The Nisqually Valley News has a front-page story this week titled
“DOE responds to inquiries into 47 well hook-ups”
which has a major error.
DOH is the respondent to the 47 additional hook-ups, not DOE.

Yelm’s Achilles Heel seems to be the roles of Health vs. Ecology regarding Yelm’s water issues that this error would have happened.

Since my letter to Bonnie Waybright of the office of drinking water was quoted in their story, they could see that Ms. Waybright’s office was with the Dept. of Heath (DOH), NOT DOE (Ecology).
And, the 47 additional hook-ups are for connections to the city’s water system approved by DOH, not “well hook-ups”.

To date, neither Health or Ecology have approved the City of Yelm’s draft Water System Plan AND Yelm has been operating without an approved Water System Plan since Sept, 2008.

The timeline for all of this correspondence was covered on the Yelm Community Blog on May 8th:
CLICK HERE for that story.
DOH contacts were also linked here on May 8th.

The NVN referenced Pam Paiz’s letter to DOH, which was published here on May 10th. DOH limiting connections to the city’s water system was enacted exactly because, as the NVN story quoted Ms. Waybright saying to Ms. Paiz,
“our concern is to protect the health of the residents of Yelm and other communities by ensuring they have safe & reliable drinking water.”

Regarding this comment in the NVN story:
“He [Klein] also criticized recent comments made by city officials to the Nisqually Valley News and another regional daily newspaper.

The officials failed to mention the city over-pumped its alloted water in previous years, he said.”

Ed. NOTE: DOE allocates Yelm’s annual allocation of water to be pumped.

YES, I HAVE CRITICIZED CITY OFFICIALS’ ACTIONS & COMMENTS!
However, to put my comments these last 6 years in context,
I quote NBC’s Lisa Myer’s report of May 21st titled:
“Deepwater Horizon rig: What went wrong?
Independent investigator says accident was preventable; safety compromised”

where she interviewed independent researcher Dr. Robert Bea investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident who said,
“…all the companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon accident probably bear some responsibility, but that most of the blame rests with BP and the federal government, because they failed to properly oversee the project.

‘These are not bad people,’ Bea says emphatically. ‘We’re just doing dumb things.’

Lisa Myers: ‘This report is damning.”

I SAY THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT ACTIONS & COMMENTS FROM YELM’S CITY HALL ON THE WATER ISSUES HERE:
‘These are not bad people,’
‘We’re just doing dumb things.’

However, DOE & DOH are finally providing oversight to Yelm’s water maximum annual allocation & connections respectively, in that a set number for each (pumped acre feet/year & maximum allowable connections to the city’s water system) has been established that the city must adhere.
THAT is a story for the NVN’s front-page in and of itself.

In other Yelm water news, the City Council will approve a $101,605 measure for design & engineering services for the downtown well rehabilitation project Tuesday evening.

UPDATE: Monday, May 24th, 6pm
To the NVN’s credit, they corrected their website edition –

DOH responds to inquiries into 47 water hookups

By Megan Hansen
Nisqually Valley News
Published: Monday, May 24, 2010 2:02 PM PDT
Department of Health received several letters after granting the City of Yelm 47 additional connections to its water system.

Uncouth?
Who is uncouth?
As one astute Blog reader pointed out, for a newspaper that touts their quality to make such an error on their front-page was glaring.
Yet, to not quote the source of their story shows lack of professional journalistic standards. The NVN knows where they got this story & from where they quoted the material, whether or not they asked DOH for the letters they read on the Yelm Community Blog on May 10th.