President Gilbert Presentation to Brunswick County

School Board on September 19, 2017

On September 19, 2017, BEAT President Neil Gilbert along with Emily Donovan of Stand Up Brunswick and Tom Goodwin of SOBAD made presentations to the Brunswick County School Board regarding the safety of water being consumed by students, teachers, staff, and administrators. This is the text of Neil’s remarks:

On June 15 BEAT issued a public statement urging state and federal legislation to ban the release of GenX into public waters. Knowing that fluorocarbons have been linked to cancer and other serious health problems, allowing the release of Gen X is totally unacceptable.

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Since BEAT's June 15 statement, there have been numerous meetings and forums in both Brunswick and New Hanover Counties. In these meetings there has been no new science to dissuade BEAT to change their original statement. To the contrary, the new science and readings are showing other unknown compounds in our drinking water that can pose more of a threat to our health than Gen X. Most noteworthy was the Gen X Forum held on July 19 at Brunswick Community College. When a panel of 8 scientists and government officials were asked by moderator Amanda Fitzpatrick "Who is drinking the water?" not one scientist raised their hands. To me that spoke volumes. As recently as this past Saturday's ProH2GO meeting in Leland, Dr. Cahoon of UNCW further confirmed BEAT’S statement of June 15.

Being a volunteer at West Brunswick High School, this has me greatly concerned for the health of the students, teachers, administrators, and staff in Brunswick County Schools. Having worked with Boards of Education for over 30 years, I realize that Board members are often put in a position to make difficult decisions. Normally the issue of state drinking water is not one of those important decisions, but it is now.

Being the good School Board members that you are, I am sure you have asked yourselves the important questions about the toxicity of the water in our schools. There has been so much information available over the past several months that you should have plenty of information to make an informed decision.

BEAT would like to remind the School Board that you do not need to depend on the state to provide clean water options for our students. You can take the lead by showing strength, character, and conviction by taking a stronger stance outside of Raleigh's guidelines. By doing this you will gain the support of all residents of Brunswick County.

BEAT is offering our services and advice to the Brunswick County Board of Education so you can do what is right for our students and employees of Brunswick County schools. It is BEAT's position that, when it comes to safe drinking water, the parents of Brunswick County, their children, and all who work in the schools deserve safe and healthy water.