Commentary by Frank Schroth
Katherine Dunphy is a Milton resident, past Selectman, and currently a member of the MWRA Advisory Board, She has been for quite some time. It is not a salaried position. Like the Warrant Committee on which she served, it is an appointment that comes with little except responsibility – responsibility that takes up an inordinate amount of time to ensure the public has quality water at a reasonable rate. We, the town of Milton, should be grateful to her.
The Advisory Board keeps an eye out on behalf of rate payers for the towns served by the MWRA which delivers water and sewer services to towns in the Boston Metropolitan area. The MWRA is raising its rates and Milton is incurring the highest rate increase. This is due to a number of reasons including consumption, infrastructure maintenance, and debt for a completely re-engineered Deere Island facility and other substantial improvements that were required to address years of neglect that resulted in a shameful national disgrace.
That is behind us. Thank God.
When Deval Patrick was elected Governor he decided to retain Mr. Laskey, a Republican appointment as head of the MWRA. Why? Because he was doing a good job.
Wage increases are a fact of life and warranted. Mr. Laskey’s salary hardly seems out of whack compared with what he would make managing an enterprise of similar size and critical importance (This is our drinking water for cryin’ out loud!!) in the private sector. Compare it to salaries paid here in town to municipal employees and it is hard to see it as extravagant.
It is not unreasonable to seek an explanation for why Milton’s rate is substantially higher than other communities that participate. But the Advisory Board is doing a good job. Ms. Dunphy, an intelligent, committed, dispassionate, and civicly minded resident applies her energy and time on that board to ensure that we are well served. Thank you Ms. Dunphy.
Related links:
- The Value of Tap Water vs. Bottled: An MWRA Chemist’s Case Study Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
- Penn & Teller: The Truth About Bottled Water; (NOTE: these guys use some four letter language in their program)
- Good Morning America: Water Taste Test
- Bottled Water vs Tap Water: Making a Healthy Choice – from the San Francisco Department of Health
- Message in a bottle – Fast Company Magazine
- The Bottled Water industry – Part of Water is Life, a class website on water privatization and commodification, produced by students of International Environmental Problems & Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA, Spring 2004.