Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
The Manteca City Council knows why there is an increase in water usage: If you add thousands of new homes in Manteca this will account for the 15% increase in water consumption. Residents certainly can’t be blamed for this increase.
I firmly believe the actual usage is more than this figure. I see the ignorance in this council increasing not diminishing.
I feel the residents have reached their elastic limit in conservation efforts. Actually water preservation in Manteca is a joke at best. The acceleration in building thousands of new homes will impact our water supply and reduce it to a dangerous level in this fifth year of a severe drought. I see no indication of this council being concerned about our water supply. The rapid continuation of development proves that I am right. Greed for taxes by this council fuels over-development in Manteca and this will definitely come back to haunt this city in the future.
It may come as a surprise to this council, but this valley doesn’t have an unlimited source of water. Pumping of existing wells creates another problem for Manteca this council is ignoring. Currently the South San Joaquin Irrigation District surface water purges high levels of arsenic from our wells. As new homes continue to be built, more water will be pumped that reduces the level and allows dangerous levels of arsenic to be introduced into our water. This council doesn’t seem to care about development being the root cause of poisoning our water system that residents have to rely on. Development in the eyes of the council takes precedent over having enough clean water for Manteca in the future. Don’t preach preservation to us council, while you approve of thousands of new homes to consume water we save.

Fleener Richards
Manteca