PFAS in the Tri-Valley: Trust the Science, Verify the Data

PFAS contamination is one of the most pressing water quality challenges facing the Tri-Valley. These "forever chemicals" have been found in groundwater across the region, and Zone 7 has responded with real investment — two treatment facilities built, a third in the pipeline.

That's serious execution, and the engineering team deserves credit for it.

But here's what I think a board member's role should be: trust the direction, verify the details. When you're investing tens of millions in treatment infrastructure, the monitoring program downstream of those facilities has to keep pace with the buildout. If a test well turns up a compound that wasn't in the model, the right response is straightforward — run the model again, publish the results, and let the community read the math.

That's what good board governance looks like.

As an engineer, I've spent my career managing systems where you don't get to assume the model is complete. You instrument, you measure, you verify. The stakes in water treatment are higher than in any software system I've built — these decisions affect the drinking water of 265,000 people.

Zone 7's PFAS program is headed in the right direction. I want to be on the board to make sure it stays there — with the kind of engineering discipline that catches what the initial model might have missed, before it becomes a bigger problem.

PFAS Remediation is one of my three priorities for Zone 7, alongside Water Reliability and Flood Management.