Wastewater a priority
Dear editor:
Hot Springs' revenues are exceeding expectations, and there are infrastructure projects requiring the city's immediate attention. The city is spending $100 million for a new water supply that will drive development. But before new development can become a reality, there must be an adequate wastewater treatment system.
The city's largest plant at Davidson Drive discharges treated wastewater into Lake Catherine. Unfortunately, not all of the city's sewage gets to the treatment plant. The Gulpha pump station is a bottleneck. This station is responsible for pumping one-third of the city's sewage to the Davidson plant. But when it rains more than one inch, the pump station becomes overwhelmed. When this happens, raw sewage pours into Gulpha Creek via four routinely overflowing manholes. Of the four, most of the sewage comes from a manhole located only a few hundred yards from Spencer Bay of Lake Catherine, where the creek empties into the lake.
The quantity of sewage discharged into Gulpha Creek from each manhole is estimated by the city and reported to the state. In 2020, a total of over 1.4 million gallons of untreated waste poured into the creek from the four manholes. Slightly more than that was discharged into the creek during the first six months of this year!
These disturbing totals indicate an escalating problem. But this problem is not new. Actions to address the overflows in Gulpha Creek were identified by the city as "Priority One Projects" 10 years ago. Sadly, the city's commitment to the state to complete the Gulpha Creek Priority One Projects by January 2018 was not met.
Despite the potential for human contact with contaminated water, the city has done little to address the recurring overflows from the four manholes. Now, three years after the work to fix the problem was supposed to have been completed, the city is asking the state for another nine years to undertake the projects in the Gulpha Creek basin. Maybe this time the work needed will get done. People swim, fish, and wade in Gulpha Creek, which empties into Spencer Bay of Lake Catherine. When overflows occur, human sewage, and everything else that goes down toilets, streams untreated and unfiltered from the manholes into Gulpha Creek. Gulpha Creek then flows into Spencer Bay. When overflows occur, people could potentially come into contact with contaminated water without knowing it.
The sewer overflows into Gulpha Creek have been disregarded by the city as either unimportant or too costly to fix. Fortunately, the city's coffers are now flush. In 2021, city employees received a 3.5% raise, $100 million is being committed to a new water supply, revenues are exceeding expectations. And federal stimulus money will become available soon. Eliminating these sewer overflows as quickly as possible is long overdue. The city does not need another decade to fix this problem. Instead, the city needs to make protecting public health a priority and stop the routine overflows of sewage into Gulpha Creek.
Ellen Carpenter
Hot Springs
Lessons learned
Dear editor:
The lesson of Afghanistan: not all cultures want capitalism, liberty, and freedom. Not every culture can be "housebroken" by our U.S. military.
The U.S. tried to help the Afghans establish an army to defend themselves. They never had the resolve or the leadership to protect themselves. We spent over $145 billion to rebuild Afghanistan, with half used to develop and sustain its army which (retreated) (crumbled) (collapsed) at the first sign of Taliban aggressiveness. It took less than two weeks for the Taliban to take the country and capture all of the modern military equipment we left behind in our ill-conceived and hasty departure -- including some combat aircraft. Also, the U.S. spent $837 billion fighting the war from 2001 to 2021 -- 20 years. That is nearly $1 trillion dollars. Why?
Now, Kabul has fallen. I really don't care. Those folks could have protected themselves with a resolve that apparently is not inherent in their genes. They, unfortunately, were (are) not hungry enough to raise young men who want to work and be family oriented. Instead of raising their sons to be family men, the moms allowed them to become warriors destined to disrupt a life that maybe/perhaps we forced upon them.
Were we nation-building? Were we protecting innocent folks who just wanted a nursemaid to hang around and protect them -- like the daddy of a teenage daughter waiting up for her to come home from a date? In my opinion, the only reason for us to be there is to kill folks that want to kill us. If Mad Dog Mattis were in charge, it would take less than two hours to eliminate any threats as they stuck their heads out the door. We went after Osama bin Ladin with quick decisiveness.
My point is simple: leave them alone to drown in their own vomit -- until we are attacked (9/11) or threatened and then turn that area of the world into a gravel parking lot. A simple warning should be sufficient.
John Grillo
Hot Springs