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p 4 the tribune thursday august 21 1997 st thursday august 21 1997 vol 109 no 50 the tribune comment opinions send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial the loosestrife wars a century ago its demon seed charmed its way onto our shores after crossing the atlantic from europe it took some time before we discovered that despite the alluring beauty of its striking flower purple loosestrife is a killer its one of natures most indomitable specimens with thirsting spongelike roots which can suck up a precious wetland in the blink of a cosmic eye anxious ecologists have declared allout war on the mighty weed first with chemical warfare dousing the invaders with toxic herbicides this proved an exercise in futility the hardy loosestrife continued to prosper our pristine wetlands were defiled by this costly initia tive showing once again the shortsightedness of humani tys relentless attempts to conquer mother nature now navelgazing ecologists have released millions of tiny sixlegged assassins imported from europe over some 500 loosestrifeinfested wetlands across canada and the us transforming them into borderless biocontrol labora tories their claim that these beetles galerucella calmariensis will eat only loosestrife is suspect when held up to what we know about evolution and as australians learned after introducing but 12 rabbits to their huge island in 1859 messing with mother nature is wrought with unintended consequences when and if the loosestrife is eradicated what will the beetles eat next are we trading in one biological dis aster for another g- heeleriv water issue hoses residents dear editor what a fine letter from mike watson on the water problem at musselmans lake congratulations to mr watson for standing up to council regarding the 30 account fee of course its a ridiculous charge but then the whole situation may be equally nuts im pleased to finally learn i do not have to cap my active well i can use the water from the aquifer under my property to water the lawn and flowers wash the car and maybe hose myself off if the day is really hot well if i hose myself off on a hot day with water from the aquifer isnt that the same thing as using the water from the aquifer to bathe in and im not a water expert but isnt the water in the aquifer under my house which is about 15 feet from the lake the same as the water in the lake i have been swimming in the lake every year for the last 10 and before that every year all through my teen years i have yet to glow green in the dark or lose a limb to some form of grotesque decay caused by the water this is the point watson raised in his letter when he said the contamination problem has existed for at least 20 years in our house we have bathed in the water for all that time why is it suddenly important enough i dont bathe in the water from the aquifer to make it unlawful for me to do so now i called town hall to inquire about the kind of pollution in the aquifer is it bacterial i asked or chem ical i was told there is bacterial pollution so i used the name efecal coli the person said yes it was efecal coli this i assume is the same kind of efecal coli the government tests in the water at cedar beach if the count is too high the beach closes the beach has not been closed as far as i know in the last five or six years that is surely good news it probably means the efecal coli count is lower in the last five or six years than in the 80s yet the per son i spoke with at town hall said the predictions are for the aquifers to become more and more polluted in the next decade in addition to that bacterial problem nitrate is found in the aquifer im not expert enough to know if the nitrate in the aquifer is the same kind of nitrate used in say smoked meat that is sodium nitrate sodium nitrate is of course a carcinogen so if the nitrate in the aquifer is the same kind of nitrate then we are being saved from drinking unhealthy amounts of nitrates we can then choose to buy nitrates in the form of smoked meat if we chose is the nitrate similar to that found in tobacco smoke i could be wrong but i believe nitrate is one of the 400 dangerous toxins found in cigarettes cigarettes are read ily available to adults who chose to buy them no gov ernment agencies have been successful so far in keeping people from having choice regarding cigarettes we all know they are bad for us some people choose to continue to smoke some people use bottled water or a good filter system yet we are being told this is no longer our choice of course the whole issue of water pollution at mus selmans was put to a vote that should be the end of it right wrong the vote ballot was sent out by mail after many cottagers parttime residents summer users had gone home for the year the ballot was also the handy government style if you dont object your silence is taken as agreement i call that handy because canada currently has a high illiteracy rate and you cant object to something you cant read you cant object to something when you cant write somehow town council has ignored this little sta tistic as though everyone in our particular neck of the country is totally fluent in english for this reason alone i am very suspect about the results of the vote there is just one more problem i have with the situa tion and that is the problem of sewage it has been stated publicly in town meetings by people who work in the pipelaying business that you must put sewage pipes below water pipes watson addresses this in his letter saying sewage is the source of the pollution problem in the first place the only possible reason for putting in water pipes first is money first you raise taxes in order to put the water pipes in and then a few years down the line you rip out the existing pipe put in sewage properly replace the water mains and raise taxes again mainline water does make the town of stouffville more attractive to new residents as watson points out in his letter more new residents means more new taxes and more new water lines means new taxes from those of us already living in the area a monitored water system means more money for town hall in spite of predicted water shortages the reason for the whole water issue is clear to hose down residents charlene jones stouffville internet article was timely dear editor thank you so much for your article caution needed when using net we have just ordered our internet sup plier and are looking forward to using this tool i will definitely purchase microsoft explorer or something similar to protect our school age children i hope there will be more articles about the internet mrs marianne foscarini markham lori takes a great photo reader says dear editor just a pat on the back thank you for the lovely photo on the front page of tuesdays tribune aug 12 that photographer lori emmerson got more than a cute little girl with a happy smile the details in the photo are what caught my attention the ripples on the water the leaves on the tree the background scenery are something to see kecpup the good work lori frances vague stouffville stouffville tribune patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief julie caspersen editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager 8056402100 eax 905 6405477 emai thctribistorca 6244 main st stoufitvihe ont l4a1e2 the fllorajjvilhj trihun puv- llnbod every tuesday tbiirtdav i and saturday is ono of the i melrotand printing publishing and dtertboutti grtrnp ottiemmu- nity niwsptimr whicb tecfudue i ajmplckrring news advrilfr ajuu on luraldcourier barrio adsance brampton guardian fiuiingte port aiypaxeoi coaiatoodvtmufia beach con- rmclmerk mfrror etaw s ook flajtrdtiuj lad- nradenlastoa prrc prow hasslou this work lindsay this isfoi mwt s kcosoat sao j mldlandrtvntlnncufahibm mirror mqlon canadian champion 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