June 2003 Edition
Sea Kings mutate into a Low Bid Ethos
The Sea King helicopter fiasco
should become the benchmark
to measure the true financial
and other costs of the Low Bid
Ethos (LBE) in environmental procurement
decisions. LBE describes
any procurement process in which
engineering or scientific design proposals
are rated on lowest price tenders,
rather than quality, experience or
reputation when proposed environmental
treatment plants are being tendered.
I once asked a purchaser: “If
you were contemplating a vasectomy,
would you shop around for a low price
surgeon, or would you seek professional
expertise and reputation?”
Wincing at my hypothesis, he retreated
behind his high school Shakespeare,
saying: “This could be the unkindest
cut of all,” but he conceded that the
answer was painfully obvious.
See Tom's full commentary
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Biosolids not affected by SARS virus
The Coronavirus that has been implicated as the likely
cause of SARS cannot be passed to humans or
animals through the spreading of biosolids as fertilizer
by farmers. So says the Water Environment
Association of Ontario (WEAO) which disputes the position
taken by the Sierra Club of Canada that there is a possible
link between the land application of biosolids and the
spreading of the virus that causes SARS. The Sierra Club
has used information related to wastewater and has tried to
apply that information to biosolids. This is a distortion of
the facts and is unfounded.
“Any link between SARS and biosolids is erroneous and
based on speculation, not science,” said Tony Petrucci,
WEAO President, in a news release May 26, 2003.
Click here to see the full article.
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