May River’s greatest enemy is all the sprawl, not the septic tanks | Letters

Excessive talk about septic tanks polluting the May River is misguided.

About a decade ago, as part of an environmental restoration grant application, about 500 homes near the river were reported to have septic tanks. That number has not changed significantly in the last 10 years, in part because most home construction since then have been connected to sewer systems.

Yet, we have an increasingly damaging problem with pollution entering the May River.

“The clearing of land for sprawling suburban development is directly linked to the impaired waterways because without enough natural land cover left intact to serve its filtering function, stormwater carries sediment and pollutants across impervious surfaces and directly into the rivers.” (Schueller & Holland).

While efforts to provide sanitary sewers as broadly as possible are encouraging, these efforts can also divert attention from the leading cause of polluted runoff – poor planning and inappropriate development patterns leading to sprawl.

The limited focus of current testing is hindering our efforts. Testing that is infrequent or that is restricted to only fecal coliform provides little information about safety risks and long term pollution trends. Because of these testing limits, we actually don’t know how safe it is to swim in the headwaters of the May River.

So, while the removal of septic tanks is a small part of the solution, it is not, in and of itself, the total solution. We need to focus on smarter land use. Without correcting our problems with suburban sprawl, we will not succeed.

Guest op-ed on gun control a great example of bipartisanship

Kudos for publishing a well-thought-out and meaningful op-ed piece about gun legislation written by two local “lefties” and two “righties” after talking through their differences and studying the situation.

This is the kind of compromise that we Americans expect our elected officials – from the local school boards, municipalities and states to the halls of Congress. That includes the president and the presidency, which should not be exempted from compromise.

I wonder if we could ever get House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff to sit down with ranking members Doug Collins and Devin Nunes to discuss the facts and reach a compromise over the impending impeachment of President Donald Trump. Along the same lines, I wonder what would happen if two Fox newsmen or newswomen sat down with a CNN reporter and a MSNBC reporter to report the day’s news together.

Here is to bipartisanship!

The obvious gun solution

Two recent letters addressed gun control. Seems to me the simple and sensible solution to this issue eluded both letter writers.

The simple and sensible solution is to do what the prime minister of New Zealand did after 51 were massacred in that country last March. Days after that mass killing, she made possession of all semi-automatic weapons illegal. These weapons had to be handed over to the government in a mandatory buy-back program.

She did not outlaw all guns. Guns that have a legitimate use for hunting, and home and personal security, were protected. She only outlawed the guns that are now too frequently used for the mass killing of innocent people

It is incredible to me that this country did not do the same thing after over 400 people were killed and wounded in Las Vegas two years ago. We need to elect leaders who take responsibility to make our communities more safe from mass killings as a result of the easy availability of semi-automatic weapons.

Sorting out the letters

A recent edition had four interesting letters.

Speaking of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, one writer stated, “Please let citizens exercise their constitutional rights to elect a president.” Americans will get to vote for or against Trump in the 2020 election because the Republican-led Senate will not remove him from office. But that doesn’t mean Trump’s reprehensible actions should be ignored. He deserves the disgrace and embarrassment of being only the third president to be impeached.

Although with his shameful treatment of women, cover-up payments, six bankruptcies, and foreign leaders publicly mocking him, this man is incapable of being embarrassed. He only cares about himself.

Another writer said “not one witness has claimed any wrongdoing on Trump’s part.” Apparently the writer’s Fox misinformation channel did not cover the countless witnesses, recordings, and documents presented during the impeachment hearings citing gross wrongdoing by Trump.

Yet another writer stated, “Can anyone point to his (President Barack Obama) accomplishments that would generate economic growth, which we are experiencing?” The economic growth that we are experiencing started under the Obama administration in recovering from the great recession that was started under the George W. Bush administration. How soon we seem to forget where and when the recovery and economic growth started.

Finally, a writer stated, “(U.S. Rep. Joe) Cunningham should show his independence by telling (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi to bring the USMCA to the floor for a vote now.” Well he did what you asked, so now you should vote for him.

A long-running ‘ball of collusion’

Did the Obama administration give the newly-elected president-elect the same fair treatment he received as president-elect?

On her last official day in office, national security adviser Susan Rice wrote a letter with the apparent intent of creating a document for the record, which clearly establishes that President Barack Obama was fully aware of the investigation into the Donald Trump campaign for some time before their departure from office.

Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch is quoted as saying to congressional investigators regarding a briefing to Trump “… (it) is not an uncommon thing to do … in intelligence matters.” Instead, Obama and his officials fully realized that providing a defensive debriefing to the campaign would be the standard practice to address concerns such as Manifort, Papodopolus, and Carter Page, all part of Trump’s campaign. They rejected that option and made a willful decision to investigate the Trump campaign as a “corrupt enterprise.” (Possibly the “insurance policy”)?

Who’s was playing dirty politics? Remember the Steele dossier was financed by the Clinton campaign.

Several officials and bureaucrats had reason to worry about what the Michael Horowitz and John Durham investigation would reveal.

Some of us believe all the ancillary facts led to a better conclusion. Wouldn’t it make a wiser decision on the impeachment question?

If you want to follow up on the Horowitz report and the Durham investigation (which is now a criminal investigation), read Andrew McCarthy’s “Ball of Collusion.” An excellent Christmas gift.

Trump impeachment hearings show Putin has won

Vladimir Putin is not a stupid man. I believe his real motive in 2016 was not so much to influence the selection of a U.S. president as to sow discord, hatred, and suspicion among our American people. With the impeachment proceedings being conducted by the House of Representatives, he has achieved his goal. Congratulations, Vladimir. You win.

More Trump ‘accomplishments’

To the writer of the recent letter listing all the accomplishments of the current president, there are a few more to be added.

Turnover in the White House cabinet and staff. Between firings and resignations, over 50 senior advisors are no longer there. Prominent names that have disappeared include: Rex Tillerson, Tom Price, John F. Kelly, H.R. McMaster, James Mattis, Fiona Hall, Sean Spicer, Michael Flynn, Hope Hicks, and John Bolton. Wikipedia and Google will give you the names of over 40 more.

Businesses that no longer exist include: Trump University, Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Trump Bottled Water, Tour de Trump Bike Race and a few more.

Unfulfilled promises include:

Mexico will pay for the wall. We are still waiting for the first check

We have a new and great health care plan. We are still waiting for the details.

Who can forgive the president’s disdain for John McCain, a true American hero?

I cannot!

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 8:28 AM with the headline "May River’s greatest enemy is all the sprawl, not the septic tanks | Letters."