On animals on the roadway, poisoned groundwater, Ashwood Preserve, legalizing drugs and health care for the very large

Watch for animals

on our roadways

All motorists should be aware about wildlife crossing streets and roadways nowadays.

Recently, I found a dead squirrel on the road, stopped and looked it over. It was a nursing female, which probably means the death of her litter unless I am able to rescue them.

Therefore I have contacted Chintimini Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to try to locate the nest.

If people would only drive the speed limit on our road (Lewisburg Road), this would not have happened.

Irma Kapsenberg

Corvallis

Let’s stop poisoning water with effluents

Regarding the story “Drugs found in nation’s drinking water” (March 10):

If we keep poisoning the water with our effluent maybe it is time to stop pouring all of our wastes into the water.

There are solid waste toilets.

There are, I am sure, technologies out there that will work better than taking clean water, pouring toxins into it and then trying, fruitlessly it would appear, to clean it up again.

I suppose we might also think of our bodies as clean water and refuse to pour toxins into them. That might actually involve some difficult choices, though. You up for them?

Jon King

Corvallis

We have trouble here in River City

A standing-room only crowd appeared at the public hearing appealing Ashwood Preserve.

Among attendees, only one person supported the project, one was neutral and everyone else opposed it for reasons including density, traffic safety issues in an area of senior living/elementary schools, and, most importantly, building over flood-mitigating, life-sustaining wetland.

Although the Planning Department informed us that 12 single-family residences could be built on this property without loss of floodplain, our elected officials rubber stamped their approval of the plan for 28 three-story attached apartments (destined to become rentals).

Ominously, Ashwood Preserve will be the first implementation of Minimum Assured Development Area regulations, allowing developers to build over natural features such as wetlands.

Whereas developers want maximum density and return on investment and the city wants maximum tax increases, neighbors and citizens want livability, peace and safety.

Remember 1996, when our Corvallis and Portland riverfront areas nearly flooded? Do city officials go with ill-advised regulations because they are afraid of being sued by developers? Does greed rule in our fair city? Are we so hell-bent on preventing sprawl that we approve plans destined to become urban blight? What about democracy here?

Yes, my friends, we do have trouble, trouble, trouble, right here in River City. Why are we paying taxes for such poor planning decisions and services? I want my money back.

Ray Chesbrough

Corvallis

Take steps to keep our water clean

I work in water treatment where focusing on removing nutrients, solids, and inactivating microbes has been the goal.

Twenty years ago I attended a lecture given at a conference regarding a missing run of salmon. The culprit was not the fishing industry. It was tracked down to levels of human hormones from discharged wastewater in the river that caused all the fish to become female.

Recently I participated in efforts using recycled wastewater injected into water wells to prevent salt water from entering aquifers in Los Angeles. A carcinogenic compound, created by chlorine and ammonia, measured in parts per trillion was found.

Listening to discussions of various researchers, it has become clear to me that our understanding of micro-pollutants and endocrine-disrupting components in our water prove that current treatment technologies are doing little to protect us. The recent press regarding prescription drugs in the water supply signals an awakening of the general populace to clean potable water at risk.

The good news is there are things that we can do. On a personal level, be mindful of your consumption and disposal of elements such as pharmaceuticals, etc. When you flush or throw them out, it has to go somewhere. Talk with your leaders on sustainable practices. Plan for the future. Support your local water utility and encourage innovation. New technology exists that can be put to work.

It is like the first practical step to recover from a cold would be to get out of the rain.

Theodore Gregg

Philomath

Legalizing drugs will cause problems

Regarding the letter “Cut Prison Costs by Legalizing Drugs” (March 6):

I don’t think that that will ever help anything except the street price of the drugs will fall and the drug empires will collapse.

Many people who otherwise would have never have been exposed to them will because of a lack of money will suddenly have it dangling in their face.

There will most likely be at least a 150 percent to 300 percent increase in the number of young people addicted to drugs in the next two years following a legalization of these drugs.

You will be encouraging 90 percent of minimum-wage earners to dope up and escape the troubles of everyday life. They will give up and all value that they could have had will almost certainly be lost forever. Everyone has value, even if it is only to help others find their value.

With so many people doping up on drugs and so many discovering and becoming addicted to drugs who never would have seen them, I might just start carrying at least a dagger, or maybe a shotgun.

Nathan Brumbaugh

Lebanon

Size can’t determine who gets health care

Regarding the story “Weighing the Costs” (March 9):

Who should pay when someone is “too big,” “too heavy,” “too tall,” “too short,” “too disabled,” “too sick” or “too old,” by someone’s standards, to be treated using our current medical equipment?

Our systems are not allowed, by law, to discriminate against citizens at the physical extremes, nor should any of us imply that, somehow, the “good guys” are paying for the “bad.”

Who knows when any one of us may be dealt a hand requiring special equipment to ensure safe and equitable treatment?

Societal changes in body size and weight are the result of complex factors and need to be addressed by the many systems available to a society such as ours.

In the meantime, finding ways to spread costs across health care users (all of us) seems like an appropriate way to deal with changing cost factors.

Gerry Olson

Corvallis