Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009 | Potable reuse as envisioned by the local environmental community/City Hall and the Metropolitan Wastewater District would put in place a positive feedback loop of these contaminants in our municipal water supply.
It is my belief that potable reuse is being pushed for all the wrong reasons: department budgets, staff job security and obscure environmental agendas relating to population in Southern California.
Decision makers owe it to themselves, their families and their constituents to educate themselves about the very real dangers of this proposed water supply strategy.
All of us need to get more sophisticated in our use of language to describe this issue.
Instead of just waving our hands about the “purification” of municipal sewage, we need to be conversant with basic chemistry: the meaning of “parts per million,” or “parts per trillion,” and basic epidemiology and human biology.
Finally, to paraphrase President Barack Obama, we need to look at and discuss these important issues based on demonstrable fact and impartial science, instead of twisting every last shred of evidence to suit our very narrow local interests.