Water battle runs deep

Dave Brooks

It’s a battle between name recognition in Surf City and three decades

of experience in this year’s race for a spot representing Huntington

Beach and Costa Mesa on the Municipal Water District of Orange

County.

Former Huntington Beach City Councilman Don MacAllister is

challenging incumbent Joan Finnegan for a seat on the 53-year-old

agency that oversees the importation of water to 30 different

municipalities within Orange County. Dan Worthington, a director for

the Costa Mesa Sanitary District is also making a stab at the seat in

the largest of three water elections being put before Huntington

Beach voters.

In terms of policy, the three candidates are nearly identical. All

support increasing the areas general water supply through

desalination and further licensing of Northern California water. All

three candidates have advocated for lower operating costs and

compensation for the water agency’s board of directors.

With few policy differences between them, the candidates are

relying on traditional campaign techniques to win a seat. For

MacAllister, the election is a sheer numbers game.

Data from the Orange County Registrar of Voters make Huntington

Beach the second largest municipality of registered voters in the

county at 122,577, a little under 1,000 short of Anaheim. Costa Mesa,

on the other hand, has a much smaller base of registered voters at

53,232.

If MacAllister can take most of Huntington Beach, he reasons --

where he has name recognition both in local politics and on civic

groups where he has been active including the Chamber of Commerce,

the Boys and Girls Club and the Fourth of July Parade committee -- he

has a good shot of winning the election.

“With my connection to the community and ability, I bring about

awareness that might be difficult for other people,” he said.

Finnegan’s strategy will be to market herself as a veteran water

advocate with decades of experience. She began serving with the

Coastal Municipal Water District in 1985 before it merged with the

current municipal district in 2000, where she served a four-year

term. Before that, she spent 21 years working as staff and management

for Mesa Consolidated Water District.

“I’ve been involved in water issues for a long time and I have the

time and desire to continue my role,” she said.

Finally, Worthington is marketing his endorsements in his quest

for office, pulling in support from Congressman Dana Rohrabacher,

State Senator Ross Johnson and municipal district President Brett

Barbre.

Worthington said he stands out from other candidates because he is

willing to consider nearly any proposal to increase the county’s

acquisition of imported water.

“The board needs to have people looking at every possible avenue

and not closing the door saying ‘that won’t work,” he said.

Besides looking at desalination, which he and the other candidates

see as inevitable, Worthington said he is interested in pursuing

technology to convert underground brackish water that has half the

salinity of seawater, as well as better ways to trap rainwater and

recharge it into underground aquifers.

Nearly half of Orange County’s water is imported from the Colorado

River and the San Francisco-San Joaquin Bay Delta, although federal

regulators have recently reduced Southern California’s allocation.

Huntington Beach also utilizes its own ground water wells that

draw from a basin that stretches from the Prado Dam through Northern

Orange County.

The county’s groundwater is controlled by the Orange County Water

District, which has two seats in Huntington Beach that are up for

election this year.

Most of Surf City will have 13-year incumbent Wes Bannister on its

ballot. Bannister, who serves as a financial director for the

municipal district was also recently appointed as the chairman of the

Metropolitan Water Board of Directors, which imports and wholesales

water to 18 million people in six Southern California counties.

Bannister is running unopposed for his seat on the Orange County

Water District.

Residents living in or near parts of Huntington Harbor might have

three candidates on their ballot. Incumbent Philip Anthony is running

against Otto J. Lacayo, a trustee with the North Orange County

Community College District.