GRAVEL PITS GAMBLE
I personally believe the question of whether to build Hunter Lake or use six local gravel pits/aquifers is an easy one.
After reading the recent report prepared for CWLP it leaves no doubt that if Springfield uses the pits it will negatively affect the wells/water supplies of Chatham, New Berlin, Riverton, Dawson and Mechanicsburg.
The question now is how severely will it affect them? There will also be many other difficult issues such as buying and keeping water rights, effects on the gravel pits operations, obtaining needed permits, etc.
Using Hunter Lake will never affect any of these small towns’ water supplies and during an 18-month-long drought it’s estimated to supply Springfield with more water than if all the pits were pumped dry.
How much more water will all these small towns and Springfield be using in the future? Will these gravel pits/aquifers be capable of getting the job done for Springfield in the future?
Can Springfield really afford to gamble?
Reg Davis
Springfield
FOOT PATROL
Have you noticed some dogs hopping like kangaroos these days or high-stepping like horses? Remember that warning to “put your palm on the door” before opening it during a fire? Well, here’s a new rule for anyone with a dog who is living somewhere fiery hot: “Put your palm on the floor” before stepping out with your dog. If the pavement is too hot for your hand, it’s too hot for your dog’s feet, unless you are fitting him or her out with the same sort of shoes that protect you from the scorching-hot sidewalk.
For more ways to be kind to your canine companion, check out the book Let’s Have a Dog Party! available at www.PETACatalog.com.
Ingrid E. Newkirk
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Washington, D.C.
IN PRAISE OF POLICE
While the actions against non-illegals is unfortunate, no one was targeted [see “Show me your papers: Protecting the nation by deporting Springfield dishwashers,” by Bruce Rushotn, July 19]. Mistakes happen. No single organization, including the police, are perfect and make no errors. What about the other 400,000 who were deported? I didn’t read any boo hoos about them.
These dishwashers are doing harm because they have broken the law. What part of illegal in illegal immigrant does this country not understand? This is a country of immigrants...my own family came here from England and Germany but they did it legally. They became Americans, acculturated to America and speak American English. I don’t have to press 1 for German, so why do I need to press 1 for Spanish?
I had a friend who got caught up in the ICE raids at the local restaurants. She was not illegal. She was a naturalized citizen who owns a business, employs several dozen people and pays taxes. It was a bad situation for her, but her personnel file at the restaurant contained inconsistencies that led police to believe she was also illegal. She spent the night in jail, but you know what? She’ll be a lot more careful from now on with paperwork and the documentation of her employees.
This article should have been written to praise the police officers who have to spend enormous amount of taxpayer dollars to remove these people from our country. I have no sympathy for the illegals, but a great deal for the police. We have seven unsolved murders in Springfield. Maybe if less time were spent having to police Mexican and Chinese restaurants, they could devote time to the continued safety of the community.
From illinoistimes.com
NOTHING NEW
Regarding the article about illegal immigrants: This activity has been going on for eons. We know people living in Edinburg, Texas, who told us when we visited there that the Mexican people had been doing this by the thousands for a very long time. Many places offer services in Spanish as well as English. Do we want a two-language country? If we disregard the word illegal, where does this stop?
Name withheld by request
Springfield
These aquifer and river fed lakes hold almost as much water in a drought as Hunter dam. The hydrology study indicates that if they are not drawn down completely, but only as much used as CWLP claims we actually need in a drought, there will ne little impact on the other users. READ THE REPORT. The impact on the other users is only if we pump the lakes dry, and no one - not even CWLP - claims we'll need to do that.
Dam supporters are directly responsible the City's failure to be the first to get into the aquifer out there - a failure seized upon by Chatham, which wisely tested the aquifer and found a way to escape Springfield's "hydroimperialist" restrictions of their growth.
Federal officials who have yet to issue a poermit to build a costly dam are supposed to choose a water alternative that meets the defined need at the lowest cost with the least impact on the environment. Does RD really think that, given those legal perameters, that the Army Corps can legally issue the permit knowing that the gravel lakes have DOUBLE the water that Hunter Dam supporters told the feds in the first place? I doubt it, and if they did, what court wouldn't toss it out the window? Years to get a permit, years of litigation, over $100 million in costs...get real!
The last estimate to build Hunter Lake was right around $80 million, I don't know where you get the $100 million number.
The major changes in the sewage treatment for Pawnee and Divernon will in essence be hooking up a sewer line to their present discharge outlets. I don't think they would even have to treat their sewage anymore if they didn't want to.
As far as mudflats for Pawnee, it would be no different than any other lake in this state in a drought or very dry year. Just look at Lake Springfield as an example,I have never seen anyone get carried away by mosquitos there.
The gravel pits/aquifers do not and would not hold as much water as Hunter Lake would, not even close. Hunter Lake would produce more water than if all the gravel pits were pumped dry in 18 months and it would still be no where close to being dry, unlike the gravel pits. This is a fact.
If CWLP knew using the gravelpits/aquifers would not severely affect all these small towns wells/water supplies, they wouldn't have to be doing the next study, would they? And this is for only their projected need of 12MGD, they already know from the last study that if they used the 18MGD and had to pump these 6 gravel pits dry that it would severely affect these small towns wells.
You say "Dam supporters are directly responsible the City's failure to be the first to get into the aquifer out there" Yes, and this is the huge problem with these gravel pits/aquifers. Unlike Hunter Lake Springfield will never own the aquifer. CWLP will never be able to say how much water anyone else can take from it or how many other people can tap into to it. I don't even think there is any way in the future CWLP could quarantee that they would be able to pump the amount of water from the gravel pits/aquifers they could get out of them now. So in essence it could be a huge gamble.
Do I think the Army Corps can legally issue the permit for Hunter Lake? After the next study comes out on these gravel pits/aquifers, yes, definitely. And it will have been long overdue.