To the editor:
I wish to comment on the article headlined “Wastewater escapes broken sewer line” in Wednesday’s Examiner (Independence edition).
In that article, Dick Champion, director of the Independence Water Pollution Control Department, stated that an event on Liberty Street that occurred on Aug. 21 caused 60,000 gallons of wastewater to be discharged into a tributary of Mill Creek. That discharge eventually make its way to the Missouri River, via Mill Creek.
As a property owner, with considerable frontage on Mill Creek in the Courtney area of Sugar Creek, I am offended by the rather cavalier attitude expressed by Mr. Champion regarding the relative unimportance of such a discharge about which he stated, “Yes, it has the potential to carry diseases and contaminants. ... This stuff happens all the time, but we’re very religious about reporting them every time they happen.” Wow! It seems that religious diligence in reporting is more important than the actual pollution itself!
Mill Creek runs near my residence and along my fields. I have the considerable disadvantage of being on the receiving end of every “accident” and misdeed that occurs upstream. The city’s reporting to the DNR doesn’t do much for me. I’m aware that in this all-too-real world, “stuff” happens. That doesn’t mean that I like it. I do not appreciate offenses to my property and to my welfare being minimized by the city of Independence. I’ve had a lot of experience with this kind of treatment.
