MMWD incumbent faces two challengers for board seat

As Marin’s largest water district grapples with the aftermath of a significant water shortage and looks to secure new sources of supply, voters on Nov. 8 will elect three of the five decision-makers on the agency’s governing board.

In the race for the Division 3 seat on the Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors, eight-year incumbent Larry Bragman will face off with two challengers: advocacy organization director Jack Kenney and water scientist Ranjiv Khush.

Division 3 represents Fairfax, Ross, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Kent Woodlands and parts of Larkspur and San Anselmo.

Bragman, 68, is an attorney who has served on the board since 2014 and previously served 11 years on the Fairfax Town Council. He said he has lived up to his previous campaign promises by working to ban herbicide use on the district’s land in the Mount Tamalpais watershed and beginning televising board meetings. He said the district is “at a bit of a crossroads” now as it considers new water supply options and that continuity of leadership will be critical moving forward.

“There is a lot of fear right now from what we went through with the recent drought,” Bragman said. “And that fear is understandable, but I don’t think it’s a good basis for us to be planning our future approaches to water supply. Our approaches need to be deliberative and collaborative and I think that I have demonstrated that in my service to the district.”

Kenney, 25, is a co-founder and director of Point Reyes Public Advocacy, a project of the Santa Rosa-based Inquiring Systems Inc. nonprofit group that is advocating for the removal of private cattle ranches from Point Reyes National Seashore. A first-time candidate for public office, Kenney said he decided to run for the board because he is interested in water management issues and believes the district has not acted enough to bolster local water supplies.

“The Marin Municipal Water Board does not engage the public enough right now,” Kenney said. “So I will be available for people to talk with me once or twice a week in public spaces. That will improve our ability to understand and represent what our constituents seek.”

Khush, 59, is the project director and former executive director of the Aquaya Institute, an international research and consulting group dedicated to water and sanitation planning. He also serves as secretary of the Marin-Sonoma Mosquito Vector Control District.

In the past several years, Khush said he has become increasingly aware of how vulnerable water supplies are becoming worldwide with climate change. The emergency water issues the district faced last year that were not experienced by any other Bay Area water district show Marin has not done enough to prepare for these changes, Khush said.

“I am concerned that the current MMWD leadership does not have the necessary political will nor the public engagement skills that are necessary to make the transformative changes that are needed to ensure resilience to climate change,” Khush said.

After two years of drought, the district and the 191,000 central and southern Marin residents it serves faced the dire possibility of depleting its main reservoirs — which provide 75% of the district’s total supply — as soon as mid-2022. Rains in late 2021 helped to nearly refill the district’s reservoirs, giving the agency time to begin studying new supply options.

Bragman said “all options are on the table,” but said there are still several ways to increase local supplies with the facilities the district already has.

These options include increasing storage capacity of some reservoirs by installing adjustable gates on the dam spillways; addressing “pinch points” in the district’s distribution system to allow it to import its full annual allotment of imported water from Sonoma County; and improving conservation through rebates for more water-efficient appliances, replacing turf and more water-efficient building standards, he said.

A brackish desalination facility on the Petaluma River could also be a far less expensive option compared to other locations and have fewer environmental impacts, Bragman said.

Kenney said he supports expanding the district’s recycled water distribution beyond the Terra Linda neighborhood; increasing dam capacity at the district’s Kent and Soulajule reservoirs through raising dams or installing spillway gates; and a potential pipeline to the East Bay as a backup in case the district needs to purchase and import more water. He said he is less inclined to support a desalinization plant based on its expense, energy demands and environmental impacts.

Khush said he also thinks all supply options should be considered, but that the district’s supply being entirely reliant on rainfall is a dangerous place to be in.

In the short-term, Khush said the district should work to address leaks, work to expand smart water meters throughout its service area and address the distribution limitations for Sonoma County water imports. Other sources not dependent on rainfall, such as desalination and recycled water expansion, should also be considered but will require more time to plan and secure funding, he said.

All three candidates said these larger supply projects would likely require the district to obtain bond funding, which would also require associated rate increases.

The district is also currently considering a new watershed recreation plan to determine how to best manage the more than 2 million annual visitors to the 22,000-acre Mt. Tamalpais watershed. One option being debated is whether to allow bicyclists, including those riding electric bikes, to access other trails beyond fire roads.

Bragman said there needs to be “some give and take” between proponents and opponents. He said that ultimately, bringing in more people to experience and learn about the watershed, including those who have been historically excluded, is a gain.

“I think we will end up making some changes as far as trail access and trail restrictions as well,” Bragman said.

Kenney said he would support increasing ranger staffing and limiting a minority of the single-track trails to cyclists.

“I believe there needs to be a setup so all types of audiences can enjoy the land and the one-track trails,” Kenney said.

Khush said trails on the watershed derive from social trails established more than 100 years ago, and therefore were not designed for recreation and multiuse. The new recreation plan must “face up to the fact that the trails will need to be redesigned for multipurpose use.”

“In the absence of that planning for those activities, it’s always going to be more contentious,” Khush said.