Citizens led by Barry Durand have prodded government to take action against a water supply contaminated with 4200 times the allowable amount of the carcinogen trichloroethylene. The solvent was left by an electroplating facility just south of Asheville, and the water had years ago been declared by state and federal agencies to be hazard-free.

Of a more serious nature, and worthy of pre-emptive government action is water supplies contaminated with mud. The prospect sparked the N.C. Division of Water Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set up programs to educate farmers about such hazards as letting cattle drink from streams. Lest you think this is symptomatic of big government, we are told, “The idea was to depend on local people, who are the best judge of their own needs, in promoting soil-and-water conservation. Federal legislation enabled states to establish conservation districts governed by locally elected boards of supervisors.”

Julie Cahill, of the Buncombe County Soil and Water Conservation District, reports that she has learned a lot about farming while teaching farmers about such hazards as letting cattle access streams. Coincidentally, earlier this week, David Morgan of the Asheville Tribune shared a story with haunting parallels. It projected the right wing’s proclivity for rational arguments onto the left’s advocacy for the erosion of something besides stream banks.