Opinion

Group offers valid concern

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

A water treatment system for every home in McCook?

Probably not.

But that doesn't mean the idea should not be given careful consideration.

The Concern Citizens group is taking a responsible position by suggesting that a pilot project involving 50 to 100 households be used to determine whether such a system is workable.

While a state official seemed to throw cold water on that idea, saying he knew of only two such systems, and then only in much smaller communities, that is no reason to dismiss the POU RO -- point-of-use, reverse osmosis -- idea out of hand.

Of more merit perhaps is that the city should take steps to reduce the summer demand on the city water supply. The group suggests drilling wells to supply water for parks, cemeteries and ballparks. If that hasn't been studied before, why not? It only makes sense that if we are concerned about providing safe drinking water, why should we then use that water to irrigate bluegrass?

In fact, careful horticulturalists take nitrate levels in water into account when deciding how much fertilizer to apply to crops.

New wells would mean more energy and maintenance costs, of course, as well as the initial expense of drilling new wells. And, the Republican River Compact lawsuit looms over any new wells in the valley.

But we should remember that a similar solution helped McCook get through an earlier water shortage. The city was frequently on water restrictions back before Heritage Hills Golf course installed its own irrigation well.

The Concerned Citizens also presented many valid reasons for caution, including the fact that a new well field is no guarantee that water will be of sufficient quality or quantity, that the local economy is suffering, and that a new well could be compromised by as-yet unimplemented new EPA regulations.

The McCook City Council was elected by the people, and is the group ultimately responsible for finding a workable solution for the people.

But council members know they need as much good advice as possible, and will do well to include that offered by the Concerned Citizens.

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