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Show By Jock Wallis bJCMV 1 Why do we have brown drinking water and brown pine trees? Last week our drinking water started to change colors. At first we thought it was some sand and dirt that had entered the city line because of a break. Hut the color grew darker and darker until it looked just like chocolate, the darkest we have even seen in the water in the bath tub. The colored city water cleared up some by the first of the week, but it still has a brownish cast to it. Usually our colored water comes from the spring run-off and it is usually sandy and leaves a dirty sediment. This new type of brown water has come after the run-off and it does not settle out nor does it leave the usual sediment. It's like a dye had been placed in the water supply. No one seems to have an answer to the cause of the brown water, but officials agree it is different than they have experienced before. City officials say the water is coming out of Ashley Spring dark brown, but the stream above the spring is clear, so they think something has gone wrong inside the spring. We have some ideas as to what could be the cause of our brown water. The first one that comes to mind is the new storage tank at Chocolate Rock in Ashley Canyon. Could this tank be turning out chocolate water? Another idea is that the seismograph testing by oil compies in the Ashley Sring area has shaken the underground formation and it has caused a new type of formation to get into the water supply. According to the Department of Health, Ashley Spring is not a spring, the health people say the spring is only surface water going underground for a ishort distance. Maybe Ashley Spring is just worn out. We have no idea what is really causing all this brown water, but it sure points to the need for a treatment plant. But could a treatment plant filter out this strange brown color? If it won't settle out and it doesn't appear to be dirt p irticles, we wonder if a treatment an clear the color. Maybe we will need x)th treatment plants to work in series lo clean up Ashley Spring. Water from Red Fleet and Steinaker Reservoirs look better than the water we have been using from Ashley Spring the past week. It is comforting to see the Tyzack Aqueduct going in and know that his system will serve as a potential source of treated culinary water for Ashley Valley. After all the water controversy concerning treatment plants, water sources and systems, maybe this brown water is some kind of a sign to us like the red water was to King Pharoah when the children of Israel were trying to flee into the wilderness. Well, that's enough for the brown water, now for the brown pine trees. Last week we toured the forest area around East Park and were saddened to see all the pine trees that were turning brown and dying. It seems like such a waste and it makes the lush green forest look threatened. How long will this plague last and how many more trees will it affect? This problem is caused by an insect, the pine beetle or spruce beetle. The threat has been in our forests for several years and is now making its presence known by killing a greater number of choice pine trees. Officials say it is very hard to control the pine beetle. Hand spraying individual trees seems to be the only effective way to save healthy trees. This remedy is very costly and slow. We would hope that there is some easy and effective way to stop the pine beetle before it destroys more of our forest lands, but we are afraid a lot more forest will turn brown before we reach the end of this problem. So, why do we have to have brown drinking water and brown pine trees? We have no answers, but it sure has given us something to talk about. At this point we think almost everyone is open for suggestions on what can be done or what should be done. But the main question is what is being done? Hopefully something can be done to remove these plagues out of our midst. We could leave the area and move into the wilderness. But some have told us they already did this when they moved here. |