ELECTIONS UPPER SAN GABRIEL VALLEY MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT : Crowded Board Races Reflect Overflow of Interest in Water Issues : Politics: All three incumbents face at least two challengers. Most candidates have prior local government experience.

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY — Two years ago, the election for the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District board pitted two dominant forces against each other: environmentalists and the local water establishment.

But, indicative of the rising interest in the once obscure water boards on the local political scene, the campaign for the Nov. 3 balloting is more complex and less clear-cut, with 12 candidates, including three incumbents, running this time.

They come from diverse backgrounds--many with prior experience in local elective office. One is a builder who serves on a school board, another is a parole officer, and two are former mayors. None of the candidates have direct water industry links, as has been common in prior campaigns. Only one, South Pasadena attorney David Czamanske, is endorsed by the Sierra Club, which made endorsements in both races in the last election.

Yet two incumbents, Royall K. Brown and H. William (Bill) Robinson, both of West Covina, are running for reelection as environmentalists and reformers. In 1988, they surprised everyone, including themselves, by defeating board members who were stalwarts of the water establishment.

The third incumbent, Burton E. Jones, a former South Pasadena mayor who has served on the board for 22 years and is a mainstay among local water officials, has never faced an opponent.

But now Jones has two challengers and so does Brown. Five contestants are trying to defeat Robinson.

“It’s a confusing field,” Hacienda Heights environmental activist Wil Baca said, echoing comments by Linn E. Magoffin, a leader of the region’s water industry establishment.

The key campaign issue of two years ago--severe ground water contamination of the San Gabriel Basin that was first discovered more than a decade ago--has been diffused since then by activities locally and in Sacramento and Washington. Local officials created a water quality commission designed to help devise a solution. Last month, after two years of consideration in the state legislature, a bill was approved to revamp and strengthen the commission.

Although the widespread underground pollution remains an issue in the Upper District and the San Gabriel Valley is still considered to have one of the worst such problems in the country, most candidates are not making water pollution their main theme. Several, though strongly emphasizing the water pollution issues, are focusing primarily on management style and experience.

The Upper District, stretching from South Pasadena to Covina, is one of the 27 members of the massive Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. It arranges for water to be imported into the region from Northern California and the Colorado River. That water is distributed to dozens of private and public water companies, which use it to supplement the supply drawn from local ground water wells. Those wells supply about 90% of the water needs of the San Gabriel Basin.

Here are summaries of the campaigns and the candidates:

DIVISION 2

* Incumbent Jones, 73, said that in 1990 he had considered not running again after Anthony Fellow and Marvin Cichy won on an environmentalist platform. But Jones said that after he initially was rebuffed by Fellow and Cichy, he has been able to work with them. The three now form a majority voting block on many issues, often overriding the views of Robinson and Brown.

Jones said he wouldn’t go so far as to call himself an environmentalist or progressive. But he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been anti-environmental.”

A former mayor and councilman in South Pasadena, Jones was appointed to the board in 1970 after his predecessor died. For 16 years, he was board president until ousted by Fellow two years ago. The retired insurance company broker has made water issues his avocation, serving on regional, state and national water associations.

In the last two years, Jones said he has tried to represent a middle ground between environmentalists and the water industry.

Endorsing Jones, board president Fellow recently called him “an outstanding director who has helped push through the Valley’s historic water recycling project and a sensible environmental agenda that has included reforestation of the Angeles National Forest.”

* Czamanske, 54, a regional and statewide activist on environmental issues and a Sierra Club volunteer, said that endorsement resulted only from Jones’ willingness to go along with Fellow as a way to survive politically. Jones, Czamanske said, is nothing more than “a seat warmer” in the numerous positions he holds.

Czamanske said Jones, as board president, showed no leadership on the water pollution issue.

“As far as Burt Jones being an environmentalist, that’s a joke,” Czamanske said.

“The district could be doing more in the way of water conservation,” he said, citing the need for increased promotion of low-flow shower heads and low-flush toilets. He also advocates more emphasis on the use of reclaimed water as a way to meet water needs of the region.

* Frank Forbes, 68, a semi-retired civil engineer from Arcadia who worked for 22 years as public works director of San Gabriel, said the district in the last four years has become too preoccupied with “some environmentally involved things.”

He cited the Angeles reforestation project. “The board has one function and one function only--to get replenishment water for the basin,” he said.

Forbes said the board “needs some new blood” to correct the direction it has been headed toward for the past four years.

DIVISION 3

* Incumbent Brown, 55, a West Covina civil engineer, said he is proud of his record of speaking out on environmental issues in the region, including controversies with the BKK Corp. landfill near his residence, the Puente Hills landfill and the Azusa landfill. He said he is “worried about ground water pollution mightily” in the case of those three dumps.

“I’m the only candidate who has been active in the environmental front for many years,” he said.

* Kenneth Manning, 40, , a builder from Hacienda Heights, contends that board members such as Brown have actually thwarted any advances in solving pollution problems. “They’ve actually brought a halt to the cleanup. They’ve caused animosity with the water purveyors,” said Manning, whose father Tag Manning served on the board until the early 1980s.

Manning, a 13-year member of the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District Board, complained that the current water board has become sidetracked and is “creating a major bureaucracy.”

* Frank Palacio, a 65-year-old insurance broker, said that he too is concerned that not enough is being done to solve the pollution problem. “The situation in our valley is critical. We’ve got to do something now,” he said. “If we don’t, we may as well turn it back into a desert.”

Unlike others who may be using the water board to bolster their political fortunes, Palacio, who served on the La Puente City Council for 24 years, said he “is not looking for a political stepping stone.”

DIVISION 4

* Incumbent Robinson, 41, trained in chemistry and economics at Cal Poly Pomona, acknowledges that he has developed a reputation as a maverick, often puzzling his board colleagues. He refused to take a pay increase after the board voted itself a raise. Although he supported the concept of pumping recycled water into the ground water table, he voted against a successful proposal that instituted a $10 per-property parcel charge to pay for it.

“I’m a fiscal conservative,” he said, adding that he does not think the charge was necessary to finance the project’s initial stages.

* Dolly Lucero, a 48-year-old educator from West Covina, said Robinson behaves strangely in board meetings and that his “nit-picking” on details hampers the board.

Lucero, who managed Fellow’s recent unsuccessful campaign for the 57th State Assembly seat, said she believes she would better represent local business interests. An employee with the El Monte-Rosemead Adult School, she works with business and industry in finding jobs for students. She is a past president of the El Monte-South El Monte Chamber of Commerce.

* Robert Nordstrom, a 70-year-old retired title insurance company executive who lives in West Covina, said he is worried that the board has spent too much by increasing its travel expenses, adding new staff members and boosting the frequency of its meetings, for which members are reimbursed with a per diem payment of $168.

Nordstrom is also critical of board efforts to plant trees in the Angeles National Forest. “They’ve lost sight of their main responsibility,” he said.

* Iris Delameter, a 51-year-old West Covina resident, shares Nordstrom’s view that the board is spending excessively. In addition, Delameter, who with her husband owns a recreational vehicle repair business in the City of Industry, said the board must do more to explain decisions such as the $10-per-parcel charge to fund the reclaimed water project.

* Mary Ann Zamel, 55, director of a continuing education program in real estate at Mt. San Antonio Community College, said a key focus of the board should be solving the ground water contamination. “Nobody is talking about the entire issue and how to solve it,” the Covina resident said.

* Gilbert Ramirez, 52, a state parole officer, said in his candidate’s statement that he is concerned that the board have someone with “strong leadership experience.” For nine years, West Covina resident Ramirez has been on the board of the Covina Valley Unified School District.

Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District

A member of the Metropolitan Water District, the Upper District arranges for water to be imported to 800,000 residents across much of the San Gabriel Valley excepting the Pasadena and Pomona areas. The five members represent divisions whose boundaries, shown here, were realigned after the 1990 census. Incumbents in Divisions 2, 3 and 4 are running for reelection to four-year terms. There are nine challengers in the Nov. 3 election.