Dear Editor,

First it was the tomatoes and that knocked the whole tomato industry on its tomato. Then it was the cilantro or was it the jalapeño peppers or maybe those sneaky little green onions? Now, nobody knows what caused the salmonella in the first place.

I do know this; take a walk along the Eel River in Rio Dell and you will see that the river is dying. Brown algae all over the place, low water and no fry to be seen anywhere. Yet, our Great Leaders don’t seem to care one bit and continually ignore the problem. Now, I’m not opposed to grapes and Mendocino County, but how much is enough? How much water is going to be continually taken from the Eel River to where at the beginning of summer you can spit across the river and my miniature dachshund can walk across the river without getting his belly wet?

The entire ecosystem in this river is being systematically destroyed and there is no sound reason for it. It’s not only the fish in the river, but the animals that use the river as well, and when we allow business interests to drain the river down to where it becomes toxic for domesticated animals such as dogs to go play in, then we have a major problem.

Priorities should be in order and by my way of thinking; I believe that there are more people who eat fish than drink wine.

Jim Garvey
Rio Dell