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The lies in the Nitrate education story by Smith

Added 10/22/96 10:54 PM

This letter was sent by Charles Brink and copied to Agua Dulce Town Council

Attached is the first "education" piece published by The Agua Dulce Water Committee chaired by Lillian Smith, in a throwaway advertiser owned by Lillian Smith, written by Lillian Smith, and approved only by Lillian Smith. The paper is undated and is marked early September 1996

It also appears to be facts and science by Lillian Smith.

It is filled with misinformation and an attempt to try to show that ground water nitrates are not a significant problem and it claims they can actually be beneficial.

It is obvious this so-called educational piece is designed to misinform the community, and misrepresent as not significant, the dangers of nitrates in well water.

It contains conflicting, nonfactual, phony, scientific information and an obvious bias. It is part of Lillian Smith's plan to do absolutely nothing but to make your board look silly in the community so you will react and force a sewage treatment plant because the community is non-responsive.

A few quotations in her order of presentation are:

"Nitrates are the end product of the acrobic stabilization organic nitrogen. They occur in polluted waters that have undergone self-purification or acrobic treatment processes."

I sure do not understand how aerobic stabilization of organic nitrogen produces nitrates. How can polluted waters which have undergone self-purification still be polluted if they have been "purified"? To me this seems like gobbledygook.

"... nitrates may be added to a stream or ground water by natural degradation ... but such sources are relatively insignificant."

This is to discount the naturally occurring nitrates as insignificant, when clear scientific evidence exists showing that in Agua Dulce natural sources are the major source. It ignores the rock sampling and high reading wells without human or animal sources. To support her handlers at the Agua Dulce Chamber of Commerce and CalMat, naturally occurring nitrates must be ignored or the pollution to the Santa Claria river by hundreds of tons of nitrates washed from the crushed rock at the strip mines will stop them cold.

"Wastes from commercial fertilizer producing plants, apart from fertilizers in the field, are an increasingly important source of nitrate pollution."

We do not see any fertilizer producing plants in Acton and Agua Dulce, and this is just misinformation. I am sure a waste discharge permit for such plants, if they existed, would not allow wastes in the ground water.

"Until 1962 the US ... had no requirement ... the U.S. sets a 45 mg/l limit and World Health is 50 mg/l,... No limit has been set by WHO international standards."

This is to sell the argument that the existing MCL is too low or just government interference.

"infant methemoglobinemia ... does not occur even where the water is very high in nitrate content." ... But that some are predisposed to it ...."

Wrong. This is dangerous misinformation and places pregnant woman at risk in the community.

"Many well waters containing over 500 mg/l as nitrate have never been linked with reported cases."

Leach field outputs only contain 250 to 300 mg/l, at 500mg/l symptoms of nitrate poisoning should be apparent. An group of person died at this level

"Drinking one liter of water containing 500 mg/l per liter of nitrate can cause ... symptoms."

Seems inconsistent with last statement.

"No wells in the local area have been identified with grossly high concentrations of nitrates."

Wrong, see UCR and CH2M-Hill reports for a listing. This statement is to protect the local Realtors that have sold properties without proper nitrate disclosure.

"The largest amount of nitrates comes from our own saliva."

I have trouble understanding how saliva is a source of nitrates unless we are drinking someone else's. It would seem that if saliva contained nitrates it would be a byproduct of the nitrates that we ingested.

"About 90% of the nitrates we consume come from food ... and 9% from cured meats ... and less than 1% from drinking water."

True, if you only drink very clean water. This is an attempt to claim that nitrates in ground water are not a problem.

In the first part of the story she says nitrates occur only in deep wells,

"In deep ground waters ... excessive and harmful concentrations of nitrates may be found."

But in the last paragraph she states:

This is inconsistent and is to support her pro sewer position that human and animal wastes are the only contamination sources. She goes on to explain how nitrates are beneficial in preserving food and eliminating botulism. She lists only human sources and human related sources of nitrates (see Seward report) and ignores naturally occurring nitrates to support CalMat's strip mine.

At the Agua Dulce Town Council meeting on September 11, 1996, Lillian Smith stated "Wendy Phillips wants my commitment in by Friday, but I'm not going to give it to her because I just don't feel like it, I'm going to delay." Nolan Henderson said "Let's put it on the ballot in November and we can delay another two months and see what the community thinks". Lieanne Swanson said something to the effect "We are not going let her push us around."

Lillian Smith and her people are not serious about doing anything about nitrates. She is publishing dangerous information which places the health of the community at risk. They are only interested in lying to the community and getting their sewer system in, through misinformation and delay, to force Regional Water Quality to force sewers on the town.

What Regional Water Quality needs to do is to recognize that Lillian Smith and her band of idiots do not represent anyone in the community. They have a completely different agenda then most of us have.

For background information, I am enclosing copies of a letter I sent the Agua Dulce Town Council concerning how Lillian Smith has lied and misrepresented the Town Council. Their response was nothing, literally nothing. They have passed nothing supporting Lillian Smith, but nothing opposing her, they have done nothing.

What you have is a group of do-nothings coupled with a person (Smith) who does not mind lying and misrepresenting facts as her article shows, financed by a group who wants desperately to have a sewer system and a strip mine.

You cannot accept the Agua Dulce Water Committee as a representative of the community.

We would recommend that you notify the board of the fact that this "water committee" run by Lillian Smith only wants to confuse, lie and do nothing to help, and keep the rest of the community in the dark.

The community, if properly informed, will cooperate and work together for clean water.

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