Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Ms. Lynn Croft (“Solving the drainage issue,” Sept. 15 Readers Write) misdirected blame at the Board of Supervisors for two ditch studies. The July 13 Gazette-Journal article clearly stated the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission arranged for William and Mary’s Coastal Policy Center to do the study. The supervisors were not asked to approve the projects and did not fund them.

In May 2013, the board did agree when VDOT proposed a study to restore drainage outfalls as part of the 2014-19 VDOT Six-Year Plan. This study was to determine what was needed for all the outfalls in Mathews, but it never happened. VDOT has not said a word in public about this since then, perhaps because MPPDC is pushing responsibility toward citizens instead of VDOT, where it belongs.

Instead, MPPDC decided to do a grant-funded study to look at “ditch enhancement” and focused only on four small areas. MPPDC followed up with the latest William and...