To the Editor:

Having read several articles in Town Topics concerning the pros and cons of placing a tax on single use bags, I thought it would be informative to report my recent observations pertinent to the topic of pollution of the water courses by single-use plastic bags.

On July 15, 2015, after a very heavy rain event, I walked my dog along Harry’s Brook between Harrison Street and Harriet Street so she could get wet and have a drink. Within a distance of about 50 feet, there were at least 10 plastic bags and a plastic cup attached to low hanging branches and woody debris in the flood plain. Since the plastic bags were mostly elevated at about the level of the recent flood water, I suspect they were just recently transported there by the storm. If they had continued onward downstream, they would have ended up in Carnegie Lake. Now, they are simply an ugly reminder that man’s waste ends up as residual solid waste in an otherwise rather pristine brook in the middle of Princeton.

I believe that no matter how hard we try, non-point pollution will enter Harry’s Brook, and ultimately Carnegie Lake and the Raritan-Millstone River. We should keep this in mind when we use and dispose of single-use plastic bags.

Fred H. Bowers

Snowden Lane