Email to Berkshire Eagle from Housatonic Resident

Hi Heather,
Thank you for the work that you have been doing covering Housatonic's water issues. We really appreciate it. 

One small thing I wanted to point out though. We only stopped paying our bill specifically because the town water is not meeting legal safety standards. We are very upset about the terrible water quality and service in general of course, but we only decided to stop paying when the legal safety standards were repeatedly breached and unresolved after so long. Being forced to pay for a "product" in the USA that does not meet legal safety standards that you cannot live without and cannot get elsewhere (a monopoly) is just wrong on every level. Once the HAA5 falls back down to what is considered legally safe (even though we may not personally agree with that level), we will start paying our bill once again, even if the other water issues continue. 

On a slightly different note, but still on the HWW topic, I thought of a story idea that may interest you if you have not already covered it. The public-private partnership concept with HWW, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge has been briefly brought up a number of times at various meetings, but no one that I am aware of has followed up on this or really knows exactly what was discussed. In general, I'm not a fan of public-private partnerships for a number of reasons (excellent video about them here), but in this particular case with HWW it may be better than what we have since getting the towns to take over HWW by eminent domain is unfortunately a long shot.

I could be wrong, but my guess from the way Jim Mercer acted at the last Zoom is that he is not in favor of the idea -- I don't think he wants anyone else dipping into his cookie jar unless he comes out ahead. But I'm sure all of the local residents would be interested in finding out what has been said in each town behind closed doors, and if something like that does go through what the deal would be and how it would affect everyone. The agencies (DPU, EPA,health depts, and select boards) don't seem to be much help in general -- it's like watching the Three Stooges when anyone asks a question or for any kind of help, they each say that is not their agency's job and point to someone else. But if residents can find out more details about a public-private partnership with HWW and the towns, we may all be able to encourage things to move in that direction if everyone feels that it would be a better, viable solution.

​Kathy Regan
Grove Street, Housatonic