Opinion Editorial
by Brendan Bowen
Santaquin, UT
Before the MBR Sewage System became a contentious issue I was given notice that I would soon be required to connect into the city sewer line that had been recently installed. This notice canvassed my entire neighborhood who had been using septic tanks successfully for many years.
The process of connecting to the city sewer entailed digging a 14-foot deep trench through my yard and into the street thereby destroying my landscaping, cutting up my sprinkler lines, uprooting new and interfering with established trees and plants, ALL AT MY EXPENSE – which was thousands of dollars.
I asked around and none of my neighbors were happy with it, let alone asked for it. One neighbor actually had to take a sledge hammer to his basement to make the connection. It was only upon asking a member of the city council why we were forced to endure all this that we found out it was all in order to meet a quota to qualify for certain grants that would go toward this sewer treatment plant.
KEEP IN MIND, the city forced an entire neighborhood into the city sewage system at a time when we were being told that the system could not take any more and was in fact beyond capacity!
I was not asked if I wanted to go through this ordeal to connect to the city sewer, I was forced. Then I witnessed as the city attempted to force this sewage system upon us all, encumbering us with 40 years of debt without asking us. I don’t know what motivates people who are supposed to be public servants to apply this kind of force upon us, but it is the same from the city, state, and federal government. Always someone taking and asking others to sacrifice when it is ME being taken and sacrificed.
This is my story. I am glad I could express it here because I wasn’t asked how I would be impacted by that pricey impact study we have already paid for. Next time a politician says they want to serve me, I will hear exactly what they are saying, and that is they want to be serviced. So yes, I am skeptical of the motivations of all self-proclaimed public servants.
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Wait for the hate mail to start Brendan. You made the classic mistake of expressing dissent. You also have higher rates in store for you plus the pleasure that you will be subject to the mayor’s plan of having type 1 water hooked up to your pressurized irrigation system.
So jack is it also your understanding our sewer bill will be raised to $62.00 once they break ground on the new sewer plant? We really need to watch those wolves in sheep clothing? I already feel like the sacrificial lamb. For those so blind they can not see will be the undoing for what this community really needs.
They will need to get the money from somewhere. My understanding is that they have raised our sewer rates as much as the state will let them. My guess is that they will go after the PI. Now, when I attended one of the mayor’s “dog and pony shows”, Ben Reeves said that wouldn’t happen. I wonder if the Mayor, Reeves, Payne, et al will make up the difference (lol).
I think the next issue will be the mayor’s plan to put the waste water in the PI where our children will be exposed to it. There are a lot of concerns with the safety of using this water. I know they use it to water golf courses where access can be controlled but I’m not aware of anywhere in Utah where it is made available to the general public. That should be the next fight.