Andie Dominick's blog  -- DMRegister

June 7th, 2006 :: 11:06 PM

I’m on vacation. I headed to the beach today with my husband and three kids. 
We packed a cooler, blankets and sunscreen and headed for the water. I put 
my foot in at Big Creek beach and the smell was overpowering. It smelled 
like waste. Pig waste. I felt like we were wading in a lagoon.

Yet there were boats everywhere, kids splashing, a man swimming laps around 
the perimeter. And I wondered if Iowans even know there are places, not in 
Iowa, where the water is clean. We buy boats, take a dip, eat the fish from 
the lakes and just accept it. But there are places where the beach doesn’t 
smell like a lagoon from a hog lot. Why don’t Iowans demand this state 
finally clean up the water?

Saylorville Lake is busy. The trees and grass and birds are beautiful. 
People gravitate there in the summer. But Iowa’s water is filthy. It’s a 
disgrace. Thinking about all the editorials Linda Fandel has written about 
this state’s filthy water, I kept telling my son to keep his face out of it.

Tomorrow we’re going to a water park. I’ll take chlorine and cement over 
that experience any day.

http://blogs.dmregister.com/?p=1731#more-1731

Neila Seaman, MPA
Director
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA  50310
[log in to unmask]
515-277-8868

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