The March 12 Highline Times reported that fuel leaks are confined under the airport, study says.

May I urge that the Port of Seattle Commissioners take that report with a grain of salt. As you probably recall from your high school physics classes, water seeks it's own level. The same is true of water contaminated with fuel, glycol and other spills.

This was a major concern of mine and caused me to join the anti-third runway groups while I was a Highline Water Commissioner. Port management was endangering our drinking water supply. A nation-wide cardinal water rule is that water flows downhill to the wellhead, bringing any contaminants with it. The airport is surrounded by old and new wells which are serviced by surface rainwater seeping down over a period of years to the groundwater aquifer. (The stealing of potential drinking water and dumping it into Puget Sound by storm water sewers is another subject.)

Much of the regional drinking water is supplied by Seattle; however, their supply is limited and wells are one of the safest alternative supplies.

Clean drinking water is probably the most important public service that any government or commercial body can provide. The Port's wholesale ignoring of environmental laws seriously endangered our water supply.

Without getting into a page of two of the history of the powerful Port lobby's control of the Department of Ecology, will you consider this new study with a gain of salt.

Dan Caldwell

Des Moines