The City of Dixon is holding Water Rate Advisory Committee meetings in an attempt to convince all of you who voted to repeal their egregious tripled water rates that you made a mistake. Typical of their continuing scare tactics was this missive sent out by email shortly after 5 pm on Tuesday night.

“Dear City of Dixon Water Customers,

The City of Dixon relies on groundwater pumped from City owned wells to meet 100% of its potable water demands. Currently, the city water system is experiencing a major well maintenance issue that has reduced our water system capacity. Therefore, we are asking you to help our water system by voluntarily conserving water while the water system is undergoing its required improvements. 

We strongly encourage you to review the following water conservation resources to learn more about how you can make a water conservation impact in our community:

Home

https://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve-water/?view=list

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ conservation_portal/resources.html#conservationtips

Although this is not an emergency, the city is notifying you as a precautionary measure and asking for your help to reduce our demand by conserving water when possible.

The city is reducing irrigation in city parks & landscaping within the city water service area by 50-75% to reduce demand on the system and will experience plant stress due to high temperatures. Please excuse turf browning at city parks during this time.

To learn more about the City of Dixon water system, please visit: https://www.cityofdixon.us/watercommittee or attend a Water Rate Advisory Ad Hoc Committee meeting. Meetings are held at 7pm on the 4th Thursday of the month at 600 East A Street, Dixon, CA. You may also attend via zoom, or stream online by visiting: https://www.cityofdixon.us/MeetingAgendasMinutesVideos.

Sincerely,

City of Dixon”

The obvious unanswered question is that highlighted in red text.  What is this major well maintenance issue, why isn’t it identified here, and why has the city not told you whether it was discussed at past water rate advisory meetings?  If it was discussed, why are we only hearing about this now?  As the Homestead area is still under construction, why isn’t the well in that area providing additional support for the rest of the system given that a new well’s capacity in this area won’t be needed until it is totally built out?  Why is this only a 4-week project with conservation ending at that time?

If the city hadn’t accepted shallow agricultural water wells which were converted to municipal wells under the guidance of the Solano Irrigation District which operated as the city’s partners in the Joint Powers Agreement known as the Dixon Solano Municipal Water District, perhaps the water system and specifically its wells wouldn’t be now experiencing these types of problems.