A key consideration has always been missing from the debate over funding for cleaning up stormwater damaged waterways and the "rain tax" ("Backtracking on the bay," Jan. 23). All Maryland homes are but a short walk from the nearest waterway. For many, the nearest waterway is a small headwater stream. Even the smallest creeks attract children from nearby homes.
The problem is that for 70 percent of us these nearest waterways are an unsafe and unhealthy playground for our children. Unhealthy conditions are caused by the disease-causing organisms in pet and other animal wastes washed in with each storm along with that from sewage overflows. Safety issues are created by deposits that are like quicksand which come from poorly controlled construction site mud pollution.
Appliances, tires and other debris dumped along waterways create additional safety concerns. All parents know we cannot keep our children from wading in these waters. Our only choice is to restore each waterway to a child-friendly condition. This is what the stormwater remediation fees (aka the rain tax) would accomplish. I agree with The Baltimore Sun's editors — now is the wrong time to backtrack on the bay and our neighborhood waters.
Richard Klein, Freeland