LettersFacts different from environmentalists' claim Editor: Congratulations on your fine article, "The farm: It's in your tap water," in October's Illinois Issues (see page 10). The article very effectively framed the issue of herbicides in drinking water supplies here in Illinois and showed how the agricultural community, government regulators, individual farmers and water purveyors have a responsibility to deal with the issue head-on. Unfortunately, I believe the article might leave your readers with the impression that the problem is much worse than it really is here in Vermilion County. It is true that the Environmental Working Group reported that concentrations of cyanazine and atrazine were highest in samples taken from Danville and that the levels exceeded federal drinking water standards. The article also quoted an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency spokesman that seems to validate the environmentalists' claim. The facts are very different. As executive vice president and general manager of the Danville area's water supplier, I can tell you that we have been monitoring our water for the presence of these herbicides since 1991, and we have never had a violation. Additionally, we have been conducting weekly in-house testing during the 1995 growing season for atrazine and cyanazine. These test results are consistent with tests conducted by the IEPA. I do not know how the IEPA spokesman could claim that the EWG's results could not be disputed because we have a large set of data that does just that. We cannot explain why the EWG's data is so different from ours, but we do know that our larger and longer-term data clearly show that the Danville area water supply is in compliance with all state and federal regulations. Your readers also may be interested in knowing that all the parties concerned about local water quality are part of a project called the North Fork River Watershed Initiative. This project is a cooperative effort between Consumers Illinois Water Company (formerly Interstate), the Vermilion County Farm Bureau, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Consolidated Farm Service Agency, the Vermilion County Health Department and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The initiative is addressing water quality issues, including the use of best management practices in the watershed.
Please be assured that no one is as concerned about these false accusations regarding the quality of our water as we are.
Craig M. Cummings
Consumers Illinois Water Co.
Danville Character, not color, the goal Mary A. Mitchell's first-person defense of affirmative action in the November issue (see page 15) misses the mark. Mitchell charges that opponents of affirmative action are "seeking to dismantle the system based on misguided perceptions that blacks have gained ground at the expense of the white males." Ironically, it is the system of affirmative action, not the free market alterna- tive, that views economic prosperity as a zero-sum game. If whites are in, then blacks must be out; and if this be so, then institutional racism that pervades private sector America must be the cause. Maybe it's time to realize that government policies that herd people into groups and pit group against group are profoundly destructive. Much lip service is paid to the goal of a "color-blind society." A worthy goal no doubt. Yet, could anything be more paradoxical than attempting to achieve this via programs that count by race? It is not the fear of minority advancement that is fueling the push to end the racial numbers games, but rather an understanding that policies that place more importance on one's content of melanin than on one's content of character are fundamentally at odds with the putative goal of racial harmony. Daniel K. Proft Wheaton How to write to us Your comments are welcome. Please keep letters brief (250 words). We reserve the right to excerpt them.
December 1995/ Illinois Issues/33
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