To the editor:
Since Aug. 4, when The Democrat published the platform I submitted, created by my fellow Brown County Democratic candidates and me, two opinion pieces have appeared from the Brown County Regional Sewer District. Not a surprise, as we call for its dissolution.
The first was actually a Sept. 17 guest column that proclaimed the sewer board would be undertaking water sample testing, in search of contaminants. The BCRSD board was created under a different name, at least as early as 2006, according to information from The Democrat. Yet, in the fall of 2020, the board has failed to gather empirical evidence of the existence, location or source of contamination which warrants a new sanitary sewer system. The Sept. 17 letter affirms that.
The second letter appeared Sept. 29. It directly described our call to dissolve the BCRSD as “uniformed, misguided opinion … that shows a disregard for the environmental and public health of our beautiful Brown County, its residents and visitors.” I’ll put my environmental credentials up against any BCRSD board member and I know my fellow candidates can as well. One look at the Bean Blossom Overlook puts the environmental stewardship of our current officeholders on full display.
The letter goes on to urge you to “not fall for the false narratives circulated by a few loud voices such as political candidates and bloggers … consider instead leaders that lead by learning the facts.” That, of course, is the exact nature of our belief that the BCRSD is not serving a useful purpose.
The board has for years held public meetings, seated on elevated chairs in front of microphones, in front of an attentive reporter for The Democrat. It has used that platform promoting a sanitary sewer system, paid for engineering design work on a wastewater treatment plant it wants to locate among the few remaining trees adjacent to the clear-cut overlook, on property it’s been cajoling the county parks and recreation board to hand over.
The board wants you to “… consider instead leaders that lead by learning the facts.” That’s exactly what we find lacking with the BCSRD. Since at least as early as 2006, it has failed to produce empirical evidence of a problem addressed by building new sanitary sewer systems. Instead, it has used its microphones to promote new sanitary sewers, creating that snowball at the top of the hill it wants to start rolling down on us. As candidates, we decided it step out in front of it.
I contacted the county health department just prior to sitting down to write this. I wanted to confirm that it does not have data indicating the number or location of failed septic systems in the county. I was informed that Mr. Clint Studabaker is still going through individual records at the health department, including for homes around Cordy-Sweetwater Lakes.
I applaud any voluntary effort to identify and address threats to our environment, as do, I’m sure, my fellow candidates. But it kind of seems like pertinent data gathering should be completed first before even beginning to think of new sanitary sewers.
The Sept. 17 letter indicates the board includes someone in real estate, a local builder/developer, a civil engineer and a practicing attorney. It’s hard to imagine such a group not favoring sanitary sewer developments.
The Brown County Regional Sewer District is a solution in search of a problem, with the statutory authority to force county residents with properly functioning septic systems onto expensive sanitary sewers. It should be dissolved.
Kevin Fleming, Brown County
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