Letter to the Editor: And now for the rest of the Greenville water story

And now for the rest of my story concerning the recent issue of possible contamination in Greenville’s city water. As with the Bidwell’s, the Jernigans were friends of mine. In the late 1980s, I had already started “Plumas Temporary Office Help” service as a way to earn extra money to continue with a “late in life education.” Tom Jernigan called me to tell me that his wife, Vicki, had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and she had not been able to keep up with the bookwork; she was his only office help; could I lend a hand? I said, of course and I went to work for a short time, catching up with past due, “Billing and Collections.” When the office was organized and the accounts were up to date, I left to go on with my earlier plans to attend college.

I know for a fact that anyone on the Bidwell Water Company Account had good water; the testing took place, consistently; and, for the short time I was there, I filed the copies of the reports, as required. I personally think that the Dixie fire caused this contamination, via destruction of, what was, a very reliable water system, otherwise, the Department of Water Resources would have been on it, instantly, due to those mandated testing procedures.

Another thing is, the water, from Round Valley Lake, not passing through the piped city water purification system, but flowing down North Valley Creek, into Wolf Creek, and, from there, into the Feather River, would not affect the users along the city water system. If there had been contamination in the well water, as with ours when we first had well water, and testing took place, then, it’s still a matter of when, where. and how.

Nansi Wattenburg Bohne
Quincy