getting off our duff

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Chamber letter implies Tolleson sewage plant might be shut down …Emily McCannstaff writer …Tolleson residents received a letter Tuesday implying that their wastewater treatment plant is in jeopardy of being shut down. The letter was sent by the Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce and is titled, "Warning: your sewer service is at risk." The chamber confirmed sending the notice, but said it only did so because Tolleson City Manager Reyes Medrano requested it. The wastewater treatment plant's permit is up for renewal and has been under review by the Maricopa County Air Quality Department for the last 18 months. A hearing was held Thursday to receive comments from the public. The plant, which has been in operation since 1968, treats wastewater from Tolleson, Sun City and Smithfield Beef Group. "We don't have control over a letter going out or not," said Holly Ward, community and media relations manager for the county's Air Quality Department. "The basis of the permit being issued is on air quality regulation and whether the requirements in the permit follow air quality regulation." The letter sent by the chamber states, "Since 2004, new subdivisions have been built near the plant and now the residents of those subdivisions (people who are not served by the plant) are attempting to cause the plant to be shut down if it does not install new equipment that would cost tens of millions of dollars, money the city of Tolleson does not have and can only obtain by passing the cost on to you."

The noted author William Shakespeare wrote … Much Ado About Nothing … which I invite us to context this letter referenced above from the Tolleson Chamber of Commerce about the possible closure of their sewage treatment plant.

What IT looks like when it’s fixed, or me, is … these forms of nonsensical melodramatic forms of hype as postured in the Tolleson letter will no longer be required and the conversation can be conducted in meaningful and honorable environment. For one moment, I invite you to consider the immediate as well as the long term implications should government actually choose to shut down the wastewater treatment plant in Tolleson….? For starters, where would this current daily flow of sewage be diverted…? Is there any other private or municipal facility currently operational with the capacity and infrastructure to handle this volume and strength of sewage…? I for one seriously doubt there is. OK, what purpose is served by this…much ado about nothing…save getting citizens excited, elevated, hyped about ??? (what)??? I am not sure. I do not see any reasonable alternative offered only condemnation. I do not have all the information necessary to make an intelligent or viable comment, save, any facility receiving influent from a meat packing plant with a “kill-floor” is challenged to deal with sewage strengths incredibly high and often contributing to odor conditions not found in other more “normal” facilities. I do not have answers or solutions, nor do I feel the “hype” being promoted by Tolleson Chamber of Commerce serves the best long term interest of the citizens of their community. I do not pretend to know what their motive may truly be…?

In the larger picture, the entire Valley of the Sun from Apache Junction to Buckeye is cobbled together with an aging crumbling infrastructure for its water as well as its wastewater. We do not have “extra” capacity to enable us to capriciously “shut-down” a wastewater facility the size of Tolleson and send that sewage elsewhere to be appropriately treated. And moreover, most cities are – broke – attempting to make do in a state economy going further South and a national economy already there.

Over my life time I have witnessed a number of reports titled … Operation Bootstrap … the essence of which incorporate ordinary people, you and me, getting off our duff and accepting the challenges we see and overcoming them. This is the undying lure of the Old West captured on film and immortalized in words. It is our legacy and we have the opportunity to be apart of this millennium Operation Bootstrap provided we are ready, willing and able. In the end, it is simply a matter of individual choice.