When It Comes To Our Water, Quantity Is Not The Same As Quality

To the editor: In my opinion, the author got one thing right: water impacts all of us. What he misses is that quantity is not the same as quality. That’s a lesson worth learning. When it comes to safe drinking water, I’ll take Department of Environmental Protection research over another swing and a miss.

One useful takeaway from this opinion piece is that it appears the water director will no longer be asking voters for “$50–60 million in treatment” for PFAS contamination in the aquifer that supplies the town’s Wannacomet water system, as he stated during the August 24, 2024, Capital Projects Committee meeting. After all, “we have plenty of water in the ground.”

Of course, we also have plenty of water surrounding the island in the form of the ocean. By that logic, abundance alone should solve the problem. Somehow, though, I doubt anyone would argue that an ample supply of saltwater makes it safe to drink.

Meghan Perry