I spent around an hour calling various elected officials' offices today. It sounds like a lot of people did same. I'm very happy to see this response from the Mayor.

I simply do not trust the local processing plant involved, period. I don't trust that they will make a full, safe and proper evaluation of the "treated" water coming from Clean Harbors.

They need to find a top-notch facility to work with, not one that is already experiencing a bevy of issues when it comes to their day-to-day operations.

It's also extremely concerning to hear about the major contamination of latex chemicals into a Delaware River tributary that happened just north of us, affecting a huge portion of the Philadelphia area and millions of residents. The "buy water, don't buy water, buy water, don't buy water" messaging from local officials is god damn ridiculous.

We need to push back on corporations in a big way in this country. I've made a career of selling and doing business, with essentially every type of organization across the spectrum of affiliations, politics, interest groups, brands, etc.

I have no inherent problems with capitalism and a market economy, coupled with using the proceeds of that efficient system to make investments in society (for the sake of the citizenry) and broad-based social welfare programs. What we live in today is not even close to a properly-functioning version of that. It's much closer to oligarchical corporate fascism.

Please engage with your officials. It's so easy to call their offices and take 2 minutes to speak to an aid, or leave a quick voicemail. It really does work, if enough people do it. We really do run things – corruption and malfeasance thrive when we are convinced that this isn't the case. But we really do have the numbers.

Baltimore City Mayor's Office of Constituent Services: 410-396-4900

Maryland Rep Lookup: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Members/District

Senator Chris Van Hollen Contact: https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/contact/office-locations

Senator Ben Cardin Contact: https://www.cardin.senate.gov/contact/

US House Rep Lookup: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative