To the editor:
There is treasure in northern Maine — not silver or zinc, but 10,000-year-old water.
While we hunted near Mattawamkeag Lake in the 1950s, my father showed me places where springs bubble up to the surface from deep below the ground and where water is so pure it has no taste.
As glaciers scraped out bogs and lakes, they left behind ridges and our aquifer. This aquifer is uncontained, vast, unmapped, and poorly understood. The water it holds mostly flows under the land, influenced by geological forces, changes in hydraulic pressure, earthquakes or manmade forces such as drilling and fracking. Our aquifer fills wells, feeds our bogs and replenishes our spring-fed ponds.
Water is sticky. It sticks to stuff and stuff sticks to it. Because water flows, it will carry particles great distances. Mine pollution can enter both surface and groundwater. It can be transported from mining sites to anywhere this aquifer extends.
Pollution could move undetected through cracks and crevices and hide in remote areas. Years beyond the closing of the Pickett Mountain mine, pollution could lurk undetected. When discovered, the damage would be beyond anything a mining company or EPA could repair.
There are places better suited for metal mining, and likely companies that are more experienced and better qualified to do this work. Please do all you can to protect the real treasure in the Katahdin region and beyond: pure water.
Laura Jones Farnsworth
Island Falls
