un-freaking-believable!!!

www.tennessean.com/article/20130621/NEWS...eck=1&nclick_check=1


Official: Water complaints could be 'act of terrorism'
Mt. Pleasant residents say state is attempting to silence its critics

A Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation deputy director warned a group of Maury County residents that unfounded complaints about water quality could be considered an “act of terrorism.”

“We take water quality very seriously. Very, very seriously,” said Sherwin Smith, deputy director of TDEC’s Division of Water Resources, according to audio recorded by attendees. “But you need to make sure that when you make water quality complaints you have a basis, because federally, if there’s no water quality issues, that can be considered under Homeland Security an act of terrorism.”

“Can you say that again, please?” an audience member can be heard asking on the audio.

Smith went on in the recording to repeat the claim almost verbatim.

The audio was recorded May 29 by Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment, a Knoxville-based civic action group that had been working with Maury County residents to tackle water quality complaints in Mount Pleasant. Residents there have complained to the state for months, saying some children had become ill drinking the water. The meeting was organized by State Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia, and attended by residents, TDEC and local officials.

TDEC said it was looking into what had been said at the meeting and that Smith would not be available for comment.

“In terms of the comments made by a member of the Water Resources Division at the meeting, we are just receiving the information and looking into this on our end,” spokeswoman Meg Lockhart said. “The department would like to fully assess what was said in the meeting. I am told that the meeting was far longer than the audio clip provided by SOCM and that Mr. Smith actually clarified his remarks. But again, we are looking into it.”

The comment shocked and outraged attendees, who saw it as an attempt to silence complaints, said Brad Wright, organizer for SOCM in Middle Tennessee.

“I think it’s just to quash us complicating life for them,” he said.

Joycelene Johns, 68, has lived in Mount Pleasant off and on for about 30 years and has put up with cloudy, odd-tasting water for years.

“I’ll drink it,” she said, “but I pray before the first sip.”

But she said Smith’s comments had been harder to stomach than her drinking water.

“I was sitting there with my mouth open,” she said. “I couldn’t believe he was saying that.” The message she took away was: “Leave us alone. Don’t come back anymore. We’re not going to continue on dealing with whatever problem you may have.”

Rep. Butt, who organized the meeting, also was shocked.

“I think that we need to be very careful with how we use the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism,’ ” she said. “I thought it was out of context. That did not apply to anything that we were discussing at the meeting.”

Butt said the water issue had been marred by “communication breakdowns” by both sides, which wouldn’t be made easier with such inflammatory comments being made.

Gilly wrote:
That's the mentality of the American bureaucratic bullshit system, cavemen would shudder at the thought of such a notion

I don't trust the 'official' water, full stop. ('Council pop' as we call it round here..)

Best off getting a decent water filter

mild_peril wrote:
When I lived in Co Durham, about every 6 months, I'd get bad guts, and the following day, the water would come out of the tap full of crap. It'd look dirty at first, then after a bit, that'd change to it just tasting vile. It's like it was contaminated, but that didn't become obvious till it was too late.

When I called the water board out about it once, this bloke turned up, unexpectedly. All he did was pour a glass of water from the kitchen sink, and insist in very bullying tones that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I held it up to the sunlight, and you could see tiny flecks in it, and what looked like small, transparent creatures!!!

I challenged him to drink it straight down, but for all his blustering about how I'd wasted his time and it was fine, he wouldn't let it near his lips.

I remember as a kid the water would often go brown, and then back to its normal colour.

I also remember seeing a list which noted the postcodes where the water had been fluoridated, and DH7 was pretty much top of the list. Fuckers.

I was in DH6. It was about 20 years back & I wasn't switched on to such things at that time, more's the pity.

DH6? I hope for the health of your eternal soul that you weren't living in Stanley

No - South Hetton. Not much better than Stanley I suspect.

Our water comes from a bore hole about 50 yards away. It's filtered and treated but is really rich in iron. So much so that when chlorine is added for use in the park, it goes brown...

Hmmm. Coincidence? Chlorine has a distinctive stink though, that I never detected - but then I wasn't on the look-out like I would be now. In fact if it happened now, I'd foot the bill for a private lab analysis, and be looking to sue someone.