Most of the time, Greensboro does a very good job of filtering our sewage but here's a reality check: Greensboro does absolutely nothing to filter our runoff.
Want proof? It's as easy as walking to your nearest neighborhood park. You know, the one with the stream flowing through it. Most Greensboro neighborhoods have one. See those concrete pipes that empty water and no telling what else into the stream. Those pipes are connected to the storm drains on the sides of almost every Greensboro street. There's probably a storm drain in front of your house. Some of them are big enough to crawl through but should a thunderstorm or a wharf rat come along you'll not want to be in the pipes. Trust me, I learned these lessons as a child.
Now, if you'll turn and follow that same stream downstream you will discover that sooner or later that stream leads you to Reedy Fork Creek, North Buffalo Creek or South Buffalo Creek. Follow any of those creeks and you eventually end up in the Haw River which flows into Jordan Lake before flowing into the Cape Fear River and on into the Atlantic Ocean. Don't argue local geography with me-- you'll lose.
You'll also notice there's a lot of stuff in that stream that shouldn't be there. There always is.
Just so you know, every drop of toxic oil or antifreeze that leaks from your car onto a Greensboro street and every piece of litter, every plastic bag, ever grain of fertilizer that washes off your yard and every gallon of toxic chemical waste that some cheap bastard deliberately pours down a storm drain rather than paying to dispose of, ends up flowing into the Haw River, Jordan Lake, the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean where it poisons the drinking water supplies of hundreds of thousands of North Carolina citizens and the fresh North Carolina seafood we all love to eat.
Okay, so there's two of you who don't like seafood.
And to think, some folks in Greensboro want to allow more runoff and an easing of the rules. The problem is: We've known this was coming for a very long time but Greensboro's "leaders" refused to make our local developers follow the rules. I think it's time we told our local developers they'll have to pay off old debts to keep playing the game. I don't like the fact that it's going to cost us all these $Millions but that's what happens when "leaders" don't do their jobs. The longer they put it off the more it will cost us. So what are Greensboro's current "leaders" planning to do? That's right, Robbie Perkins and company want to delay again.
And the morons who argue that Durham is closer to Jordan Lake? That ain't got a damned thing to do with it. Greensboro is bigger than Durham and generally speaking, bigger cities create more pollution. Hell, it ain't even about Jordan Lake as far as I'm concerned. If the Haw River had never been damned and the lake never built the pollution would still be just as big a concern it would just be a little farther away. The water supplies would still be deadly and the fish still unsafe to eat lake or no lake. Having the lake nearby just puts it in everyone's faces so no one can claim they didn't know.
Greensboro should be protecting the waters because it's the right thing to do, because our neighbors deserve clean water and because our grandchildren deserve a non toxic world in which to grow up in. And because I like my North Carolina seafood without toxic waste.
