Letters to the Editor

Evolving problems with pipelines

Hats off to The Inquirer for investigating pipelines in Pennsylvania ("Loophole limiting pipe inspections," Sunday)! Problems with unregulated and unmapped pipelines in rural areas of our commonwealth are complex and evolving.

Rural areas will become residential and suburban. What will happen when you want to dig a foundation, drill a well for water, or build a road, and you hit something unknown?

Remote areas are great recreational sites. As floods come and earth erodes, what might occur when a snowmobile or off-road vehicle hits an unmapped and unmarked line?

Natural gas in gathering lines has no smell. What if a hunter shoots a rifle or a fisherman uses his cellphone in the vicinity of a leak? Either can be a source of ignition.

Roberta Winters, Rosemont

Get state out of liquor business

The statement by Wendell W. Young IV on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study in support of Pennsylvania's monopoly of wine and liquor sales is a gross exaggeration ("Mangling data on liquor privatization," Friday). CDC studies are available online, and one on other states' experiences with privatization says, "Wine privatization in Iowa was associated with a nonsignificant increase of only 0.5 percent in wine sales, and that spirits privatization was associated with a nonsignificant increase of 0.7 percent." Another study of privatization says, "The authors reported that there was an 11.3 percent decrease in traffic fatalities."

The larger issue is whether the state should be running a consumer retail business - which, by the way, it runs very badly. As a freedom-loving resident of this state, I say that our freedom to enjoy simple pleasures, such as wine and spirits, should not be subject to the government's opinion of whether they are good for us or good for the social fabric. As many others have said, Pennsylvania needs to get out of this business.

Charles Slater, Haverford

Easier to be frugal in Germany