Has Anyone Asked the Fish?

Hello, Friends,

I'm sorry for the long delay in posting!  I've been giving myself a crash course in aquatic ecosystems.  The matter of the endangered River Shannon in Ireland (see sidebar for further information) came to my attention, and I felt moved to join my voice with those who seek to protect it.  

Why?  Because toxic injury has given me an extra sensitivity toward the undervalued assets of nature and toward the endangerment of both human health and nature.  Time and again, I've witnessed how very much better things are for my own health when nature is assisted as opposed to invaded.  Having been forced to give up my arsenal of chemical "protection" years ago, I've developed a keen appreciation of nature just as she is, for she must now assist me in all the ways I'd dismissed her before.  Why would I have needed nature's help, before, when I could always whip out my handy chemical "purifiers," antibiotics, and whatnot?

And, yes -- my water was "pure," too.  Nicely chlorinated -- as were all the pools I enjoyed for at least four hours a day, every possible clear day, in the summers.  Everything was chemically clean, clean, clean beyond inspection.

Until "clean" began to burn.  It began to cook my eyes, my face, my nose, my central nervous system, my skin, my insides.  Subjected to a heavily chlorinated water supply, I developed recurring kidney irritation.  Back to the doctor and back to the doctor I went -- until I got wise.  I began to brew dandelion tea and corn-silk tea all day and drank it up.  I bought bottled water -- to drink and to cook with -- and took the most perfunctory of showers.  The kidney trouble cleared up like magic.

  

Chemical water disinfection, therefore, had made me sick.  My personal ecosystem had been both disturbed and damaged.  Some effects were temporary; some accumulated and became permanent.

Apply this perspective, now, to any miscellaneous river whose water is to be diverted, in large portion, to a man-made reservoir for "treatment."  This is where the handy disinfectants come in:  algaecides, chlorine . . . . .  Whenever a toxic algal bloom erupts in the water, they can just hammer it with more algaecides -- and they might have to do that many, many times.  Then, there is the matter of which particular algaecides will be used.  Some, apparently, are even worse than others and distinctly ominous for human health.  

At the other end of this "treatment" are people who will drink that water, cook with it, clean with it, launder with it, shower with it, and bathe in it.

When water is diverted from a river in gigantic amounts, the harmonious flow of the river is disturbed, the level of the water can go down, and the temperature of the water can rise.  These factors can increase the likelihood and extent of toxic algal bloom, which would then necessitate an increase in the chemical "treatment" of said water.  This, in turn, would subject the human recipients of that water to any unforeseen byproducts of the chemical arsenal employed to provide them with "safe" water -- not to mention any lingering toxic algal blooms formed in resistance to the "treatment."  If, for recreational purposes, people are using a reservoir which is subject to frequent harmful algal blooms, their health can be endangered by the blooms.

Of course, everything is to be monitored and controlled.  That's what they always say.  Why, then, are people increasingly becoming sick, as I did, from such things as chlorinated water?  The water systems are monitored and controlled.  These people should not be reacting to chlorine in their water.

But they are.

If there is one thing I've learned from having to manage the reverberating aftereffects of toxic injury, it's this:  Invasion of any natural system -- whether it be a person or a river -- should always be the tactic of last resort, decided upon only after all other organic, conservative measures have been exhausted.  Man can do as he wishes, but if he makes a mistake which irreparably damages nature, nature will simply continue on that damaged track -- at which point many of those people who could not be bothered to care, before, will begin to notice.  And nature will forge on, obediently following that damaged track. 

When nature is put on a new track, she simply follows it with all of her -- nature.    

Hence, the track must be both safe and sound.  In the case of a river, perhaps the fish are the best indicators of the river's well-being and stamina.  Fish are to the river, it seems, what we chemically sensitive "canaries" are to the "coal mine."

Wishing you safe and abundant water and respite from the chemicals in your midst --

Cheers!

~ Carolyn