By Joe Rowley

PARADISE -- In an effort to maintain the integrity of the town's water system, Paradise is trying to discover what water rights are held by some of its property owners.

About eight residents received a letter this week drafted by the town's attorney, Herm Olsen, asking them to provide the town with information or proof of their water rights. The properties in question sit along the transmission line that runs from the town's well in Dry Canyon and the storage tank east of town. Town Council members discussed the issue in a meeting Tuesday.

Mayor Lee Atwood said that the town is concerned about two issues. The first is whether people, who live outside of Paradise boundaries are hooked illegally into the town's water system. Because the people live between the water source and the water treatment facility, the town is also concerned that if people are pulling water off of the line they would be getting water that has not been treated.

"We don't know if they have water rights from way back when," Atwood said. It may be possible that water rights were sold with the land and that the town didn't know about it.

And while Town Council members are suspicious of at least one person hooking into the town's line, they also can't find backdated council meeting minutes when the issue may have been discussed as far back as1910.

The council discussed the need to unhook people who are illegally hooked into the line, but the process is still in the beginning stages. Atwood said that right now the town is working on confirming water rights and ensuring that people are getting good water.

Irrigation water coming out of Porcupine Reservoir was also discussed briefly in Tuesday's meeting. Paradise Irrigation, an independent company, will cut off the flow of water coming out of the dam as of either today or Monday. The town will still have access to a limited supply of water, however, because it has maintained ownership of the stream flow that naturally passes through the reservoir.

The council also discussed the collection of past due water bills from residents, recognizing the possible need of legal action. They finished the meeting by paying the town's own bills.

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