On protest, pipelines and produce

Two thousand. That was the unofficial head count from the Sonoma Women’s March that found droves of Valley men and women swarming the downtown Saturday morning in a show of solidarity with that day’s Women’s March in Washington.

Though the assembly was billed as a demonstration to advocate for women’s rights, attendees made little effort to pretend it wasn’t equally a rebuke of the Trump presidency, which became official less than 24 hours before, with the President’s words, “This moment is your moment.”

As Saturday’s demonstration clearly attests, the majority of Sonomans have a different interpretation of what the “moment” is – and who exactly will be seizing it.

For the 900-plus Valley of the Moon Water District residents being dinged $1,000 to $1,400 by the state for “backflow prevention” devices – rest assured that the small fortunes you’re being asked to pay to prevent potential water-flow reversals caused by pressure changes in the pipes could be worth every penny. Or, as the case may be, 140,000 pennies.

Because, quite frankly, nothing good ever comes from moving in reverse – the backward “Seinfeld” episode and back-masking Led Zeppelin albums are just two examples. And, if alarmist websites dedicated to the evils of “backflow” can attest, cross contamination is rare – but definitely something to avoid. A few examples from various water-district websites just to get your juices back-flowing:

In 1990, a maintenance worker at a Colorado middle school inadvertently left a hand-valve open during a safety check, allowing antifreeze from the campus reservoir to wind its way to the students’ drinking fountains. Eight students were sent to the hospital. Meanwhile, reports of “yellow gush stuff” pouring out of faucets in Maryland a few years later turned out to be “paraquat,” a powerful agricultural herbicide flowing from a nearby holding tank. Fortunately, no serious illnesses were reported. In another incident reported by the American Groundwater Trust, shower-takers in a small town in the Midwest took a real scrubbing when their watery morning wake-up calls were enlivened by bubbling H2O that covered their bodies in blisters thanks to a tanker of sodium hydroxide that had been back-siphoned into the water main.

Perhaps the most grisly example of backflow is better described as “bloodflow,” as in the time health department officials in the South had to cut off the water supply to a funeral home when reports that human blood were flowing from nearby drinking fountains – due to an ill-advised sink connection used to drain body fluids from the mortuary’s “clients.” (This tale is told on several water/sanitation district websites, but google confirmed no “news” stories, so take this one with a grain of salt – much like those who drank the blood-water surely did.)

The good news is these types of situations are few and far between and have rarely resulted in long-term health issues for those with the occasional mouthful of antifreeze. The bad news, of course, is the occasional mouthful of antifreeze – and so the state mandate to hook up “backflow preventers” isn’t entirely surprising. What must have been surprising to residents of Temelec, Chantrelle and Creekside communities, however, was the grand-plus price tag.

Fortunately, it appears some relief may be in the works; VOM water district officials suggest loans will be made available to those who can’t afford to pay the entire bill at once. With a cost of over $1,000, we expect the district to find a way to make those loans a reality. Many residents will certainly not have that cash on hand and, as they say, you can’t draw blood from a stone.

Though, apparently without backflow devices, drawing blood from a water faucet isn’t entirely unfeasible.

At press time Monday, the Sonoma City Council was expected that night to consider – and likely approve in some form – a new plan for the Tuesday Night Farmers Market, which would twice a month feature food trucks and restaurant booths behind City Hall, with the “horseshoe” out front reserved for produce vendors and the live music relocated to the Grinstead Amphitheatre. Those are big changes. If the idea is to toggle the setup of the market from week to week between the “party” concept of the market and the “farmers” concept of the market – the results in attendance and demographics will be very telling.

The “party or produce” debate over the market is reminiscent of Aesop’s fable of the ant and the grasshopper – in which the industrious ant stores up food for the winter, while the artisan grasshopper just wants to sing and play music. Of course, winter comes and the hungry grasshopper soon arrives at the ant’s house begging for food. The story is known for having two widely told endings – the first, in which the ant scoffs at the grasshopper and leaves him to his dismal devices; the other where the ant shares his bounty on the agreement that the grasshopper provide the entertainment by playing his fiddle.

So will there be room to emphasize both nourishing food and lively entertainment at the market?

It’ll be interesting to see which “Aesop” Sonoma turns out to be.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.