Dear Editor,
I wish to thank the Village of Ashcroft for the detailed explanation about the proposed water filtration plan. After reading the brochures sent to all residents, it is difficult to argue with the process that would insure greater protection of our most valued resource, water.
My concern was the cost. I am sure it is the concern of many others. No doubt Village council and the administration know that this is an issue as well. I assume this is why the explanation in the letter to all of us was put in our mailboxes. Nevertheless, it seems the height of irony when one considers the water we drank from the Thompson River for so many years was polluted with all manner of human and industrial waste. I can recall a noisy public meeting held in the Drylands Arena when Kamloops council was put to task to explain why the city was allowing sewage to be discharged into the river.
The industrial waste from the pulp mill in Kamloops was also a cause for concern. The human and industrial waste in the Thompson River changed the colour of the river visibly, yet we drank it. We had no other source of water.
Thankfully, over the years these problems have been mitigated to a great degree. But the fact is, the Thompson River over the past 50 years has not been a source of pure drinking water. Probably few rivers are. The river I saw that flowed through Ashcroft when I came into this country was clear, aqua. We were struck by its beauty and clearness.
If many of us older residents can’t get our heads around what seems a great deal of costly fuss and bother about pathogens, after consuming many hundreds of gallons of Thompson River water over these many years, I think we can be forgiven.
Esther Darlington
Ashcroft