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5.6.02 Scare ploys and emotion The eleventh hour attack by Saunders County officials on Omaha's proposed Platte West water treatment plant is built on, at best, extreme long-shot reasoning; at worst, on falsehood. Saunders County has long contested the location of the wellfields for the new water treatment plant, which will straddle the Platte River, part Douglas and part in Saunders counties. The county has raised reasonable questions and objections. These have been answered or rejected. The project has now reached the jumping-off place. Final federal approval is expected this year, with construction to follow. Now, Saunders resurrects an old issue: the possible effect of contamination at the Mead, NE Superfund site -- the former Nebraska Ordinance Plant. That particular site is three miles southwest of the Metropolitan Utilities District's proposed wellfield. It might not seen unreasonable on the face of it, to wonder whether the Mead contamination might spread underground, migrating northeastward and potentially endangering the proposed wellfield. In fact that's why 10 years ago, M.U.D. hired a consultant to find out. No realistic chance, the consultant said. Saunders County hired its own independent consultant shortly thereafter. That consultant, too, said there was no real danger. Now comes the Army Corps of Engineers, which did its own study, using its own model. Its conclusion: The Mead contamination plume was "found to track at first southeast and then south towards the City of Lincoln's Ashland wellfield. The (contamination) did not enter the cone of the depression created by the Platte West wellfield alternative even with pumping at an unrealistically high rate. "The Platte West wellfield alternative, therefore, would not likely be contaminated with pollutants from the Mead groundwater plume or interfere with the on-going (Superfund) remediation efforts." That's fairly clear. But not clear enough, evidently, for Saunders County Attorney Thomas S. Jaudzemis and deputy Grant A. Porter. In a letter submitted to the Public Pulse but not printed (we don't knowingly print letters that contain factual errors), Jaudzemis charged that the Corps' tests showed "that if M.U.D. starts pumping groundwater in Saunders County it will create a cone of depression that could draw in the poisonous water." Perhaps he relies on that "could" to insulate himself from accusations of falsehood. Theoretically, it is possible that the contamination "could" infiltrate the wellfield -- just as an asteroid "could" wipe out the Earth next month. But the chance is so scientifically unlikely that it's not something reasonable people need to worry about. Porter attacked the plant at the M.U.D. board meeting last Wednesday, telling ratepayers: "They're gambling with your health and safety. They're gambling with your money." Tom Wurtz, general manager of M.U.D., said Saunders officials were raising the issue now "as a last-ditch attempt to incite the public." That sounds about right, if rather more polite than the tactic deserves. This kind of thing happens far too often: Organizations that can't legitimately beat something resort to scare tactics and emotional appeals. We're betting that Omahans are too savvy to fall for this. |
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