Dear Mother: April/May 2008

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Nancy Gerlach
Garrettsville, Ohio

We have just launched our expanded Web site and now are offering five free e-newsletters as well as a variety of other ways readers can participate in making the site a daily online publication. — Mother

Nonstop Mother

I have been really enjoying your new and improved Web site. Now I have great stuff to read while waiting for the latest edition of Mother Earth News to show up at my library.

Rob Karson
Salt Lake City, Utah

Super Bees … or Silly Mistake?

Keep Bees, Naturally! says that bees make “50 gallons or more of pure, wild honey per hive.” I think you meant to say 50 pounds of honey. As a beekeeper with 25 colonies and a few years of experience, I’ve yet to see a colony produce 50 gallons. Thanks for the wishful thinking though. Fifty gallons of honey equates to roughly 1,000 pounds and would be a world record production for a single colony.

Mike Rininger
Marshall, Virginia

Yep, you’re right. — Mother

Organized Slime

Regarding The Truth About Septic Systems. I was the interim general manager of the Los Osos (Calif.) Community Services District after a recall prompted by the local septic system controversy. It was an experience like no other. The community activists who booted the old board out and that have stood against the state are some of the bravest human beings I have met.

What my experience in Los Osos taught me was that the civil engineering “profession” that I had so much faith in has a very dark side, one that has shaken me and caused me to refocus my life, but also allowed me to see that there are scientists and engineers out there who really get what is going on. It all comes down to money and the accompanying political control that allows for the greed to sink in. Once the greed sinks in, it corrupts. Don’t get me wrong, financial success is good, but not at the cost of corruption that will likely overwhelm even the most well-intentioned.

There is a faction of the engineering community that is composed of large corporations that don’t give a rat’s behind about anything but profit, period. On the other hand, there are many engineers and scientists that have developed effective technology to deal with wastewater. In my opinion, the large engineering and construction corporations see this as a threat to their ability to generate profits. They have been successful in keeping any new and improved, less expensive technology out of this state. The regional and state water quality control boards are in bed with these corporations as well, and for a wide number of reasons — the biggest being the shaping of the regulations that are implemented into law. When we consider the current law exempting agriculture from the level of scrutiny put onto small communities, numerous bodies of water will never see a reduction in the levels of nutrient pollution and nitrogen pollution.

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