Today you will be lucky enough to have access to an element more precious than gold, unique enough in its life-sustaining powers. At times, even in our country, it is rationed. Around the world each year thousands of children perish for lack of it.

Although in Maine most of us enjoy good clean drinking water, we cannot take it for granted. Big corporations have discovered how cheap it is to bottle it and how profitable it is to sell. The demand for it is soaring.

Over the next few weeks Maine residents will be collecting signatures for An Act to Preserve Maine’s Drinking Water Supply. If enough people sign we will be able to vote on it in 2006.

Basically, only commercial sellers of bottled water would be affected. The first 500,000 gallons of water each corporation sells would be exempt. Beyond that, on each 20-ounce bottle it would pay a three-cent fee.

The money collected would fund the Maine Water Dividend Trust. Water conservation and monitoring would make sure aquifers and their sources are not harmed and too much water is not taken. Dividends would be paid each year to Maine citizens. There would also be loans to help the small businesses that are the backbone of our state’s economy.

I want my children and eventually their children to have access to clean drinking water. I don’t want such a basic life-need to become too much a market commodity, available only to those with enough money. I urge you to sign if you encounter a petitioner.

Julia Emily Hathaway

Veazie