Protect the water

Dear Editor:

I would like to address the disinformation and misconceptions in recent letters from Tamme Marggraf and Marty Brown, both of whom hit those of us who want an equal seat at the table for environment. We are, indeed, vocal. We mostly work behind the scenes as individuals but do come together when there are attempts to destroy the beautiful land that God has given us.

The ecology of Morgan County was developed over millions of years. Our own lives are truly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but what we do to “The Source” of all we hold precious and dear is of the utmost importance. Otherwise, there is just no point in making future plans for our children and grandchildren.

The single, most important thing we need to do is protect our water. That means we must not destroy our forests or chop them into small, so-called “green spaces” as an afterthought to more development. We must not build on catchment areas for underground aquifers or allow corporations to pump them for profit. We must not allow houses or septic systems on flood plains.

We must buffer all streams with riparian zones to clean up runoff from hard surfaces and the wastes we produce from ordinary daily life. We must not allow industry and commercial businesses to dump their byproducts into surface waters. We must not allow the effluent from package or public sewer plants to be put directly into streams without further treatment by efficient, natural filtering that wetlands provide at low additional cost.

We must not destroy existing wetlands in the first place, since they formed over millions of years as part of the natural ecosystem and cannot be “mitigated” by attempts to recreate them elsewhere. We cannot let developers and engineers draw up zoning plans that put development first with Environment considered as a mere “overlay” to what our “leaders” think will be good for business or a few, low-paying and temporary jobs that come with new construction.

We cannot allow uncontrolled development that gives developers their private profit at taxpayer expense. We must stop it all now, while we still have some thread of a chance to repair damage already done. This is not petty whining, and we will vigorously continue the fight for what is right.

John C. Webster
New Hope