Reading the text of the special elections on Jo Daviess County November ballot, I am very troubled by the proposals to create groundwater districts with the "power to meter water use and assess a fee for the maintenance of these programs based on water use." In order to collect this fee, every well in the county would be required to install a water meter approved by the districts. Most likely the meter will be one with a radio reader on it so that it could read without the meter reader having to gain access to the heated building where the meter would be installed. A half-inch meter with a remote radio read costs $175 and a 2 inch meter costs over $500 - plus the additional costs to have a plumber install it and to have it inspected.

If the groundwater districts are approved by voters, it would create new governmental units complete with offices, computers, managers, consulting engineers, inspectors, billing clerks, meter-readers and a fleet of vehicles, all paid for by you-know-who. Our new unelected "water-nazis" would also have complete control over any development anywhere in the county by simply granting or denying water. They might even require the Apple Canyon Lake residents to actually build themselves a sewer system and treatment plant to stop contaminating the lake with their poorly designed and maintained septic systems. Think long and hard about your vote. Be careful what you wish for ... you might get it.