It’s alarming when you receive a letter in the mail from your water company that the drinking water is unsafe due to high e. coli contamination. It really hits the panic button when you’ve got small children and infants.

This happened to our family in another state several years ago and I honestly thought that we had left that nightmare behind us when we moved to Sammamish. Apparently I was wrong.

My knowledge is pretty much based on an Economics 101 course I took in college, but the principles have held up over the decades. It sounds like Issaquah – by not paying for treatment of storm water pumped into our aquifer – may be “externalizing” its costs. Simply put, Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District customers get the honor of paying Issaquah’s costs in order to maintain our clean, safe water supply.

Philip Knudsen, Sammamish