The unfortunate truth is that Ione's sewer rates are going to increase regardless of what method of treatment the city council chooses.

To understand the inevitability of the increase, we need to go back to 2003 when the state issued a cease and desist order on the sewer plant after finding seepage into Sutter Creek and numerous other violations. The state discovered these problems while investigating a complaint I made regarding tertiary sludge being buried onsite 30 feet from Sutter Creek - a plan approved at the time by the city administrator.

The state documented several major problems with the 50-year-old failing plant and ordered the city to address the various problems. Instead of taking even preliminary steps to repair the damage, the Ione City Council in 2004 approved an insane plan to add 1,200 homes to this leaking plant by creation of 23 more acres or secondary percolation disposal in soil already beyond its saturation limits, and an aquifer showing obvious signs of degradation. The city's own reports indicated strongly that the plan was unworkable and flawed, but the council didn't read the reports. This plan was so poor that the city administrator chose to publicly lie to us about the true status of the plan and its immediate implementation, with no CEQA review or public input. Despite mounting evidence of failure, the council continued to push this plan and voiced more concern over contractual obligations to developers than environmental damage.

It was the Ione City Council's adamant refusal to give my neighbors and me any reasonable opportunity to negotiate or state our concerns that forced us into the litigation that you still hear some Ione officials whine about. To clarify for all, our litigation was based on the fact that Ione was blatantly ignoring 30-year-old environmental law that you and I must obey. Nothing more.

The most frightening aspect of the council not reading the reports is that it depend entirely on the city manager's input to make its decision. I am on my second city council and third city manager where wastewater information from the manager to the council has been somewhere between grossly inaccurate and a damn lie.

The real obstacles to progress on wastewater issues have been the city councils themselves and their various city managers' policies of denial, obstruction and misinformation. This pattern continues today. The city has repeatedly demonstrated that it cannot effectively administer the wastewater problem due to the complexity of the issues.

After five years of no improvement and a worsening situation, the state has the legal authority to ask why no real improvements have been made. For well over a year, the council and staff have ignored the wastewater problem, while forwarding very questionable reports to the state regarding groundwater quality.

Rob Aragon of JTS Homes recently exposed me and the council to a working tertiary treatment plant in Tracy. The plant was built and is staffed by a private company. It doesn't stink and looks similar to an urban commercial structure. For well over two years, I was told by the council and its "experts" that this type of plant was virtually impossible. Hence my distrust of anything Ione calls an "expert." If this type of plant is built in Ione and staffed by the same company, it removes the city from the wastewater equation, greatly enhancing chances of success.

This plant will not be cheap, but it looks feasible compared to bringing the current ponds up to standards. The implementation of more secondary disposal ponds is an option that will in all probability initiate litigation and possibly clean-up costs, dwarfing the cost of a tertiary plant. The new plant's cost could be shared by several different agencies that would have no negative influence on the daily operation of the plant.

This type of plant, privately administered without city interference and bungling, can be a final regional solution to wastewater issues. Ione's citizens deserve to be told the truth about rising sewer rates so they can decide if the higher rates will help pay for a new plant or for fines and mandated repairs on a plant that past and present councils and city managers have refused to properly operate.