I was unable to attend the Mayberry Road neighborhood Nitrates contamination meeting at Centralia High School Monday night, March 24, due to attending the Shalom Housing Project fundraiser, but my neighbor filled me in on the information shared, and I would like to comment on my view of this situation.
We moved into this neighborhood 38 years ago and, performing our due diligence before buying a home there, we were told that we should put aside funds to cover water and sewer hookups since the city would be requiring this in the near future.
We had a septic tank and single well that, if continued housing growth would occur, would probably get cross contamination as more homes utilized the groundwater there. We planned for this and, after moving into a larger home in this same neighborhood, did septic tank replacement and put in a new pump to help safeguard the water supply.
The Mayberry Road neighborhood has indeed had more growth both residentially and commercially, and we are now faced with increasing nitrate concentrations in our aquifer. As a result, we put in an osmotic water filtration system for safer drinking water four months ago after being advised to do so.
The cost was not minimal, but not large when compared to the daily costs of espressos, cigarettes, alcohol and other expenditures “we” often indulge in.
I am an optometrist here in Centralia and, as a result of my profession, have had the opportunity to travel all over the world with service organizations providing health care to severely underserved populations for almost 40 years now and have seen that a major quality of life improvement is obtaining safe drinking water.
Through the extensive work of locals Dr. Hank Kirk and Dr. Larry Hull, significant reductions in contaminated water greatly reduced juvenile mortality rates in Malawi and New Guinea. In my home state of Nebraska, the contamination of the Ogallala reservoir, the largest underground water supply in North America from high amounts of irrigation, fertilizer use and insecticides, has forced many farmhouses to put in filtration systems for safe drinking water for decades now. These problems are happening everywhere and we have been taking for granted that our natural resources will not be affected or in need of treatment simply because we have not had to do anything in the past.
We are a tough, resilient county and, through the use of our local and state government representatives, the regional health departments and area scientists, we can take actions to control our water safety, but we must work together to do this. As they say, the genie is out of the bottle now, and we must all do our part to remedy this.
With the continued community growth needed for the quality of life people are asking for, we should not expect others to simply do this for us. We must live up to our responsibilities as well.
Joseph Dolezal
Mayberry Road, Centralia
