With temperatures climbing and lawns drying, the one thing the audience wanted to know was what the candidates planned to do about the lack of water in Pasco. Paul McClintock asked County Commission candidates Wednesday during a forum sponsored by the Council of Neighborhood Associations. Nearly every question posed to County Commission candidates dealt with water in some way, from whether the county should take over the private Aloha Utilities to whether it should support a desalination plant on its own shores. The two candidates for sheriff who attended the forum, Democratic Sheriff Lee Cannon and Republican Gil Thivener, sat quietly throughout most of the two-hour forum. For her part, District 1 County Commission candidate Pat Burke, a Democrat, said she wants to limit new growth unless she knows there is enough water to serve the development.
Growth needs to be tied directly to water that is available.
The region's water board has selected a site in Hillsborough for the first desalination plant. Clark also said the water shortage is not a new problem. When he was younger, his family used a cistern to collect rainwater to drink. And when it ran out, it ran out, he told the audience. Peter Altman, the former New Port Richey mayor and Democrat who is seeking Clark's seat, said the county needed to look not just at water quantity but at quality.