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This just in: Drinking may be detrimental to your health. But the reprobate beverage in question isn’t from the typical boozy lineage — rather, it’s from your tap.
There’s something nasty in the Orono-Veazie water — but average University of Maine students and Orono-Veazie apartment renters remain largely unaware of the chemical culprit in their cups.
According to a letter from the Orono-Veazie Water District, a potentially dangerous chemical known as trihalomethane or chloroform — “a byproduct of chlorine disinfection which forms when chlorine combines with natural organic matter” — has been added to the area’s drinking water to ward off ingestion of bacteria.
Although chloroform is not a major health hazard if exposure to it remains brief, citizens drinking from the water supply are still entitled to know what else is floating in their H2O.
And even though the water district has posted the letter on its website and has sent it to everyone with an account, only two rental companies confirmed receipt of the notice by Wednesday.
Cross Properties acknowledged receipt, but an employee could only speculate it had been sent to renters.
Orchard Trails sent out an email at 11 a.m. Wednesday to renters informing them of the trihalomethane situation after denying receiving the letter on Tuesday.
Washburn Apartments landlord Janna Martin also received word Wednesday and sent tenants a notice.
KC Management and Roberta Bradson, owner of The Store and local landlord, both denied having received a letter.
The University of Maine officials finally came into contact with the letter after retrieving it from the billing department. Elaine Clark, executive director of facilities, real estate and planning at the university, said the administration intended to “put it online somehow” when questioned about the letter. It later appeared as an email from UMaine spokesman Joe Carr on Announcements & Alerts on FirstClass.
The communication effort regarding this issue has proven itself to be bloated, saturated with confusion and a strange deception of sorts. True, we aren’t to the point of boiling our drinking water, but we cannot go on ignoring the whale in the sink just because it’s not in the same room with our elephants. Landlords especially need to buck up and pass the disclosure on to tenants.
Letter correspondences will no longer part the seas and leave all in awe to listen, either. It’s time for town organizations to ditch pigeons and quills and trade them for a more state-of-the-art forum. A radio, a computer or an instant email reaches a lot more eyes and ears than the town crier and inked-papyrus methods of yesteryear.
It’s time to re-evaluate what is appropriate disclosure as well as what mediums are most effective to convey the important messages, and how to capitalize on them in a timely manner.
Keeping information under wraps and students and residents of Orono-Veazie underwater about the important issues drowns out the cohesion of community.
Landlords, town officials and the UMaine authority need to either dive into the future of communication and embrace their constituents or flail about in the shallow end of the pool, fighting the maturation of this community.
No matter what, the sting of chloroform is inevitable — so take the plunge and let us decide whether we want to sink or swim.
