Letter: Keep valuing our water supply

To the Editor:

I just read the article regarding the high water levels at the Three Oaks Recreation Area. The article states that evaporation is the only way the lake level is lowered. This is not true. The majority of the water flows underground through the shallow sand and gravel aquifer ultimately reaching the Fox River.

This aquifer only has so much capacity to relieve the lake. It would seem to me that the city should investigate pumping the lake's excess water to supplement its own municipal water system. The water is clean and usable. Why send it directly to the Fox River?

With the exception of that lost to evaporation, it ultimately ends up there regardless, however we could make use of it first. This would be a win/win. We are currently pumping water from a much deeper aquifer.

We are depleting this deep aquifer and may someday run out. Possibly as a result of climate change, the trend in recent years for this area has been a significant increase in annual rainfall.

Water is our most precious resource. We should not be wasting any.

Patrick Pfeiffer

Cary