To the editor:
Ogopogo may be a myth. Nobody knows for sure.
Also myth is the opinion that treated effluent is harmless in the deep water outfall disgorging its chemicals into a system that takes as much as 70 years to replenish itself.
The concrete cleaners, dish soap, shampoo and other pollutants take up to 75 years of rain and runoff to make their way out of Okanagan Lake.
The bit of concrete cleaner you flush down the drain will still be present in Okanagan Lake 70 years from now.
Your grandchildren will inherit it. The molecular structures of these cleaners are often too fine to be filtered out by a sewage treatment plant.
Phosphates and nitrogen sneak into the effluent as well, joining forces with potassium, which flushes into the water after forest fires.
Total nutrients for growing algae. Check it out. NPK (nitrogren, phosphorus, potassium), the basis for all fertilizer.
Don’t forget the drugs. They end up in our feces and urine.
The stinky stuff is removed by a good treatment plant, but as many as a thousand and more chemicals cannot be removed. They are left in the effluent.
Endocrine disruptors are changing the fish in polluted lakes.
Deep water outfall far from shore. What could be safer? Another myth. Ask Ogopogo.
Melting ice is colder than the reservoir of warm sewage at the bottom of Okanagan Lake (and any lake).
The colder water works its way under the warm water, and the warmer water comes up. It’s called a “roll.”
My Grade 5 teacher said warm stuff rises in a colder body. I wonder if that is still true?
What do you think?
Carol Ferguson,
Armstrong