Forty years ago, my family had a farm in Oregon’s Coast Range where a beaver dam caused a 17-acre lake that supported an elk herd, bear, cougar, migratory ducks, geese and swans, and a huge frog population. That lake water was richly fertile; I used it to water our lakeside garden, joking that our tomatoes were fertilized with frog poop.

If the EPA or the DEQ had told us to mitigate the bacteria in our lake to drinking water purity we would have laughed at them. Our drinking water came from a spring on the hillside, not from the lake. That lake and the stream that emerged below the beaver dam were part of a healthy watershed. Of course the water teemed with microorganisms that supported bugs that fed frogs and birds and on up the food chain. …

Tuesday evening, August 15, 2023, more than a hundred ranchers listened to four educated young ladies decree that Baker County landowners must “mitigate” the bacterial count of the upland waters of our fertile Baker County valleys to swimming pool purity. A TMDL, total maximum daily load, is being arbitrarily imposed. Why? Because a kayaker in a downstream lake might splash water into his mouth? What?

Folks, Baker has an agricultural and ranching economy. Our watershed works fine. Our wildlife are abundant. Our diet of local grass-fed beef, homegrown vegetables and duck eggs is so healthy that my 72-year-old husband’s hair is growing dark again. Go away, EPA.

Lindianne Sappington

Baker City