DEAR EDITOR:
I recently attended a Morgan Hill City Council meeting and was
completely blown away by just how poorly the council members
misinform the public when discussing perchlorate contamination.
DEAR EDITOR:
I recently attended a Morgan Hill City Council meeting and was completely blown away by just how poorly the council members misinform the public when discussing perchlorate contamination.
Being a resident of San Martin, I am well aware of just how bad the contamination of perchlorate is. During the meeting, while council members discussed items on the agenda, City Manager J. Edward Tewes spoke up to say that he can assure Morgan Hill residents that they are safe, due to the fact that their water contamination is at no more than four ppb, and since that complies with state regulations, he believes residents are in fact safe. Are you kidding me? Since when has ingesting any amount of rocket fuel been safe? Last time I checked, people were suffering from thyroid conditions and babies were being born with mental birth defects.
Then he had the nerve to say, twice, that the wells in San Martin contain only trace amounts of perchlorate, and therefore no action need be taken. Trace amounts? The well that I share with four other families in my court originally tested at 8.9 ppb and has since jumped to 10 ppb. Are these the trace amounts that Mr. Tewes is referring to? The trace amounts that are 2.5 times the amount allotted by state regulations?
Further into the meeting a resident proposed to grow vegetables in the Live Oak High School garden, which would then be tested to determine the concentration of perchlorate in the different parts of the plant, including the leaf, stem and vegetable itself. Her proposal was followed by a comment from Councilwoman Hedy Chang, who said that since the water in Morgan Hill tested non-detect (implying there as nothing in the water at all) she didn’t see a problem and she just couldn’t understand the need to test any vegetables.
Well, I don’t know where Ms. Chang has been for the past five months, but I think someone needs to tell her what’s been going on. By the way, props to the lady who proposed the vegetable testing and also gave an excellent explanation as to why it is so important that we look into what we are feeding ourselves and our children, since perchlorate concentration seems to be magnified in leafy vegetables.
What are these council members trying to tell us? That it’s OK to consume poisonous water? Or that if we act like it’s not there then it will go away? These are the people that we are supposed to be turning to for support and help in resolving such an extensive problem.
How can we expect results from people who act as if our problem is insignificant, almost non-existent? But it is so very real, and that is why it is so important to be honest with the public and to try and find a real solution.
If we all laid out the facts on the table and addressed the issue that is, yes, a very big issue, we could accomplish so much more. I know that my fellow neighbors and residents of San Martin see a significant problem, and I know we are not the only ones. Maybe it’s the public who should be informing the city council rather than relying on them to inform us.
Victoria Cerruti, San Martin
Submitted Friday, May 30 to [email protected]
