That's pretty much what the speakers had to say at the recent Board of Supervisors pubic hearing on the proposed wastewater irrigation pipeline designed to run from Guerneville to Forestville. If there was a positive reaction, it wasn't coming from anyone who got up to speak. Over the past several months I've had numerous articles on this proposed pipeline complete with diagrams, etc, so I'm not going into those details this time. The Guerneville library has my back issues, the Press Democrat and other local papers have covered this and you can look up the information at the Sonoma County Water Agency web site: www.sonomacountywater.org. Go to Projects and the whole thing will pop up. It's HUGE and that's part of the problem. There's a place to make comments on this site, so take advantage of it.

Another problem is that apparently there are pieces of land right next to where the Guerneville treatment plant is currently irrigating redwoods. In fact, there's enough land available to take the strain off the currently overloaded and soggy system, so it's a puzzlement why this land isn't being looked at. Guerneville sewer ratepayers are currently paying the highest rates in the state and if this pipeline goes through, who knows what they'll have to pay in the future. That's another puzzlement. The project doesn't even guess at what it's going to cost. They'll tell you that's because they don't know which pipeline route will be approved and how long it will need to be, etc. OK, that makes sense, but give us a ballpark, please! Let's say your pipeline will be 5 miles long. Got a per mile guess on that? I know - how many curves in the road? How many ups and downs? How many roads and driveways to cross? It's true, you don't know yet because you don't know which direction you're going to take. All very valid. But we still want to know how it will impact ratepayers. That's valid, too. Rock and a hard place - again.

Another concern is that the pipe for the pipeline is really large! That implies that they have plans for sending a lot more water down the line than they are saying they will be doing. People fear that could mean major development plans that are being kept secret right now. Conspiracy theories abound!

Then there are the neighbors who live along the proposed pipeline and tank locations. They have some very real concerns, not just about the disruption of their lives as this project gets built, but also that the pipe runs right next to their water source, which makes their lives vulnerable to any cracks in that pipe that could contaminate their wells. Being that the pipe is intending run in sensitive earthquake country, their fears have some real basis in reality. So let's tally up the fears:

• HUGE expense
• HUGE pipe implies HUGE water implies HUGE need. Why?
• HUGE risk of cracks in pipe that would contaminate wells

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that much of this water is intended to irrigate vineyards, but we have a little problem with vineyard owners saying they don't want the water because it has the potential to change the way their grapes taste because of the pollutants that can't be removed from the water. OK, who else wants the water? Raise your hands - I see one! Blue Rock Quarry wants it for their lake after they go down to mine gravel. That's in Forestville. Maybe they should look at the Forestville Wastewater Treatment Plant since it will be producing MUCH more wastewater once the Thiessen development gets built.

From what I can tell, there's still a lot of conversation yet to come and if the public has any say, this project won't be built any time soon. But what to do with the excess wastewater better be solved soon or there's trouble on the horizon. Maybe the water agency needs to take another look at those properties nearby that are ready and available for irrigation.