more things that seems wrong

Looks serene. Ideal. Fishing with mom and dad at the lake.























Nice Sign.






Read closer.












This got me thinking about what we put in our waterways, collectively, as a human society. I've long thought that things our ancestors did before they knew better set the stage for earth-damage and we've furthered it with our quest for bigger, better, faster cultural ideals.

Over the weekend of September 17 & 18, 2010 we visited the quaint little town of Badin, NC for their "Best of Badin Festival" and had a blast. One of the unexpected highlights was the tour of the Narrows Dam which I enjoyed the most. I can get cotton candy, home-made peach ice cream and most of the other stuff at any other given festival, but what I cannot get but once a year is a tour of the dam.

Have a go at this document, the watershed locations are extraordinary. North Carolina is bursting at the seams with small streams and waterway. Which leads me to a close-to-home thought; we have a well. A beloved, never-gone-dry well. A well that we drink from, bathe in, and use water to cook with.

That said, what got me thinking about all this was the fact that this lake we were fishing at is downstream from this dam - this hydroelectric power plant - owned by ALCOA . And here is another fascinating and informative piece from Wikipedia about Alcoa . Of primary interest to me is the part where it talks about the levels of PCB's in the groundwater because of "improper management".

I know I'm throwing a lot of links in here, but in order to fully understand what I'm talking about I think it's important to have a sort of "show and tell" where I tell and you show yourself by clicking on the links.

Speaking of which, here's another great article about Badin, wherein it talks about the origin of the power plant and the history of the town. Plus, it's got a great photograph of the dam, which having seen it myself, does not do it justice at all.

Speaking of justice, here's another great article from nearly a year ago. A lot of interesting points.

All this to say, I won't be eating any fish out of Badin Lake, or any other river, lake, stream or watershed around here. And at some soon point, am going to have our well tested.