sonoma County that she said are not guaranteed.

Candidates talk water security, sustainability

All three candidates agreed on the importance of ensuring that Marin residents have sufficient water supplies, especially in the aftermath of the statewide 2021 drought and as the county navigates the effects of climate change. However, they offered different solutions.

Keatley suggested a portfolio approach to water solutions, including importing additional water, as well as closed-loop options, systems where water is recycled, filtered and reused.

Matheson agreed with Keatley that recycled water is an important solution because as weather becomes more unpredictable, there is a greater need for self-reliance.

However, Russell pushed back on the other two candidates’ statements that the county needs to develop a water-recycling solution, noting that Marin has already started on such projects. The district has a recycled-water program that provides for 330 customers, just 0.1% of Marin’s population.

“There are a lot of alternatives, but they are all pricey, so we need to keep our eye on the pocketbook,” he said.

While Keatley and Russell agreed that it is important to maintain a relationship with Sonoma County, which supplies 25% of Marin’s water, Matheson said the district should move away from relying on other water supplies. She said the district needs to move toward recycled water so Marin is independent.

Keatley also expressed concerns about relying too heavily on Sonoma County water sources but suggested that Marin could share closed-loop systems and other water resources with jurisdictions like Sonoma County.

“Sonoma County populations are also growing quickly, the Russian River will also have adverse environmental impacts from drawing water on it, the aquifers there are also being depleted,” he said. “We need to look for solutions that don’t further exacerbate that and don’t place us at risk if we’re dependent on them.”

The candidates were also asked to share their thoughts on another closed-loop water solution: desalination, the process by which dissolved mineral salts in water, such as seawater, are removed to produce fresh water for human consumption or agricultural purposes.

However, the process is expensive and creates an issue of brine disposal, the byproduct of the desalination process. Russell said desalination was part of the reason he ran for the board in 2004, and he spent his first two years on the board figuring out how to handle brine, which he said is a tricky problem.

Keatley said that he feels responsible for upholding Marin’s environmental stewardship legacy but also acknowledged that the district needs to evaluate all water-source options. He said he thinks the negative aspects of desalination could change in 10 to 15 years. Matheson said she is a proponent of looking at all water-resource options and doing the math. However, she said desalination is most likely not environmentally feasible.

Candidates talk pros, cons of proposed projects

Candidates also weighed in on the environmental impacts and costs of two proposed projects to increase water supplies, including a $10 million project to pump water from Phoenix Lake to Bon Tempe Reservoir. Construction had been set to begin this fall before the project was paused by the board in June over concerns that more could be done to mitigate the effect on creeks that receive water from Phoenix Lake, particularly Ross Creek.

Both Ross Creek and Corte Madera Creek provide a habitat for steelhead trout, a federally listed threatened species. Local environmentalists during the June water-board meeting urged the board to conduct more research, saying the plan could harm the trout.

All three candidates said the issue is a complicated one, was not addressed appropriately and needs more investigation to ensure that environmental impacts are fully evaluated.

Russell noted the district determined the project didn’t need to undergo environmental review, saying, “it is just another pipeline.”

“It’s clearly a more complicated issue than that with respect to the species,” he said.

Keatley said the district needs to do whatever it can to protect species. He said the project could have been handled better if stakeholders were able to share feedback on the project earlier.

Matheson said there is not enough information on the particular solution to the environmental problem but said she is good at coming up with creative solutions when there are obstacles and constraints.

The district is also considering expanding the capacity of the Soulajule Reservoir in unincorporated West Marin north of the town of Point Reyes Station. The current proposal is to elevate the dam by 39 feet, expanding the reservoir by 530 acres to provide 20,000 acre-feet of new storage. The project, which is estimated to cost $291 million, has drawn pushback from nearby ranchers who say they fear their land will be swallowed up by the larger footprint.

Keatley said he wants to keep an open mind to all solutions but is also unsure if investing to expand is smart. He notes while expanding the Soulajule Reservoir was one of the most financially appealing options, the district did not include any compensation for private landowners who own land that will be inundated for the project.

Matheson said she would like to know when the dam needs to be replaced to figure out whether they should pursue the project. However, she said she does not think increasing the water supply is the answer to the district’s water security problems.

Russell said there were clear issues with the proposal, and residents of West Marin “have given up a lot already to the reservoir,” though he acknowledged the project would cost significantly less than other proposed options.

He noted that in 1999 and 2019, the water district conducted a survey and found in both studies that half of residents believed it needed to find a new water source, while another half said that the district should conserve water instead.

“This is a technical, scientific question, not an emotional one,” he said.

The candidates were also asked how they would address the financial challenges of some of these larger projects and ensure affordability for low- or fixed-income residents.

Russell reiterated that he voted against the water-rate increase because it wasn’t fair to lower-income residents. He said the district should be taking gradual steps to address water issues.

Keatley said the district needs to make investments to have a “water-secure future” but that the district must find ways to make those projects affordable.

“Conservation at this point is getting into the ‘have/have not’ territory because the people who are affluent will not conserve past the point of paying, but the people who that bill really matters to, they are the ones who do all the conserving,” Matheson said.

She said the district needs to change how they do their accounting and start counting the lifetime of infrastructure into its budget to predict how much it will cost to replace it in the future.

The candidates also shared their thoughts on other environmental issues, such as the water board’s recent decision to approve two pilot programs that will open nearly 7 miles of trails in the Mount Tamalpais watershed to cyclists, including some trails that will be accessible to Class 1 e-bikes.

Matheson was the only candidate against allowing e-bikes in the watershed district. She said it is impossible to have no impacts from adding more recreational users to the area and noted that a stated goal of the district is to provide clean water, not to provide recreation.

Russell said the level of environmental impacts on the watershed due to e-bikes is dependent on making riders behave. However, he said he does not expect large impacts on water quality and erosion due to e-bikes.

Keatley said he appreciates the incremental plan and that the two-year pilot is long enough to examine the scientific data. He said the study is also an opportunity to bring stakeholders together.

“I really think most of the issues we face are a lack of ability to get the right people in the room and make sure those communities are talking to solve problems together,” he said.

Reach Belvedere, Strawberry and public-safety reporter Naomi Friedland at 415-944-4627. DONATE to support local journalism, or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery and access to the digital replica.

Comment on this article on Nextdoor.