Protecting water a worthy investment

I am glad to see the City Council’s approval of a ballot initiative to use an increase in Whitefish’s resort tax to fund permanent conservation of lands in Haskill Basin.

I work for an organization, Forest Trends, that specializes in consulting on projects around the world — we’ve worked in Peru, Ghana, Mexico, Bolivia, China, Brazil, as well as in the U.S. — to address threats to drinking water through protected areas. I’m so pleased to see this approach being considered in my own town, as it’s proven an excellent long-term investment in hundreds of other places already.

Keeping water clean at its source can reduce treatment costs and sometimes eliminate the need for upgrades. With numeric criteria on the way from DEQ, water service providers need to be proactive in finding cost-effective ways to meet tightening clean water standards and avoid the need to hike water rates significantly.

The city has a great opportunity to permanently safeguard our water source and we ought to do so — especially since at the moment we have matching federal funds at our disposal and a partner in the F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company, which is willing to sell the easement to the city at a deep discount.

Though no one welcomes a tax increase, my sense is that this is a better route to financing the conservation easements than an increase in water bills, which I’ve heard estimated at around $80 per resident a year.

I hope that in the coming weeks the City Council and supporters of the easement purchase will share additional information on the relative costs and merits of each approach.

— Genevieve Bennett, Whitefish