Letters to the editor for Saturday, July 25, 2015

Irrigation should stop during heavy rainfall

A recent article in the Appeal listed ways in which we could cut back on water usage. One suggestion was to let the lawn go dormant in the summer and recover the grass in the cool, fall weather. I don’t think I want to do that. Here’s why.

A large alfalfa farm sits just south of our property. During the recent wet weather (three and a half inches in the rain gauge from May to mid-July), the alfalfa farm’s massive irrigation systems ran non-stop.

I have a modest lawn (2,400-square-feet) and about 60 trees and shrubs. There’s a sprinkler system for the grass and drip system for the trees. Following rain storms, those systems are turned off, and they stay off for up to a week.

Alfalfa growers are entitled to pursue their livelihood. But is it too much to ask that during heavy downpours, the irrigation systems be shut off for a day or two?

Our lawn area stays green about five months of the year. Until there is at least a passing interest for water conservation from the alfalfa growers, that lawn is going to stay green five moths of the year.

Robert Burchfield

Wellington

Statham’s column off the mark

In Mr. Statham’s column of July 16, he states, “The prime minister (Mr. Netanyahu) has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the United States.”

I don’t understand why such a statement was made as I don’t feel Mr. Statham, a former congressional aid, could have forgotten all the times, rightfully or wrongfully, open or clandestine, this nation has been involved in the internal affairs of other nations.

Mr. Netanyahu seems to have concerns about trying to make a nuclear agreement with a country that has reneged on every other previous agreement. It has a history of hampering, or preventing, prior inspections by U.N. officials of their “commercial nuclear” facilities.

Mr. Statham also states “Remember, without the agreement Iran could and would immediately resume its nuclear development program. What would we do then?”

Do we even know if Iran has ever stopped working on their nuclear program? The real question should be, “When Iran gets nuclear and intercontinental missile ballistic weapon capabilities, will it use them to “blackmail” other nations, including the USA?”

About 200 years ago the United States was involved in negotiations with Islams of the Barbary Coast over the enslavement of U.S. citizens. After several failed attempts to peacefully resolve the situation we sent in troops to resolve the issue. Thus ... “To the shores of Tripoli.”

Sanford E. Deyo

Minden