Editor:

In Thursday's Chilliwack Times, one writer suggests that our water is best left to experts.

Ah yes, experts. We, the taxpayers, pay quite a number of "experts" to run our affairs on a municipal, provincial and national level.

Perhaps the problem with not always being content to accept these "experts'" decisions comes from articles we read in newspapers and magazines? For example: "99 stupid things the government did with your money," published in Maclean's magazine.

When it comes to Chilliwack's water, it didn't seem to help that one expert (not very expertly mind you) first told us that we are drinking poo.

The real frustration with the decision to chlorinate our water is, in my opinion, twofold: First, there is the timing. There was absolutely no immediate health risk associated with our city's drinking water when, seemingly out of nowhere, we are told that our award-winning water will be chlorinated.

Secondly, there are the facts. Not one person ever got sick because of E. coli contaminated Chilliwack water. In fact, past very minor problems were isolated and confined to only certain hillside reservoirs.

Seems to me that rather than basing decisions on facts, some experts operate instead based on fear and the old "what if" question.

And what about the experts who have studied and documented the dangerous, possibly cancer-causing effects of adding chlorine to one's diet? Should we perhaps just ignore these experts?

Mario C. Alleckna Chilliwack