Editor, Gazette-Journal:

In voting against participation in the Regional Water Supply Plan, being prepared by the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission, the Mathews County Board of Supervisors has taken the first step in a risky course of action.

If the board chooses to have the local Citizens Advisory Team prepare its own water supply plan, it would put this state-mandated task in the hands of amateurs. The only qualification of the CAT team (in the list given by Ms. Bova in an interview with the Gazette-Journal, May 25) that it is even vaguely related to water is their experience in pressing for better drainage ditches.

While the water supply plan is of little relevance to Mathews, what is next? CAT surely has higher ambitions, perhaps writing the Hazard Mitigation Plan, a plan that is critically important to all Mathews residents. Failure to gain FEMA approval could cost Mathews its eligibility for flood insurance. Home buyers would be unable to obtain a mortgage, propert...