Pollution politics

Regarding the mercury in our rivers: They didn’t know? Or they didn’t say?

Not many years ago pressure-treated wood came on the scene. The greatest thing since sliced bread we thought. We started building things with it, even children’s playgrounds. Then we “found out” after a few years that the pressure -treated lumber contained arsenic. Wasn’t it always there? Did someone not know or did they not say. Jobs and/or politics involved here? Don’t you think?

What about the chemical plant in Orrington that produced chemicals for the paper mills which at the same also produced a by-product – mercury. Didn’t the engineers and the local scientists know? Or didn’t they say?

So now we talk about our fish that inhabit the mercury-contaminated waters here and elsewhere and again the questions arises: Didn’t they know or didn’t they say? It took more than a little time to bring out that information.

In the springtime many years ago when spring would finally come to Maine in the Bangor-Brewer area and we walked across the old bridge, the morning air smelled not nice, to say the least. I remember hearing a disc jockey comment about our city water supply at the time, which by the way came from the Penobscot River, “Where else can we quench our thirst and receive nourishment at the same time!” The water was filtered and chlorinated.

We accepted that then. Which again brings the same question to mind. What else do they not know or not say that affects us all in our uninformed ignorance and health.

Lee Sirabella

Brewer