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Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader, Casey Jones Column: I'Ll Be Dammed If I Can Ever Drink That Water

Posted on: Thursday, 4 May 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Casey Jones, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

May 4--learing away the pollen, I drew a sample of Susquehanna River water from the pool beneath the Pierce Street bridge.

It was clear, cold, not at all slimy.

I swished it around to release the aroma and stuck my nose in the cup like a wine connoisseur.

What would it be? Catfish? Cadmium? Coliform?

Perrier has nothing to worry about. The water had a wild scent, like a trout stream. But it didn't smell polluted.

So far, so good.

Tuesday morning I set out to explore the Susquehanna, to experience the water with all of my senses.

I had seen the river, heard the river, touched the river, smelled the river.

Now it was time to taste the river.

I lifted my cup …

Monday night I sat for hours as public officials, river rats and regular residents testified at a public hearing on a proposal to construct an inflatable dam across the river in Wilkes-Barre.

When inflated, the dam would create a pool of water 8-10 feet deep from South Wilkes-Barre to Forty Fort, enabling pleasure boaters to buzz about without bumping bottom.

Supporters say the lake and accompanying facilities -- a marina, a concrete park inside the levee, a small amphitheater, etc. -- would draw 400,000 visitors per year and create an annual economic impact of $70 million.

They say the river is an underutilized resource.

Opponents say you just don't dam free-flowing rivers in this day and age.

Picture kayakers spilling over the dam, little river critters smothered in sediment, boat wakes eating away at the shoreline, sad shad unable to spawn.

Worse, several biologists and ecologists testified that pollutants discharged above the dam could make the lake a public health hazard.

Even the people who support the dam agree that the river is polluted.

Some polluted thoughts

Our river isn't catch-on-fire polluted or watch-the-stick-dissolve polluted, but the water is certainly not the stuff that Coors is made of.

Raw sewage pours in with the rain water.

Acid mine drainage taints the river for miles, and paints the bottom orange at its source.

There's a toxic waste Super Fund site upstream, not to mention farms, factories, storm sewers, ...

All those things were swirling through my mind as I swirled my sample of river water around and around in the cup.

This was the most critical part of my experiment -- the taste test.

In fact, this is the study that needs to be done before we build the inflatable dam.

If we turn the river into a playground for power boats and jet skis and kayaks and canoes, providing easy access and encouraging people to become intimate with the river, they're going to get a little water in their mouths.

So if they hesitate to taste the water, they're probably not going to wade, ski, boat and let their kids play along the shore, and we have no need for an inflatable dam.

I hesitated to taste the water, that's for sure.

Not only did I not the taste the water, I gagged at the very thought.

I couldn't even bring it to my lips.

I doubt that Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton or U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski or any of the other inflatable dam supporters would wet their whistles with river water either.

They're welcome to prove me wrong.

Call Casey Jones at 829-7215 or e-mail cjones@leader.net [mailto:cjones@leader.net]

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Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

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Source: The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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