The Brockovich Report

Sometimes I feel like I'm the little dutch boy, sticking my finger in a hole in the dike. Except that the dike is like a piece of cheese, and the more fingers I use, the more leaks the dike sprouts.

I was recently in Greece talking about the Asopos River. Now their government is at least starting to work on handling the problem--porting in water for the locals to use instead of the contaminated river water, prosecuting some of the industries who were guilty of dumping, looking for disposal pipes. Only now I am getting letters that tell me how the remaining industries aren't piping their contamination toward the river; they're drilling and dumping it into local wells, so it gets into the groundwater. I hear that Greek Minister for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, Georgios Souflias is resisting the creation of an independent Environmental Ministry. The people of Oinofita are still screaming for justice. The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) leader Alekos Alavanos has toured the river and says the local drinking water grid should be hooked up to that of the greater Athens' water utility (EYDAP)--of course that is supposed to already be in the works. By the time the infrastructure is built to support it, he may be in office.

I came home to a mailbox full of things going on here at home.

Letters about TexCom Gulf Disposal who wants to inject supposedly nonhazardous wastewater into wells that run into the local groundwater. I'd always like to take these experts who swear the groundwater is safe and see them drink a couple of gallons of it.

Letters from fema trailer residents, who have come up with sick building syndrome from the high formaldehyde levels. The symptoms include nosebleeds, headaches and assorted respiratory illnesses.

A letter from an Americana Apartment resident having to deal with asbestos dust from improperly removed roofing. A similar letter to a similar situation--in the UK.

And here at home, the untreated local water supply of Woodland and Davis is so full of magnesium, sodium and calcium (and chromium 6) that engineers want to daily pipe in 52 million gallons of the purer softer water from the Sacramento river. This is mostly water from very deep fifty year old wells, but that is augmented by newer shallower wells that tap into a much purer local aquifer.

There's so much salt in the wastewater that salinity is also a problem, and the mayor would prefer to rebuild the wastewater facility. What is being projected is an intake river running from "West Sacramento north of Interstate 5, a central treatment plant near Woodland and a pipeline system supplying water to Woodland, Davis and UC Davis." Local water rates would double and the project would not be completed until 2016.

I'm not an engineer, but this looks like it might be staring at the greener grass across the fence. Would it cost that much and take that long to set up a system to filter the local water? What are the alternatives here?

Because unlike the little dutch boy, I don't think sticking my fingers in the holes in the dike is going to be enough.