[LookOutSugarLake] FYI

[Rick Simpson]

The [Kelowna] Capital News

<http://www.kelownacapnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=113&cat=45&id=&more=>Watershed 
can be protected


Mar 04 2007

To the editor:

Re: IHA Turns Deaf Ear to Complaints, Feb. 14 Capital News.

I am writing because I am concerned about the 
lack of willingness of our government to protect 
water at source and its hope that treatment will 
compensate for poor quality water.

New York City was able to protect its water at 
source by buying back land and ensuring sound 
agricultural practices. NYC’s decision was based 
on economics, as they did the calculations and 
saw how expensive water treatment plants are, not 
only to buy and install, but to maintain and upkeep.

The opposition we hear about protecting watershed 
lands is that it may be bad for the economy. This 
may be true in the short term but is patently 
false if we consider all costs of not protecting 
at source, on a 10 and 20 year period, not only 
in treatment costs, but in loss of health and potential.

If, on the other hand, we let the planet be 
treated as if it was a business in liquidation, 
and agree to convert all our resources to cash as 
quickly as possible, and have a few years of 
pollution-based prosperity, we can generate an 
instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a 
prosperous economy. Already many species are 
paying for our joyride and we can be sure that our children will be next.

Please feel free to pass this information along 
where it can best be used to hopefully prevent 
the sale of lots on watershed plateaux, as seems 
to be the goal of this government. We should be 
protecting and buying back land on the watershed, 
not privatizing it as doing so will bring more 
usage, more pollution and less protective options.

Huguette Beaudin,

Kelowna

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© Copyright 2007 Kelowna Capital News
   
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