• To City Officials
• To the Media
• To the Citizens

An open letter to Toledo about our water

Posted by justread on Wed, Jul 29, 2015

To City Officials

Stop talking nonstop about the fact that it is July 29, and there are algal blooms in the lake. We know. I realize that you are all afraid of being caught under-informing. But this was never a case of under-informing. It was an over-reaction and a panic. You are doing it again. Unwitting as it may be.

Start talking nonstop about the over-reporting at this "stage." For that matter, it was very unwise to create a multi-step "warning" system. Again, I realize that you were operating out of good intent. But it's too much. We need something more like "Safe to drink." and "Advisory."

Nothing has happened YET that has required such a panic and over-reaction. This year, or last.

I think we both know that the situation is very different at the plant this year than last. This will likely never result in a warning to not drink. Yet, we have people freaking out. I operate a business. My people are freaking out. Otherwise smart people. Freaking out. Not even stopping to read the detail. Stop it.

Can we have some sanity please? For the sake of everyone. Stop talking about the dam water until such a time that it is a problem. The local media, the local citizenry, the suburbs, and the regional and national audiences have glommed onto the constant 24 hour news cycle of a crisis that doesn't exist. And you know the Blade is on it as if Tom Noe was beating a dog to death in an abandoned county courthouse with Mike Bell cheering him on.

The ecology of the lake is certainly a crisis. But the layers of incremental panic that you have made possible, and the compounding effect of all this "news" on the continuous news cycle is extremely unproductive. For today, and for our future. In the quest for communication, you have created a half-dozen confusing increments of doom. There are really.... just two.

Let those who follow organic chemistry look for the page three story on the evolving annual "crisis" and its coming seasonal decline.

Step back from the "crisis" and peek at the impact of your leadership on our future and the image we create that sets the context for that future.

Make what's coming out of our taps a media non-event until there is microsytin in the distribution side at the neighborhood level. THAT's a story.

This bloom and all the testing that goes with it is an annual event. Normalize it. This plant has been taking in God knows what for many years and dealing with it. There is no reason that the very fact that they are testing and treating water is freaking breaking-news-interrupt-your-regularly-scheduled-broadcast stuff.

To the Media

Media: shut up you idiots. Really? Green. This is like reporting the release of radio frequency waves into our homes from radio station antennas. Is RF harmful? In large doses, yes. But those radio waves aren't hurting you, and they have been occurring for what, 100 years?

Algal blooms could occur for 100 years in a row, and we could drink safe water all 100 years. But we better get out in front of the worst case scenario... just in case.

To the Citizens

Henny Penny water hoarders: Buy all you want. Because if there is a real crisis, your neighbors will be drinking the free stuff. Free water is good. It tastes like... kindness. You enjoy that stuff you fought over and paid full price or more, dumbass.

Perhaps others don't agree, and need this to be in their face every day or they just, well... don't know what to do. Bummer. The rest of us are taking a pretty big annual drubbing for crap water. I guess being the economic development sacrificial lamb for the larger issue of the lake's health is a noble reason for the city to languish, when those who stayed behind explain all this to the next generation with no opportunities.

"I know there are no jobs here. But we got attention for the lake, son. You'll do ok in North Carolina."

That sounds better than the alternative, which is our leaders destroying our chances with NO excellent excuse like saving the lake.

Oh... and stop dumping poop in our streams. That wasn't cool when Dave Matthews did it, and it's not cool now.