Letters to the Editor

The Comet welcomes letters to the editor responding to articles and events in the news.They must include the author's name, address and telephone number. The letter writer's name and city/town will appear in the paper - no exceptions. Letters must be 400 words or less in length. Please send your letters to: editor@carrollcountycomet.com ; Letters to the Editor, Comet, P.O. Box 26, Flora, IN 46929 or P.O. Box 179, Delphi, IN 46923; or fax 574-967-3384 or 765-564-2010. By submitting a letter or opinion article, the author grants the Comet the right to publish, distribute, archive or use the work in print, electronic, on-line or other format.

Generosity remembered

This is in response to the well written article concerning the Eikenberry Fund for Riley Hospital for Children. My great-aunt, Fannie Merl Campbell Hinkle, left in her will a fund for similar purposes. Fannie, who was childless but adored children, passed away Aug. 21, 1984, at the former Brethren's Home at Flora. She also left a generous sum for scholarships to Franklin College at Franklin.

By so doing, Fannie followed in the footsteps of her grandmother, Elizabeth Campbell, who willed a generous sum to the Camden Baptist Church for its upkeep upon her death in 1925.

Fannie was my grandmother, Bessie Fern Campbell Smith's sister, and daughter of Oscar Glendower Campbell from the Deer Creek area.

Mark A. Smith,

Brookston

TLRSD must be stopped

There is growing evidence the pollution caused by the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District's (TLRSD's) wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) will be determined to be unacceptable when EPA finally takes notice. The discharge stream of the Big Monon WWTP, emptying into an inlet on Lake Shaffer just above Lowe's Bridge shows incredible slimy algae growth. The stream itself, even though flowing well, has patches of algae wherever it slows.

The Snow Ditch WWTP empties into an inlet on the west side of Lake Freeman above the dam. It has slimed the lake in the inlet where it dumps.

The Hardy Ditch WWTP dumps into the Hardy Ditch and continues to the Rattlesnake Creek, then to the Wabash and on to Delphi and Lafayette. For some reason, some unknown person has carefully piled rocks loosely to allow the pollution flowing from the Idaville WWTP to travel to the Hardy unnoticed. Pictures taken last year versus those taken recently are proof of this, showing the ugly slimy slick which is "covered up" now.

National attention is growing regarding the dumping of nutrients, particularly phosphorous and nitrogen, into the streams that make it to the U.S. coastline.

The algae growth at the Big Monon discharge site is real, in spite of the fact TLRSD claims to be keeping the phosphorous to less than one milligram per liter.

The Rattlesnake Creek WWTP has no requirement to monitor phosphorous at all! This is a primary reason the Rattlesnake Creek was selected as an effluent tributary. Phosphorous is one of the most expensive pollutants to remove.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has a blind eye to all of this. Our efforts to call attention to the excesses of the discharge permits have been met with feigned skepticism, and incredulous attitudes.

Indiana is second worst to West Virginia regarding the greening of America. The Oct. 17, 2007, posting of Forbes.com has this to say about green states, "So who's at the bottom? Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Indiana and, at No. 50, West Virginia. All suffer from a mix of toxic waste, lots of pollution and consumption and no clear plans to do anything about it. Expect them to remain that way."

This is the position IDEM has placed us in. Carroll County must take responsibility for cleaning up the streams and rivers that pass through our county.We must do it now. We must stop the TLRSD, who is on a moneymaking train ride through the county, from committing us to ownership of WWTPs that will not do the job.

Terry Dill Jefferson Township