REALITIES

I hope everyone assists the committee of volunteers that is working to get rid of brine discharging water softeners. The state has issued new restrictions on chloride content in our sewer system which discharges to the Santa Clara River. Our new water treatment plant does not deal with chlorides (salt).
The state will fine Fillmore up to $50,000 per day for each day we discharge water into the river that has a chloride content above 100 mg. Our chloride content is now about 140 mg. The state is worried about the detrimental effect of high chloride water on agriculture and fish.
We have a very short time to comply with the new standards. Each brine discharging unit places one pound of salt into our sewer water each day. With an estimated 450 units being used in Fillmore, that means 450 pounds of salt each day into the system.
If you have one of these units, the city will buy it from you. Otherwise, if the units remain on line every household will have to pay an additional $21 to $31 per month. The only other alternative is to build a chloride treatment plant for $9-10 million.
Please try to help the Fillmore Chloride Control Committee by urging your neighbors to get rid of the brine units.
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Parts of the Gazette’s website (the blog-forum) are becoming a problem. We added this feature to the new site in order to facilitate discussion of issues deemed important to the residents of Fillmore. I hope it becomes a valuable and highly used method of communication.
However, civility has broken down on a couple of threads and we have had to make some corrections. We welcome everyone using the blog but will not let the conversation degenerate into what I have seen on other blogs. Of all that personal insult? Save it for some other place.
Ironically, I have just been informed that someone has referred to me as “Hitler” because the thread on the Tazer incident was removed entirely. Well – all I can say is: I know you are, but what am I?
With that, I’ve got to get back to my censorship desk – where I wallow in the opportunity to destroy free speech.