Maybe the City Council was subscribing to the old adage, actions speak louder than words at the monthly town hall meeting on Tuesday, May 7.
Although it is national drinking water week, the City Council which appears to be willing to pass a resolution about nearly anything, didn’t pass a resolution recognizing national drinking water week, but the City Council was drinking city water, from reusable cups with paper straws, instead of bottled water.
City Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter said that they wanted to send the message that the drinking water in Greensboro was safe, but it’s also an effort to create less refuse whether it’s garbage or recyclables. Beginning in July the city will have to pay for every ton of recyclables it produces, so the City Council is getting a head start on reducing that tonnage.
On the drinking water issue, Abuzuaiter said, “I believe our drinking water is very safe.”
So for national drinking water week the City Council switched from bottled water to city water, but it didn’t make a big deal out of it.
Greensboro takes great pride in its water and if you don’t believe that just ask someone from the Water Resources Department. When it was discovered that water from the Mitchel Treatment Plant was exceeding the federal advisory level for PFOS, first the Mitchel plant was shut down and only water from the Townsend Water Treatment Plant where the PFOS levels were well below the advisory level was used. Then the city installed a temporary system to remove the PFOS and enlisted assistance from the state to narrow down the source of the pollutants. The evidence so far points to the culprit as being the fire fighting foam used at Piedmont Triad International Airport. Then the water department purchased land and begin designing a $30 million facility for an additional treatment for the Mitchell plant to remove the PFOS. That’s quite a bit of reaction for a temporary spike in one family of pollutants that has no standard but simply and advisory level.
Clean water is something that most of us take for granted, but fortunately for the rest of us, the City of Greensboro takes it very seriously.
