This post is from 2011.  I ended up with everything on the list except sewer. It’s on the way though I might not be here to see it.

I had coffee this morning with  my Aunt Connie and it’s always a chore dispelling and back filling all the bad news she  consumes. I have to spend a great  deal of time on this nonsense, bad news. She is almost 90 and watches a lot of  television.  In a discussion today about  crime she used the mass grave story to illustrate a point.

“Hoax” I said.

“Oh I missed that ” she answers.

This happens with such frequency that  I really  get worried about these older folks and  what they are thinking.

“Stay on the  home shopping channel will ya Auntie!”

The Newsletter today in another  arch editorial is spreading erroneous information to the  public, even raising the spectre of the poor house for those of us under the EPA purview.

The number  used in the editorial  today of 75 milligrams per liter of nitrogen spilling from the Exeter River( above the falls) into the Squamscott River is incorrect. I read it and it screamed for verification, since it was a number that was being used.

I just spoke to  a scientist concerning this matter. The amount of nitrogen at the head of tide  in Exeter is about .5 milligram per liter on average.

Not  75.

Will there be a correction made this week , will those that have read today’s editorial  get the  message?

Doubt it.

There is both reactive and non reactive nitrogen. The treatment plants produce the  reactive type nitrogen and the amount has to be reduced to save Great  Bay.

Great Bay  from the mouth  of the Squamscott River looking North to Newington, NH.

The science that  was used to  arrive at the magic number(3 milligrams) was collected over a twenty year  period and was studied in a collaborative manner with the EPA, NH DES, and others for five years.

Everyone was in the tent.

Estuaries  in other parts  of the USA were studied as well  to come up  with the target number for Great Bay.

The Clean Water Act  has been  good for America , and  for it’s future.

The CWA only addresses point sources, there is no mandate contained in the law to  address non point sources and many of those produce the  non reactive type of nitrogen.

The parsing of  the two types of nitrogen  and their effects is ongoing work .

Listen.

I would not be caught dead in a Town without a professional police force, full time fire department, a complete school  system, water & sewer, sidewalks, library, hospital . But hey, that’s me, I prefer a fully functioning community replete with services and their requisite employees.

Living together  has economies of scale.

The representative from Brentwood  at the  Exeter Selectmen  meeting last night should have  turned out his pockets.

Just  for the laughs.

Mike