Interestinbg points in this letter to the editor of the Cumberland Times:
To the Editor:
Cumberland Times-News Cumberland Times-News Fri Sep 17, 2010, 08:00 AM EDT
— Three strikes in baseball means you’re out. Many worldwide religions regard the number three as having important significance.
Three times this year sewage has spilled into Deep Creek Lake.
The first sewage spill went largely unreported. Since there was never any official estimate given the only thing to work off of are estimates made by private home owners. Some of these are as high as 65,000 gallons.
The second spill was reported at first by the Cumberland Times-News with estimates of 45,000 gallons of raw sewage entering the lake. A recent spill was estimated at 6,400 gallons, even though the original estimate issued by the Deep Creek Lake POA was 9,000 gallons.
In one summer season it appears that over 116,400 gallons of raw sewage have entered Deep Creek Lake. This coincides with the largest fish kill ever reported in the lake watershed.
As a real estate agent and small business owner I, like many lake residents, depend on the lake’s recreational value to sustain small business growth.
More importantly, I look to Deep Creek Lake to provide our area with an important natural resource: both recreationally and ecologically.
Gorgeous migrating birds, (bald eagles and herons included) unique freshwater fish, and exciting freshwater mammals, (such as beavers) all make this resource and the surrounding streams their home.
On the recreational side, Deep Creek Lake has introduced countless visitors and residents alike to just how much fun and enjoyment Mother Nature can offer.
Though, as a citizen watching sewage literally run into our lake, I fear that those in the positions to maintain lake water quality have failed on multiple occasions.
Just as BP, Halliburton, and Trans Ocean failed to maintain an operational and secure oil well in the Gulf — the Garrett County commissioners and Department of Public Utilities Sanitation Division have failed to maintain a viable and safe sewage system at Deep Creek Lake.
This failure has threatened not only the health of the lake but public health as well.
To add insult to injury they failed not once, not twice, but a total of three times. In doing so, they have put many lake area businesses in jeopardy of large scale profit losses and endangered the health of local residents and visitors alike.
This goes without mentioning the tremendous toll these spills have taken on the lake’s aquatic life. To me this is unacceptable.
As residents and business owners we have two choices. We can quietly allude ourselves to the false pretense that everything is being done by our current elected officials to maintain lake quality and preserve our natural resources. Or we can face the stark reality that something needs to change.
As sewage fills Deep Creek Lake and wind turbines dot our once picturesque mountain landscape are we not forced to ask, have our elected officials kept the lake area and Western Maryland’s best interest at heart?
Perhaps we need to ask all elected county officials to exit their offices since new representatives have been chosen to hopefully make far better choices and offer much more efficient management of Western Maryland’s crown jewel, Deep Creek Lake.
Jeremy Gosnell
Oakland
