Environmentalists to Try to Capture Seats on 2 Water District Boards

Environmentalists unhappy over how established water agencies are handling underground water pollution in the San Gabriel Valley are backing three candidates for seats on two water district boards in the Nov. 6 election.

“The campaign is going to be about the water cleanup,” said Hacienda Heights environmentalist Wil Baca, a persistent critic of the agencies.

But Burton E. Jones, who is president of the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District but is not up for reelection, said environmentalists are raising a bogus issue to generate support.

For years, Jones said, “when people turned on their tap, they got water that met all the state standards.” He said the public has been generally satisfied with the water and with the people who lead the districts.

Only twice in the last two decades, Jones said, has his five-member board had contested elections: in 1968 and again in 1988, when two environmentally oriented candidates, Royall Brown and William Robinson, won seats.

These days, Baca said, “it’s even more important to start changing the character of those boards. The only way to tangle with the water companies is to take over the public agencies.”

Environmentalists have targeted two races in the Upper San Gabriel district and one in the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. The filing deadline for candidates was last Friday.

In the Upper San Gabriel district, incumbent Alfred Wittig, a retired building contractor, faces Marvin Cichy, an El Monte environmental lawyer; Patrick Hauk, assistant manager of a retail store; Janice Marugg, a community relations executive, and William Redcay, an Azusa water superintendent.

The district’s other contested seat is held by Robert Nicholson of Arcadia, chairman of the board of San Gabriel Valley Water Co. He is challenged by Anthony Fellow of El Monte, a college professor and environmental writer.

Baca said he and other environmentalists will work to elect Cichy, Fellow and Carol A. Montano, who is running for the only contested seat in the San Gabriel Valley district.

Montano, of Azusa, has been a leader of the East Valleys Organization, which is urging local water agencies to involve the public in decisions over cleaning up the valley’s severe ground-water pollution.

Montano is trying to unseat Donald Clark of Azusa, who was named last week to head the newly organized commission of the Main San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority.

Baca said prominent water activists have not yet taken sides in the Three Valleys Municipal Water District, where three seats are contested.

Board Chairman William Koch is opposed by Nolie Glover, a sales account representative from Pomona.

Incumbent Muriel O’Brien of Claremont faces Dorothy Davis, a Claremont businesswoman; and incumbent Paul E. Stiglich, a water quality manager, faces Philip G. Crocker, a water district manager from Diamond Bar, and Joe McManus, a Diamond Bar businessman.