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A song accompanying this commentary is titled "Sacred Ground and Holy Water." It was written just this past week by Peter Calanni, Dadie Sedota, Paul Lopresto and me, and it was engineered and produced by musical genius, Dave Thomas, at Seacliff Studios in Gig Harbor, Wash. It was written specifically for the reservoir in our hometown, Fredonia.
Our beautiful gift of a natural, spring-fed water source was brought to life in the 1930s and '40s when the locals built a dam and spillway to harness and release water as needed to the filtration plant they built below the spillway. Our grandparents worked on it then, and my father, uncles, and fathers of friends of mine worked on it in the '50s, '60s and even in the '70s. The problem is it was taken for granted for years, decades actually, and turbidity began occurring.
Turbidity is cloudy water caused by tree and vegetation particles and occurs when trees/vegetation grow old and die or are struck by lightning and fall into the water. The way to get rid of this is to dredge the water source. It was scheduled to be dredged because of the turbidity in 1965, 1972, 1999, and 2001; however, it never happened, so the water has just grown cloudier, at least periodically.
A former mayor had a study done in 2018, I believe, and a forest management plan was activated to lightly log the 386-acre woods surrounding the reservoir over a 15-year period and to perform the dredging as needed. This plan was thwarted in 2020 when COVID hit. Since then, the electeds have kicked the can down the road as so many previous electeds before them had done.
Money is always the issue, especially when politicians and political parties are constantly harping on wasteful government spending and making contracts with America not to spend taxpayers' money frivolously. Local governments eventually bear the brunt of this tired trope and are left to defend failing infrastructure, crumbling bridges, and "deplorable" water treatment plants and reservoirs.
In 2023, the county Health Department told the village that they would have to come up with a plan to rectify current water source or begin plans to pump Lake Erie water within six months. That time given was odd to some as the neighboring city, Dunkirk was given a much longer time period to resolve their water issues a few years back.
Another odd thing is that a lot of village, county, and state politicians began advocating decommissioning the reservoir and getting water from the city of Dunkirk via Lake Erie and the North County Water District. Strangely, no costs were ever given, discussed, debated in any of the meetings, almost as if cost was not even a consideration. Is that not odd and unacceptable? The voters were never asked about this, to my knowledge. And then, and this is the most audacious part, last month, December 2023, an outgoing mayor and board voted to close, decommission, and drain the reservoir and turn it into a recreational area, whatever that means. I don't know, mud wrestling?
An incoming mayor on Day One, agrees with the whole thing. He just got there. How could he possibly be in agreement, unless, of course, there was some inside information passed. You know, a little kibitzing, per chance, insider trading maybe? That is highly suspicious to me. Seems a little too much like teamwork.
Regardless, here are concerns some of us have. Lake Erie has long had a history of industrial waste, sewage, microplastics permeation, destructive Zebra mussels, and most recently, toxic algae blooms that have begun forming in earnest in Western Ohio where agricultural run-off occurs from the myriad farms where fertilizer is used by the ton. Going as far back as 2014, many cities' Lake Erie drinking water such as Toledo were deemed unsafe during the peak of the toxic algae blooms, July through October.
There is also pig farm after pig farm throughout rural Ohio and Pennsylvania whose waste flows directly and/or indirectly into Lake Erie. Now, being fair, a Water Treatment Specialist, Bill Frey, a former Dunkirk native who now lives in Colorado, sent me info from the EWG website that shows Dunkirk water is minimally healthier than Fredonia's at this point and uses less chlorination. I can't help but think if the reservoir was better cared for, this would not be the case at all.
Nonetheless, it's great that Dunkirk water is safe, but I don't see how it spawns a mandate to now pump that water to tanks at the upper elevation of Fredonia to replace reservoir water, that, not long ago, was some of the best drinking water in the county and won numerous awards numerous years, reflecting that. In addition, I can't even talk about the cost because no one seems to know what that cost will be, although, personally, I can't imagine it being less expensive to install massive pumps, massive pipes, generators, storage tanks, and pump water uphill from Dunkirk to Fredonia, and oh, let's not forget costs for civil engineering, infrastructural plans, public policy, water regulations, fees, permits, and labor.
Admittedly, I have an emotional attachment to the reservoir as my people worked on that water source in the 20th century. However, I can't believe for the life of me that any sensible politician or citizen, for that matter, would advocate for draining any type of fresh water source in these times of excessive heat increase and massive water decrease. Thus, sentimentality is a moot point. Yeah, there are some people who are sentimental about this. So freaking what! That's not a real issue!
The real issues are cost and healthy water. Cost is an unknown, and that is unacceptable; in addition, Lake Erie is still used as a dumping ground for toxins, and the Toxic Algae Blooms are not going away as the agricultural chemicals that cause them are also the lifeblood of many municipalities' economies. Thus, health of Lake Erie water currently and in the future is unknown.
Further, let's think about maintenance and control of our water source, please. Answer honestly, would it be easier to maintain and control a 45-acre reservoir owned by one municipality (Village of Fredonia) or a Great Lake that has multiple interests and ownerships? I've heard the argument that Lake Erie is a much bigger body of water so toxins and poisons, including phosphorus (the cause of toxic algae) are much easier diluted. That's a ridiculous argument considering the sheer tonnage of poisons and toxins that are either dumped or find there way there through run-off. But I digress. Lake Erie has the following interests and ownerships: two countries, Canada and the U.S.; three states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and a multiplicity of corporations and farm conglomerates, towns, cities, villages, and hamlets, etc., that all have a say and make contributions to Lake Erie, both good and bad. This is not a difficult answer, folks.
Finally, the nail in the coffin for me was when the Enbridge Line 5 Pipeline, owned by a multinational energy corporation, Enbridge, was brought to my attention this weekend by Mr. Art Woolson, one of the brightest and best high school teachers I ever had while attending Fredonia High School. I researched Line Five Pipeline before sending this, and many of the world's most renowned and formidable environmental groups such as the Sierra Club as well as the Michigan League of Conservation have argued against Enbridge's neglect of maintenance of the pipeline and have warned all governments and entities involved that it's only a matter of time before this pipeline breaks down and creates one of the biggest environmental disasters in the world. Michigan League of Conservation has long proclaimed that "Enbridge has consistently failed to properly anchor the pipeline to the lakebed, letting it sway uncontrolled in the strong Straits current."
The Sierra Club states, "Line 5 has spilled 33 times and at least 1.1 million gallons along its length since 1968. Yet every day nearly 23 million gallons of oil flow through these aging pipelines in the heart of the Great Lakes, threatening one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the world." There have been numerous spills and leaks from Enbridge including a major Line 5 spill at Crystal Falls in 1999 as well as the Kalamazoo River spill in 2010. The University of Michigan and many other experts agree that this Enbridge Line 5 spill is a major environmental disaster that will happen and when it does it will travel through the whole Great Lake Basin including Lake Erie. And then? And then? Whoever is in power at that time will sit on the Village Board and say, "Why did these people of the past do this? What were they thinking? That was really stupid. Didn't they have any perspective? Any vision?" Just as current members are doing now when asking why the reservoir and the filtration plant weren't taken care of in a more urgent fashion.
If any of you reading this and/or hearing the song want to get involved, take the following action(s): go to the village of Fredonia board Meeting on Monday. The Bills will be on their way to the AFC Championship, so we should all be in a great mood and ready to champion a logical local cause.
Doug DeJoe is a former Fredonia resident who currently lives in Gig Harbor, Wash.
Get out on the two-lane Route 60
Head south like you're going to Jamestown
On the right's a road line with big ole pine trees
Just past 83 & the Conti Bros Dairy cows
Across the street from an old red crooked barn
There is a jewel hidden from the world
There's a cool-wonder 50-acre lake with its own island
Shining like an iridescent pearl
Sacred Ground And Holy Water
CHORUS:
That's our hometown's reservoir
Built circa Second World War
Served a lot of living creatures in its time
Spring-fed fresh clear water
Home to deer, bear, osprey n' otter
Quenched our thirst, kept us nourished and alive
It's where daddies explain nature
Changin' winds and the wood's behavior
And take the time to talk and teach
Their sons and daughters
It's where sacred ground
Meets holy water
TAG:
Our dad's n' grandads built the dam and spillway
With vision to know freshwater was our lifeblood
Worked like beavers to build a long and healthy mainstay
Maybe that was the inspiration for the Beaver Club (Heh-heh)
And Lake Erie if by chance you're listening
Please don't take this personally
We've got our own special gift to care for
It's taken care of us for a century
CHORUS REPEAT:
BRIDGE:
And hey there politicians
Please excuse our bitchin'
We don't mind the tax dollars we're payin'
Just wanna put our two cents in
CHORUS REPEAT:
BREAKDOWN FIRST HALF OF CHORUS
TAG 2X: IT'S WHERE SACRED GROUND MEETS HOLY WATER
-- Doug DeJoe, Peter Calanni, Dadie Sedota and Paul LoPresto
ONLINE: https://www.reverbnation.com/dougdejoe/song/34311378-01-sacred-ground-and-holy-water?fb_og_action=reverbnation_fb:unknown&fb_og_object=reverbnation_fb:song&player_client_id=j29dsi7kl&utm_campaign=a_public_songs&utm_content=reverbnation_fb:song&utm_medium=facebook_og&utm_source=reverbnation_fb:unknown