The reality is what worked when Caldwell was a small rural farm community does not work when we are now at 46,000 people living in houses that were once farms. Rather than put the burden on developers to pay for the expenses of growth and respect for a precious commodity, (the water we all take for granted), the city proclaimed it OK to put citified runoff into canals used to irrigate farmland and crops.
At first all of the bickering seemed like petty arguing about trivial issues. The reality is much different. Would you go and water your home garden with water taken from gutter run-off water and drainage from streets and other city hard surfaces? Probably not as they contain all manner of contaminants from gasoline, oil and other crud along with all manner of toxic byproducts from city residents.
We all need to figure out how to be better stewards of the land and water resources we have in this valley. It all boils down to a food safety issue and keeping pollutants and toxins out of our food supply. Dumping hardscape waste-water into irrigation canals just isn't a very good plan.
Too bad it took millions in ligtigation to arrive a this conclusion. Caldwell taxpayers and Pioneer Water users got stuck with the bills for this lack of agreement and understanding of what was probably not the cheapest solution but the most responsible course of action.
It's no wonder we don't have more contaminated food issues than we already have. That said, we have the safest food supply in the world in my experience. It is common practice in some countries to use human waste for fertilizer of food crops. The very thougth makes me ill.
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