I went to the Select Board meeting last night where the proposal to move forward with the process to approve land application of treated sewage in Camelot Park at the head of the Eel River watershed and on top of our single source aquifer was approved by all our select persons, less William Keohan. Everyone in Plymouth should be alarmed by this. Does something need to be done regarding the sewage challenges of our day? Yes. But at what cost? How much of our natural resources are we going to destroy for our children and grandchildren because it’s the most cost-effective alternative? It’s not a matter of if we will destroy our single source aquifer and the Eel River here in Plymouth, it’s when.
We heard from a gentleman who oversees the monitoring of what goes into the ground at the treatment plant who said that phosphorous is the biggest detriment to our fresh water supply and the amount of phosphorous entering the ground could reach the head waters of the Eel River watershed in 70 years. Many individuals on the citizens advisory board with degrees on this believe it could be much sooner. Once phosphorus is in the ground and reaches the water supply it will be too late to do anything about it and that will be all of our fault for allowing it. Our future generations will look back at how foolish we and this select board were for even considering it.
At some point, we have to break the chain of our poor decision making and have the courage to say no to things like this even if it costs the town the $3 million grant most of our select people seem to be concerned about. A healthy aquifer and Eel River is worth more than $3 million. It’s worth more to us, to our children and our grandchildren. We may not be alive to see the results of the decisions we make on this, but our children and our grandchildren will.
In 50 years, many scientists believe, the amount of plastic existing in the ocean today without adding any more is enough to kill every living creature in it except filter feeders like clams and jellyfish. That’s because they don’t ingest the micro plastics suspended in the water like fish and mammals do. Most people who spend time on our oceans and under it like I do believe those scientists.
I recently returned from a trip to the remote Exuma Islands in the Bahamas and you can’t take a step on those beaches without your foot landing on a piece of plastic. That’s what we have done to our oceans and our coastlines. We are already handing our future generations a contaminated ocean, do we also want to hand them a contaminated aquifer and river watershed, too?
– Kevin Enos