Chemicals will drive many from visiting, living here

We have heard from familymembers who live in Sandpoint that those charged with ridding Lake Pend Oreille of Eurasian milfoiil are attacking the weed by pouring 'diluted' chemicals into the water.

Good heavens, Sandpoint. No matter how diluted these powerful chemicals are when added to the lake, no one ' and especially the sales representatives and lobbyists who promote their use where children and their parents swim and fish ' can guarantee that chemicals will not create another lethal Love Canal or Libby, Mont., catastrophe for Sandpoint. The fact is, at this point, no one knows.

There are countless large, fresh water lakes throughout the nation whose leadership have flatly rejected the use of poisons to combat milfoil. Instead, they have employed milfoil-eating weevils and/or professional and volunteer divers to successfully destroy the weed by digging it out at the root. Inasmuch as Lake Pend Oreille is your community's lifeblood, a treasure that attracts tourists, business and new residents from throughout the world, how could your area chambers of commerce, civic clubs, city councils, cultural activists and medical community permit such reckless decision making?

My husband and I visit Sandpoint often, especially in the summer. We stay in lakefront lodges, dine with family and friends at favorite restaurants at Schweitzer, in Sandpoint and Hope, and shop extensively in downtown stores. We normally start each day with coffee at the Monarch, followed by a lengthy swim off City Beach. Because of what we consider to be a foolhardy and risky decision to dump potentially cancer-causing chemicals into the lake, we may call it quits for Sandpoint. We may shift to other, safer, more responsible resort destinations ' and encourage our Sandpoint family and friends to join us.

Our own change of plans will not inhibit Sandpoint's economy or spirit in the least. However, multiplied by similar actions by many hundreds of other families if the word spread that beautiful Lake Pend Oreille had become unfit for human use (although free, maybe, of milfoil), it would cause an epic and unnecessary disaster for Sandpoint and North Idaho.

HEIDI GATCH

Park City, Utah