Kent,

I live in a big farming area. I know for a fact that a large rural area near us has contaminated wells from chemicals used on potatoes. The chemical that the wells are contamined with is one that has been used for growing the large crops of potatoes on the near-by fields. I also know that we were forced to anex our home into the city to get city water because of a large area of private well contamination, and one of the four city wells is also contaminated. I have grown a garden for years and have discriminately used some chemicals when necessary, but only the least toxic ones and for the shortest duration possible. And I know that the label tells me not to pick or consume the produce for a specific period of time because it is not safe.

I do know that there are some alarmists who over-react about chemicals. I also know that there are some people who have the attitude that if this much is good, then twice as much is twice as good and they use a shotgun approach by using the most toxic chemicals 'just to be sure'. There should be a middle ground where we use less chemicals with more discretion. And I do shudder whenever I see the 'Chem Lawn' trucks spraying the poisons on the lawns. They even post little signs warning everyone to keep pets and children off the grass. Why would they do that if it's so safe? I have read 2 articles in the past month about numerous people getting mercury poisoning from eating fish, so it is a growing concern. And these articles were in popular magazines, not ones published by fanatics.

I have also seen the results of a large fish kill that was officialy and irrefutably linked to farm run-off. Leaves may be the reason for the algae bloom in your area, but here in Wisconsin the only clear lakes are the ones north of Rice Lake where it is too wooded for farming. If leaves from trees are the cause of algae bloom, then why are the lakes in the farming areas with few trees overgrown with algae and like pea soup, but the ones in the wooded northland clear?