Letters

You’re probably gonna get a raft of criticism for poking your j’accuse finger into fat-cats’ eyes for sucking the aquifers dry [“Top Water Users Drive Up Costs For Everyone,” Residence, September 3].

But good for you. Thank goodness for reporting like yours that lays out for all to see the people, households and families out there who could care less about their neighbors and the sustainability and health of our water supply.

All that water — for what? A never-used, wasteful, sprawling green lawn? Over-watered landscaping? Gigantic pools?

Michael Wright’s story demonstrates precisely why newspapers are an essential public service. His story should be plastered everywhere.

The Express News Group had to file a Freedom of Information Act request for that info, but, really, the Suffolk County Water Authority should distribute widely a quarterly “List of Shameful H20 Guzzlers,” or even “Enemies of our Aquifers,” naming the selfish jerks who squander our water resources, and making public their incomprehensible and outrageous usage.

What a symbol of America today: households that use 5 million, 10 million, 15 million gallons of water in a single year. And these are people at the top of social and economic hierarchy in this country, supposedly what all Americans aspire to! God help us. Or, more precisely, God help the planet.

The SCWA is the steward of a precious and increasingly threatened community resource. Your list of shameful scoundrels is one way to get them to recognize that their usage is an open middle finger to the rest of us who rely on the aquifer to live here.

But, clearly, you can ignore the community’s ire and concern behind high hedges, security gates and bottomless financial resources. The SCWA has every right to slap dangerously high users with exorbitant charges, fees and penalties. Those charges would come with the gleeful endorsement of the vast majority of SCWA customers and local well users who are conscious, sparing and community-minded.

But, alas, even ten-folding the cost of water on the super users would likely do little to reduce usage among the money-is-no-object class. So, yeah, God help the planet.

Thanks for your good work. Keep at it.

Biddle Duke

Springs