Editor:
Re: City asks public to report rumours, June 23.
Apparently city hall is now going to start investigating rumours about city hall. We all know how well it goes when the RCMP investigates the RCMP.
Why not start by telling us where the nearly $12 million in grant funding for water-treatment processes came from ($11.8m in grants for city water, March 22). My guess is it is our entitlement to Infrastructure Canada Funds that are supposed to be used for roads, sewers and the like that would benefit all of us.
Not for buying an ancient, antiquated and dysfunctional facility that is turning out to be nothing but a taxpayer-funded money pit that is going to be used as yet another tax. Fact check that!
Barry Gaudin, White Rock
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White Rock is delivering disgusting water to its residents. Deposits of compounds of manganese, arsenic and other substances have built up over many decades in White Rock water mains.
The changes now being made in water chemistry are dislodging these deposits. This is a well-known and researched consequence of adding chloramine.
This is not a “rumour,” this is a scientific fact.
It is fact that the State of Tennessee has banned the use of chloramine altogether, along with a large number of U.S. cities.
Obviously, filtering water at the well-head will do nothing to remedy this problem, since the bigger and more immediate problem is with pipes containing many decades of sludge deposits. Pictures taken recently of some of the pipes examined have proved this – another fact, not a ‘rumour’. The filtering of manganese and arsenic – still at least two years away – will only be effective if all the pipes in the distribution system were to be replaced.
The use of chloramine will continue to cause leaching from the massive sludge deposits for years to come. However, instead of addressing the problem, White Rock has chosen a propaganda solution. Accordingly, White Rock regime has implemented a new propaganda website, where residents’ ‘thought crimes’ – which White Rock can make up and call “rumours” – can be exposed and then ‘debunked’ by White Rock’s ‘alternate facts.’
In essence, White Rock is resorting to inventing fake news that it can then debunk. This is exactly what totalitarian dictatorships do.
The acquisition of Epcor water utility was decided behind closed doors, with the results also being kept secret. Having refused to comply with provincial laws under the Freedom of Information Act, the city has requested that the records surrounding the Epcor acquisition be sealed by the Supreme Court of B.C.
The records must contain something very damning for them to go to such lengths.
Keith Knightson, White Rock