My sincere gratitude to County Commission Chair Steve Brown and to Fayette County Water System Supt. Lee Pope for their positive attitudes and prompt actions during the recent “smelly water” episodes.
The frequent incidents of contamination of our water are of critical concern to every single one of us and deserve our very best efforts at monitoring and control — especially since there is rapidly increasing demand on an already overstrained system.
We must make sure that our analytical efforts include application of the fine arts of sampling, open-minded persistence and replication.
• If we don’t look for it with the right sampling (equipment, methods and chemicals), we won’t find it. Finding and identifying the contaminant(s) reported by Fayette homeowners are vital first steps.
• Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence! The homeowners’ reports cannot be discounted, but must be respected and retained as evidence for continuing investigation.
• A test of one is a test of none. It is important to get confirmatory results, wherever they may lead.
Lois M. Speaker, Ph.D.
Joe T. Gilliland
Peachtree City, Ga.
