Barbara Swier: Huge ag wells concern Hughson residents more than rate increase

Hughson’s water rate may be going up 50 percent over five years, but The Bee’s attempt at sensationalism does not do the subject justice. The lack of complaints from citizens is due to their understanding that this equates to an increase of $4.56 per month, a wonderful deal considering the benefit of decreasing arsenic in our water supply.

If The Bee wants to write about water problems regarding Hughson, they should consider that on an average day the city of Hughson, population approximately 7,000, uses 1,000 gallons per minute. Yet, directly east of Hughson is a farm that has four commercial wells that each pull 10,000 gallons per minute. Given that almond harvesting is done predominately by machine, and can be done by a single person, the use of 10,000 gallons every minute is not a reasonable amount for one family to use. Don’t forget, this farm has four of these commercial wells.

That is something about which the citizens of Hughson and The Bee should be concerned.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Barbara Swier: Huge ag wells concern Hughson residents more than rate increase."