Do we need treated water for irrigation?

Dear Editor:

As I turn on my new drip irrigation system I have installed this spring in an effort to reduce water waste in my yard, it occurs to me this water I am spilling into the dirt around my trees and shrubs is amongst the best drinking water available in the world.

Not only is it fresh and clean Rutland well water, but has undergone treatment and testing to the highest standards.

I wonder, what is the expense of treating this water? And what is the capacity? At some point, surely as the population increases, so does the need for added capacity to treat this exceptional drinking water. So I wonder, why is it we are dumping this drinking water onto the ground?

I wonder if anyone has considered the idea of providing a secondary water main for irrigation, water that could fall from the watershed above, through some filters and direct to an irrigation connection at the corner of each property.

At first the idea sounds like an enormous and expensive undertaking. But I wonder what the future benefits would be to our infrastructure if we only treated the water that enters our homes.

I would think that the system could be built into new construction at little cost, with the city then just biting off small chunks every year, building outward from the source over the next few decades to fully complete.

Something just does not feel right about dumping this pristine water on the ground, but at the same time I do not want to live in a concrete jungle or a dust bowl.

Jeff Frank

Rutland