Pete F wrote:
> Amen to that Mike.
>
> And yes there are some states taking action to reduce the amount of
> phosphorus discharged from Wastewater treatment plants. Maine is one, are
> there others?
>
> Beth DeHaas
> Whitefield, ME 04353

The United States still uses the oceans and rivers as its toilet, while
countries like Bangladesh are treating wastewater to produce potable
water. They will prolly bottle it and sell it in the US as our aquifers
become too brackish to drink.

Reef Rescue ( http://www.reef-rescue.org/ ) has shut down one
phosphorous and nitrogen-rich outfall here in south Florida, prevented
the construction of another, and caused the passage of legislation that
will eventually shut down more than 400 million gallons/day being dumped
on the marine mollusks and tourists of Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade
counties. It has not been easy, and financial support has been very thin.

We have one plant, in Monroe county, that is discharging pure water, and
many plants that are injecting the waste into deep wells, into aquifers
below the one we use for drinking water.

Eventually, technology will seep from Bangladesh to the impoverished and
ignorant, like the US, but it will be decades at least and there will be
little or no marine life left to care.

BTW, I grew up in Rockport. At that time (40's, 50's) the lime cooking
business had died but it was still a thriving fishing town with a busy
sardine cannery. As we walked to school, we could see the Soviet factory
ships on the horizon.

Today, the haddock and sardines are gone and it is a thriving artist colony.

In the '60s, I used to race cars on the ice on the Sheepscot. Do they
still do that there?

m

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