Clean Air?

[cowman]

Deb: How many wells have been contaminated down in feedlot alley? Seriously, I do not know?
And how do we go about deciding what is acceptable? Do we accept the best science around or do we go running around like Chicken Little yelling the sky is falling? While our economy stagnates. It is all well and good to be "green" when we have a comfortable income and lifestyle. But for the guy who needs to put food on the table for his kids that hog barn job might look pretty good.
Hey, I have a great idea!!! Instead of letting that lousy no good capitalist subdivide that Waterton land and build all those ugly monstrosities on it we could put one big huge mega pig barn on it...tastefully done of course? And just think how that pig manure would green up those old hills!!! I bet the elk would just love that!

[rodbradshaw]

Had a story related to me the other day and I believe that it sums up human nature. A friend had the opportunity to visit a relative on Pender Island. It has become the place to moce to but the people that moved their 10 years ago want to shut the gates and stop anyone else from moving there.
This not much different that Deb, who enjoys the tranquility of the Waterton area but does not want to share it with anyone else. Deb, did you ever think that maybe some of your neighbours thought the same thing about you before they got to know you?
The world is changing and man is the wildcard in the equation. When other species over run their habitate, disease or predators increase in response. Not so with man, wars and the odd plague have slowed the increases but there has never been a decrease in our population. We have to change how we do things and to produce the food to satisfy the people's expectations we can no longer slaughter 5-6 year old steers. Modern agriculture is here to stay, we must minimalize the effects it has on the enviroment and must put strict standards on it. These standards must be enforced. There must also be common sense used in enfocing them. When I was in England, we visited a dairy farm that the operator had pulled all the cows out of the operation because the Rivers Authority (UK enviroment department of the day) had levied a fine on him for a contractor allowing silage juice to run into a dry ditch. This same farm had a Slurry Store that had a panel removed so that it could not be used for manure storage. I have never seen a nicer cement job and wondered where the crack was that was supposedly the polluting culprit.A side story, Professor at U of Guelph says that maure storages are better than lagoons because if the cement cracks the manure will seal off the crack. The friend that related the story says if thats the case clay lined lagoons would be better as the clay won't crack and if it does the manure will seal it.

We must be vary careful in making statements about contaminating wells. Yes wells can get contaminated but it may be due to their design and it may be the runoff form the the wintering area of the family farm. Under the Enviromental farm plan, all wells must be above ground level, so wells in pits no longer are considered safe because of runoff. This is what happened in Walkerton, the casing was compromised. The farmer that was supposedly the source of the contamination was a model farm. It is always easier to point the finger at someone else but remember there is 3 pointing back.