LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Water crisis a failure of competence

8/21/2014

Toledo’s water crisis is a case of mismanagement within the city’s Department of Public Utilities and Mayor D. Michael Collins’ administration.

Ratepayers pay the city to provide us with a clean, uninterrupted source of water. City officials screwed up. The city was not testing the water often enough. And now its method for dealing with algae blooms is to throw more chemicals into the water.

The administration has the audacity to suggest that taxpayers should pay for a new water treatment facility. I have no faith that if it were presented with a state-of-the-art water treatment facility, the current regime would have the ability to manage it.

SHEILA GRAMENZ

Meadowwood Drive

 

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Collins gets D- on algae response

Neither Mayor Collins nor Department of Public Utilities officials should be applauded for how they handled Toledo’s water crisis. If the mayor was the chief executive officer of a company, I suspect he would have been fired.

The mayor and city officials failed to have an emergency plan in place, even though they knew for years that such a crisis could occur. The lack of timely and detailed updates was also a sad testament to the mayor’s inability to show sensible and intelligent leadership.

I voted for Mayor Collins hoping he would earn high marks. Instead, I believe he deserves a D minus.

MAXWELL TOBIAS

Parkwood Avenue

Why did algae hurt just Toledo?

Why has only Toledo’s water been affected by algae blooms? Why not Detroit’s water, Oregon’s, or Cleveland’s? Aren’t these cities getting their water from Lake Erie? Are they using different chemicals?

Before the city builds a new filtration system, it might be useful to check with our neighbors to the north and east, and right next door in Oregon, to see what they are doing differently.

JIM COPLEY

Fostoria

Lake Erie-wide solution needed

Algae blooms in Lake Erie are not just a Toledo problem. Why doesn’t Mayor Collins partner with every mayor and county commissioner from here to Cleveland, and north to Detroit, to seek solutions and assistance from state and federal officials?

More attention will be paid to the problem if local officials show a larger number of people affected.

CARL ZELLNER

Waterville

Protect lake from rampant runoff

Who among our leaders will step up to stop sewage runoff and the use of phosphate-rich fertilizers, the two catalysts of algae production in Lake Erie?

We need action, not words and excuses. Our lake is a great natural resource, and it must be protected and preserved.

STEVE CHERRY

Oregon

State, local pols deflect blame

During Toledo’s water crisis, all of our local and state politicians have been consistently declaring: Not my fault!

They are looking for someone else to blame. We should not let them off the hook.

JIM DUGGAN

Sylvania