On page 2 of the Sept. 18, 1985 Brighton Independent you can read, “Shewman has noticed accelerated weed growth in the bay since the sewage lagoon was built in the last ten years … He feels the spraying should be stopped and the problem of the lagoon faced directly.”

That was Mr. Baltes Shewman, longtime Presqu’ile Bay hunter and trapper and member of the famous boat-building Shewman family. The sewage lagoon he spoke of was the lagoon on the north side of County Rd. 64 at the Brighton Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP); it is not the constructed wetland on the south side of County Rd. 64.

Flash-forward 30 years and speak with Glen Quick, a commercial fisherman who has worked Presqu’ile Bay since he was 15 years old in 1958. Mr. Quick will tell you that when he was a kid, you could drink the water from, and safely swim in, Proctors Cove, the small cove at the east end of Price Street in Gosport. Mr. Quick will also tell you that the mesh of his hoop nets is covered in a black, oily goo every time he lifts them from Proctors Cove.

Ask Mr. Quick what he thinks is fouling his nets and he points to the effluent of the constructed wetland of the Brighton WPCP, which happens to dump into Proctors Cove. He will tell you he thinks the constructed wetland is the source of the fouling in his nets because in every other place where he sets nets in Presqu’ile Bay, the water is clear. As it used to be in Proctors Cove.

The experience of these two longtime Brighton watermen makes council’s May 10 decision to hold a 10th anniversary celebration of Brighton’s constructed wetland, at best, surprising. I would have thought there might be better ways to spend money, and better things to celebrate, in Brighton.

But all is not wasted. The Sept. 23 celebration will be a great opportunity for all members of council, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pries (the consultant for the constructed wetland) to put their hands where there mouths are and do what Mr. Lou Rinaldi did in 1999 when the constructed wetland first opened. In 1999, Mr. Quick (then Reeve of the Town of Brighton) watched Mr. Rinaldi (then Reeve of Brighton Township) cup his hands and drink water coming out of the constructed wetland.

The Sept. 23, 10thh anniversary celebration of Brighton’s constructed wetland must be a “compulsory attendance” event for every member of council, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pries. Those persons who don’t attend and those persons who attend but don’t drink the water, do not deserve the confidence of Brighton taxpayers.