Local Citizen Comments

 

Clean drinking water

We are so lucky to have moved to the Oregon coast.  We have a comfortable house on one of the cleanest lakes in Oregon, one of only three lakes of its kind in the world, fed by rainwater and springs.  We plan to spend our last days in this beautiful place.  When we first came here we bought the best water filtration system available, repaired the septic system, removed the lawn because it was too close to the lake, and re-planted using a more natural landscape.  We purchased a spotting scope to watch the wildlife and settled in to enjoy our new life.   This was our new home, and as we settled in, we started making new friends. We signed up to volunteer at the local history museum and on several committees in Dunes City.   We spent countless hours with our new neighbors planning how best to preserve this wonderful place, specifically Woahink Lake.  We worked with a lot of other residents to create a septic maintenance plan that would help preserve our clean drinking water.  While not perfect, it has shown to have helped make the lake cleaner than it was 10 years ago.   Last year I was diagnosed with an auto-immune rash, itching all over.  When I spoke with one of our neighbors about it, she told me she had also suffered from a rash, but when she stopped drinking the water from Woahink Lake, it went away.  Well, I had to try that. Three months later the rash was completely gone.  After itching for a year, that was good news.  I fill, and carry, many bottles of spring water home from a source outside the city.  I don’t know how much longer I will be able to lift and carry heavy bottles, yet our current city council doesn’t believe clean drinking water is their concern.   After the budget meeting this year, Dunes City councilors congratulated themselves on making Dunes City the most developer-friendly place in the area.  One said the developers would “… rather work here than in Florence or Lane County.”  That’s really nice, but developers need homebuyers or they can’t develop anything. When people realize we aren’t protecting the water, they will find another place to buy.  In a town without taxes, in a year when we had to reduce staff at city hall due to budget restrictions, our city council spent $23,000 in legal fees to fight against monitoring the septic systems surrounding our drinking water. That doesn’t make any sense.   We need to improve the water quality, not let it get worse.  It appears that most of the councilors seem to think that the rights of a few polluters, those who refuse to comply with the local code, are more important than the rights of the majority of people who have.  There are fewer things more important in our lives than clean drinking water, so I hope that in the coming election there will be candidates strong enough to make a commitment to retain our clean drinking water source.   

                                                                   April Dumas Dunes City Citizen ~ 8-11-12 Siuslaw News Opinion Section

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When the Clean Water Act of 1972 was promulgated, fifty lakes in the entire United States were cited as being worthy of special attention. Woahink Lake , Lake Tahoe , and Ten Mile Lake, were among the fifty listed. You might recall the Vice President of the U.S. , together with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California , and Nevada , made a determined effort to bring political will to bear on the deterioration of Lake Tahoe . Nothing was done at Ten Mile Lake until it was too late. Other than Oregon’s Alpine Lakes, we enjoy the cleanest lake in Oregon, and keeping it clean is not only in the statutes, it’s common sense. …………………………………………………………………  

When I started testing the water with Mark Chandler back in 2002 the Phosphorus level averaged around 9 micrograms per liter in Woahink Lake  

The Federal guideline is for no more than 7.1 micrograms per liter in our coastal lakes.  

Currently we’re averaging 5 micrograms or less, and recent tests have been as low as 2!  

So, whoever says the septic ordinance isn’t working hasn’t done their homework, or they have an ulterior motive in attempting to get rid of the septic maintenance requirement in our Comprehensive Plan - because, clearly, IT IS WORKING!

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By now you probably all know that Phosphorus is the culprit when it comes to destroying fresh water lakes. If the water looks clear and tastes OK it doesn’t mean all is well. It might mean weed growth is inhibited, and that might be all it means!  

There are other factors to be considered when drinking water is involved. Here are the five most important items that might pass through an impaired septic system:

Bacteria

Viruses

Pharmaceuticals (Viagra anyone?)

Personal Care Products (Anti-bacterial soaps, for example) and

Toxins (Bleach being high among those)

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I’ve heard it said, “when septic tanks fail, you know it!”  Sometimes that’s true. Often the odor will get your attention but, too often the bottom of these tanks fail and no odor is present. The sides can also crack and leach effluent out into the groundwater. Remember, water flows downhill. You probably wouldn’t voluntarily drink what your neighbor flushes from their toilet. Keep in mind that the current ordinance might well keep you from a similar, albeit unintentional, intake as well.  

Septic systems can, and do, fail. Before the original septic ordinance was signed, and after the local newspaper mentioned it probably would be, twelve septic systems on properties adjacent to Woahink Lake were replaced or significantly improved.  

Let’s keep on top of the condition of those that have already been checked, and work to have all of them in our watershed included in the program.  

Ralph Farnsworth, Dunes City resident

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