Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.
Dear Editor,
More and more we are seeing town after town having problems with drinking water. Who speaks for the rights of nature? Our rivers and streams are all life sustaining. No one would survive without them. Water is a source, not a resource. It is not an endless supply. Water is life.
Here in Marathon County, we await the DNR’s decision on a notice of Intent to Drill for compliance with regulations and ordinances before giving a mining company the go ahead to drill into our aquifer in the Town of Easton. The DNR has asked for more information because the proposed site is in wetlands. Worries over contamination are not unfounded. The fact is when a borehole is drilled, toxic drilling fluids enter the aquifer and this is where you get your drinking water from. When water and air hits sulfuric bedrock, it forms acid. Where will these tailings go when they are brought to the surface? I certainly don’t want them seeping back into the groundwater.
Recently the DNR issued a certificate of reclamation to the small Flambeau mine. I ask how this can happen when there is significant pollution and stream C is void of all life due to the acid.
Please keep a close watch on your community. Just last week the people in the Town of Stella, not far to our north found contamination in their wells. The DNR will be issuing bottled water to them for the next six months. What happens after that? We should not abandon our right to safe drinking water.
Nancy Stencil, Wausau
