An endless stream of incompetence
The look on publisher Robert Slager’s face last Friday when he greeted me gave me a reason to believe that I had something to dread.
"Don’t drink the water in Wareham," he said.
"Is it bad again?" I asked.
He nodded yes.
A dozen practical jokes passed before my eyes, jokes that my daughter and I played on each other during last year’s water contamination crisis. She taunted me from the other side of the bathroom door as I descended into bubble bath water, forgetting about its contamination. I waited for her to make the mistake of brushing her teeth with tap water.
Let the games begin. I called the house and as I hoped my daughter answered the phone.
"Don’t drink the water in Wareham," I declared.
"Is the water bad again?" she asked.
"OK, I’ll tell Dad," she said, adding "but I may have to vomit first. I just brushed my teeth."
The practical jokes begin, but they’re not quite so funny this year. Last year, jokes helped get us through a difficult time. This year they just remind us that something which should not have happened has happened again.
Outside the Wareham Water and Fire District Building last Friday drivers automatically fell into a pattern designed last year, forming a line to receive the first of several daily allotments of two-gallon water bottles. In through a car window, the "free" bottles of water were passed. No one checked to see if the recipients live in Wareham despite all the out-of-town traffic that travels in the area.
Inside the building Water Superintendent Mike Martin posed for cameras, offered a statement and then gave the press an opportunity to ask questions. Were the routines established during last August’s water contamination helpful in establishing the response to this August’s contamination? Martin beamed and said, "Yes."
Now there’s a softball question. Wareham’s water is contaminated two Augusts in a row but the distribution of free water is running smoothly. Great.
Pardon the pun, but there’s something a little murky here.
Dino Pimental, owner of five Dunkin Donuts franchise stores in Wareham, noted there have now been three contaminations in five years. Why is Pimental keeping count? Every contamination event costs him a bundle in lost sales. Last year’s event alone cost him $147,000. For residents, the water contamination events are an inconvenience. For the approximately 200 business owners who serve food and/or beverages in Wareham, the contamination events have been a financial disaster.
After last year’s contamination, an independent study by SEA Consultants of Cambridge found several deficiencies in the water department’s water sampling techniques. According to the study, the most likely cause of the contamination was poor sampling techniques. Despite the study and despite an allegation from someone within the district that an employee with poor personal hygiene had contaminated samples, Martin insists that his department did all it could do.
The Observer then called for Martin’s resignation. Martin refused to quit. Now it’s August again and Wareham has suffered another water contamination event. And what was the first contaminant found? E-coli, often associated with poor personal hygiene.
During last Friday’s press conference, Martin said water contamination often happens across Massachusetts towns in August and September. He said that scientists have studied the phenomenon and haven’t come up with an answer as to why it happens. I don’t know about you but I don’t find that very comforting. If I was a business owner serving food and/ or beverages to the public I would find it infuriating.
Wareham’s water commissioners should have asked Martin some very important questions last year., especially how to prevent this from re-occurring. The answer would have been simple: be proactive, take preventative steps, chlorinate the water 12 months a year just as many other towns in Massachusetts already do. Why Martin hasn’t been more proactive is the most important question of all.
Martin is still telling residents and devastated business owners that water contaminations happen in a number of Massachusetts towns in August and September. If Martin knew that seasonal water contaminations are common, the water commissioners should have known it too. Martin should have taken preventative steps (chlorination of water) to protect Wareham from a repeat of last year’s economically devastating water contamination. When he didn’t, the water commissioners should have demanded that he do so.
Calling for Martin’s resignation two years in a row is pointless. He apparently doesn’t care what the people he serves think of his job performance. So now it’s time for the water commissioners to decide if Martin should be fired. And it’s time for the people of Wareham to decide if the water commissioners should be recalled if they don’t.
Providing safe water is the primary job of the water superintendent. If he can’t get that right, what’s the purpose of having a water superintendent?
