Earth Day brings reminder of how important water is Saturday, April 22, is Earth Day, the 30th anniversary of the day designated to call attention to environmental issues. Unfortunately, this year the day falls on the Saturday of Easter week, when schools, often the strongest proponent of the event, recess early. As a result, events go unplanned, or unattended. That seems to be a trend. A recent national poll finds interest is waning on environmental concerns. Yet, at the same time, Wisconsin's state government wants to address problems with urban sprawl and the National Weather Service reports average annual temperatures continue to rise, probably due to global warming. Locally, Portage County is considering changes to the Wellhead Protection Ordinance in the Portage County Business Park. Most of the park lies within the village of Whiting's well recharge area and another portion is within the city of Stevens Point's recharge area. Under the present ordinance, certain businesses dealing with hazardous chemicals are prohibited within the recharge area, on the presumption that spills will occur, causing ground water contamination. The county wants to revise the ordinance to allow all businesses within the park, but setting criteria to ensure the same level of protection prohibition would provide. The proposal sends up a few red flags. Ground water is a valuable commodity. The villages of Plover and Whiting already have to remove nitrate from their water. Some communities nationally have discovered their ground water contaminated by tanks leaking new formulations of gasoline, which apparently cause more problems than regular gas. This area has already experienced problems with its ground water, beyond the nitrate contamination. The village of Milladore detected gasoline in its water supply. Plover experienced a petroleum spill in its Industrial Park, near the village well field. And Stevens Point discovered leaking fuel tanks at the Municipal Airport several years ago. Earth Day comes once a year, but people need to be diligent throughout the year to protect the environment. It's a resource everyone depends on. – Gene Kemmeter