Letter: Don’t buy into ‘myths’ about septic pollution

Editor,

In response to Tim Callison’s letter to the editor in the Oct. 5 South Whidbey Record: Of course we all want Puget Sound to be clean and free of pollutants.

Most of us in East Langley have state-of the-art or at least highly functioning onsite sewer systems that process all waste very efficiently by filtering it through the sand.

When the Island County Health Department tested outflow all along the Edgecliff bluff a few years ago, the only contaminants they found were in the storm water that emptied into the Sound near the Edgecliff Restaurant.

The myth that pollutants from septic systems are flowing into the Sound along the Edgecliff bluff was debunked years ago, but it seems to keep resurrecting whenever there is a push to extend sewers down Edgecliff.

It is, indeed, very important to make sure that we are not polluting the Salish Sea.

On that note, I don’t see any plans to filter the storm water that will flow into the Sound from the proposed storm water system. If left unfiltered, all the oil, gas, yard chemicals, E. coli from animal waste, etc. that are in that water will end up in the Sound.

Let’s do our homework and get our facts straight.

Gail Fleming

Langley