[Durham INC] HS Guest Article -- Jordan Lake Watershed Saga...

[Melissa Rooney]

See HS article below. It's a shame that she has reason to feel that her resignation says more than all her hard work on the PC did.

Melissa (Rooney)





Common sense: Lake cleanup will take common cents



 BY LaDAWNNA SUMMERS

Guest columnist

As citizens of Durham, we share many things in common: a love of this beautiful part of the Carolinas we're blessed to call home, a belief in caring for our neighbors, and the desire to leave our children a heritage of which we can be proud. We also take pride in our common sense, which ties us across political divides. So, for example, when you pour your children a glass of water, you want that water to be clean. There's no debate, it's just common sense. 

But common sense seemed nowhere to be found Oct. 12, when Durham County Commissioners Brenda Howerton, Joe Bowser and Michael Page voted in favor of weaker Jordan Lake boundaries in a case that begins to pave the way fo
 r a developer to profit by building on land far too close to the lake.

 Jordan Lake is a drinking water source for neighboring counties. Every one of us learned from our parents or pastors that common decency calls each of us to treat our neighbors like we would want to be treated. 

Yet Durham's ordinances already didn't afford the drinking water for neighboring counties with the same protection as our own current water supply, Lake Michie. This case adds to the problem. 

What's worse is that one day soon, polluted Jordan Lake is going to be a drinking water supply for our children also here in Durham.

Common sense would say that since Commissioners Bowser and Howerton are on the record as having received considerable campaign contributions from some of those profiting from the new development, they should have recused themselves from the case in the first place.

They claim that the new neighborhood and shopping center w
 ill bring tax revenue. However, common sense says that the tax revenue brought in by these types of poorly located developments can't even begin to offset the estimated $570 million we and our children will be paying in order to clean up Jordan Lake and bring it into compliance with clean water regulations. 

Our tax dollars are our common cents -- our hard earned money. The heritage we're leaving our children and grandchildren is a polluted drinking water source, and the extreme expense of cleaning it up. 

Common sense says that unless we as citizens stand up, and speak out, we'll share in common the responsibility for having senselessly let it happen, drop by drop. 

     LaDawnna Summers was formerly a member of Durham's Planning Commission. She resigned in protest on Oct. 13.

 


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