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A negative statement by Fredonia trustee candidate Michael Barris about the safety of Lake Erie water has infuriated city of Dunkirk officials.
In a debate Oct. 24, Barris cited a statistical compilation by the National Cancer Institute, first released in 1999, while stating that people who drink Lake Erie water have higher rates of colorectal cancer. It was an attempt to justify continued use of Fredonia's reservoir, which is fed by groundwater.
The city of Dunkirk gets its water from Lake Erie. And when Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury, who oversees the city water system, heard about Barris' statement Wednesday morning, it started a whirlpool of action at City Hall.
Woodbury expressed concern the OBSERVER would quote the 1999 study. He was told the OBSERVER was simply quoting Barris and making no claims on the usefulness or veracity of the study.
A few hours later, city Attorney Michael Bobseine sent along a letter from Mayor Wilfred Rosas responding to Barris' statement.
"Please understand, Mayor Rosas does not consider statements questioning the safety of our water as a trifle," Bobseine commented. "As he said to Randy and me, 'Thousands of people rely upon our water every minute of every day!'"
Rosas wrote, "It's unfortunate when a supposedly responsible individual running for public office can cite a decades old study and make claims suggesting that the residents of Dunkirk or the North Chautauqua County Water District (which gets its water from the city) have or are destined to have a higher rate of colorectal cancer because their drinking water comes from Lake Erie.
"It is exactly this kind of irresponsibility that makes it so difficult for communities to have reasoned discussions and solve problems in the best possible ways."
The mayor said Dunkirk's water is filtered through regularly refreshed granular activated carbon layers, "the 'go-to' filtering medium for public water systems."
He said, "Our filtering removes a wide spectrum of organic compounds that can occur naturally or from legacy events in fresh surface waters. Our annual reporting as required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents our pristine drinking water. It is crystal clear with super low turbidity. The water has essentially zero residual organics that could make concerning disinfection byproducts."
Rosas said the study Barris referenced mapped cancer cases from 1950 to 1994. He stated that it references regional differences in diets. "Inferences on drinking water were not made, and it is important to note that the mapping period covered the 1960s when Lake Erie was low in oxygen due to industrial discharges that were subsequently stopped. Lake Erie is now vibrant with oxygen so robust it gives a very healthy aquatic environment from surface to depths in the hundreds of feet."
Rosas also sent a copy of the letter to SUNY Fredonia President Stephen Kolison. SUNY Fredonia is expressing interest in using Dunkirk water as an alternate, backup source.
Barris responded to the city comments in a note to the OBSERVER: "I have confidence that Rosas quoted the EPA reports accurately," Barris wrote.
"However, as a former Visiting Assistant Research Professor of Biochemistry at Michigan State University where I was involved in a number of different procedures to evaluate fluid quality, including spectroscopy, I have a different perspective.
"The point is that there are thousands of water-borne chemicals in drinking water that the EPA does not attempt to evaluate. Some of these chemicals involve carcinogenic hazards rather than infection hazards."