422j 



3.) In spite of the existence of a city, county and regional planning 



council's "attempting" to meet federal support criteria for sensible 

 water resource concerns. 



4.) In spite of a tremendous body of literature describing sensible water- 

 shed management practices for water boards to be guided by . 



The following situation obtains: 



The Federal Government has recently allocated some 1.3 million dollars 

 in support of a water system improvement and a filtration plant costing roughly 

 3 million dollars. The plant is to filter water withdrawn from a water supply 

 which has a garbage dump within the watershed. 



The situation is so ludicrous, one is prompted to say no more - but that 

 does not solve the problem. If we were to investigate the situation to try 

 to bring about a change we would probably find that: 



a.) a health department spokesman might say "the dump is unauthorized"; 



b.) a city spokesman might say, "it is not in our jurisdiction"; 



c. ) a county spokesman might say, "are they really dumping there?" 



and so the circle of confusion continues. Means should be found to delegate 

 authority and assign responsibility more precisely. 



It seems only reasonable to assume that if responsible local officials 

 were genuinely concerned about good watershed management practice that some 

 arrangement could be worked out to eliminate this dump. 



We note however that: 



a.) Dumping hours are posted on the road not 300 yards from the lake- 

 shore. 



b.) Instead of posting "no dumping" signs - only one was posted 



admonishing "no fires allowed on this dump". The existence of 

 the signs gives evidence that the county is aware of the dump, 

 authorized or not, 



c, ) There is no evidence as far as we are aware of anyone being res- 

 trained from using this dump. 



d.) There is evidence that when the roadside drainage ditch would not 

 take the runoff - county equipment was sent to improve the drain- 

 age to the lake, and 



e.) Water managers make no comment, and take no stand. 



As the saying goes - "actions speak louder than words". A situation such as 

 this cries sham and makes mockery of the support program. State an'1 federal 



