CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Tom Kiian, a member of Wausau’s city council, is not running for reelection. That’s good. He’s one of the big spenders in city government.
As a member of Citizens for a Clean Wausau, Kilian is an unapologetic environmentalist. How much money should Wausau spend on environmental challenges? Whatever it takes. Unlimited amounts.
That approach is ridiculously expensive and is void of common sense.
Here are two examples: Riverside Park and PFAS chemicals in our water.
There is contaminated soil underneath Riverside Park. The company that put it there is long out of business. What should be done about it? Nothing. The contamination is 6-inches below the surface. It’s likely harmless, since no one actually lives in the park. Now I would not recommend building a home and living on top of contaminated soil. Digging a foundation for a home could bring the contamination to the surface. But it is a park, most people visit for a short time and then leave. Their chances of being exposed are zero. Yet after two years of consultants and studies, the city will spend north of $100,000 to dig up the soil and truck it away. That makes no sense.
Now consider PFAS, the forever chemicals in our water. The standard for PFAS is 70-parts-per-trillion; the equivalent of grains of sand in a swimming pool. If PFAS levels get above 20-parts-per-trillion, water users need to be notified. Yet Wausau is spending breathtaking amounts of money to filter its water down to zero. The reverse osmosis filtration system in the most expensive path the city could take. A reisen-based system had been used temporarily, but it needed to be re-charged every year or so. While that was also expensive, it was less so than the permanent filtration we chose. The city never even considered the cost difference, where we would be in compliance, but not at zero. Instead we’ll have some of the most expensive water in the state.
No… I don’t want people to be exposed to toxic soil or to drink unsafe water. But If we don’t apply a common sense approach to environmental costs, we won’t have enough money for anything. That’s why the city’s checkbook needs to be closed to people like Tom Kilian.
Chris Conley
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