Muddy Waters

The U.S. Olympic diving trials ended in controversy yesterday when 10-meter platform diver David Pichler, just minutes after making the U.S. team bound for Atlanta, accused former coach Ron O'Brien of repeated harassment in an afternoon that devolved into various charges and countercharges, all of them unpleasant. Pichler's allegations were reported recently to U.S. Diving, the national governing body for the sport, but no action was taken after an investigation. O'Brien and his son, Tim O'Brien, who is an assistant with his father's Fort Lauderdale diving team, disputed Pichler's story, indicating that the 1995 U.S. Diving athlete of the year was asked to leave the Fort Lauderdale team because of a disruptive personal relationship with a male friend.

Republican politicians, from the Big Apple's mayor to the Senate majority leader, have taken to playing petty personal games with the Mideast peace process. On Monday, Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York City, expelled Yasir Arafat from a city-sponsored concert for United Nations dignitaries. The reason? Mr. Giuliani couldn't forgive the past terrorist record of the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. This clumsy gesture might have been seen as a nod to the mayor's Jewish constituents.

The message was sent out by the Eagles on draft day, and Andre Waters didn't need his answering machine to get it. It was delivered live and in color on national television with the 48th name announced during the NFL draft. " . . . With their second choice, the Philadelphia Eagles select Jesse Campbell, safety, North Carolina State. " Minutes later, the Eagles announced that they projected the 6-2 1/2, 212- pound Campbell at strong safety, a position Waters has held down for seven seasons.

Soybeans grow where the people once lived and trees shade where they buried their dead in Brotherton, New Jersey's first and only Indian reservation. Two centuries after the community disbanded, and its inhabitants were relocated and 3,000-plus acres sold off, courts continue to consider history-based claims to what the Leni-Lenape called edgepillock , or "place of pure clear water. " Brotherton, now a substantially developed part of Shamong Township, was at the center of a May 25 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.

MANY Americans are too young to remember the days when an American river really did catch on fire, when many waterways were like open sewers and lakes nearly died from pollution. They are too young to remember the dirty days before the 1972 Clean Water Act, signed by that radical environmentalist Richard M. Nixon, led the government to begin the massive task of protecting all "waters of the United States. " The Clean Water Act is a prime example of how prudent government regulation can make a huge difference in the health of the nation's environment and its people.

Tom Biffle, a 32-year-old professional angler from Wagoner, Okla., overcame rainy conditions and increased his lead yesterday in the BASS Masters Classic, freshwater fishing's most prestigious event. Biffle caught his second five-bass limit for a cumulative total of 25 pounds, 8 ounces. All 10 fish were released alive after the weigh-in at the Richmond Coliseum. Rain the night before and during much of yesterday's competition made fishing difficult for the 41 finalists. Muddied waters in many parts of the James River and its tributaries forced competitors to revise game plans after they had experienced good conditions during Thursday's opening day of the three-day tournament.

Now that a state takeover of Philadelphia public schools is threatened, voucher advocates are trying to advance their cause through polls and surveys claiming to document broad support for vouchers, particularly among the poor and minorities. "School choice programs by most measures are wildly popular with voters, especially minorities," the Wall Street Journal editorialized, citing a 1996 Harvard study that found pupils in Milwaukee's voucher program testing higher than kids in other Milwaukee schools.

BY NOW it's obvious that the highly publicized, $5 million class-action lawsuit charging Budweiser with overstating its alcohol content is pure B.S. The plaintiffs, including two Montgomery County brothers, say that Anheuser-Busch deliberately waters down its beer, and that its alcohol content is "significantly" overstated on its labels. But the lawsuit provides no evidence to back up that claim. It cites no scientific-based data, or even how much Bud drinkers are being shortchanged.

When John Brunner puts his canoe in Perkiomen Creek below Knight Lake each spring, he can see straight through to the bottom. But by the time he reaches Swamp Creek in Schwenksville, the water has turned chocolate brown. At Skippack Creek, it's a shade short of black. "The creeks are in trouble," said Brunner, a Worcester native and the executive director of the Musconetcong River Watershed Association. Brunner is worried about the levels of goo in Perkiomen Creek. Last year, he created the Muddy Waters Project, a group of 14 volunteers who studied sedimentation in Skippack Creek and the east branch of Perkiomen Creek, part of the 360-square-mile Perkiomen Creek watershed.

They took a bucket of muddy, bacteria-laden water. Added a bit of white powder. Stirred. And within minutes, standing amid 100 refugees in war-torn Liberia, researchers from Johns Hopkins University had produced what seemed like a magic trick: Clear, drinkable water. "I couldn't believe it when I saw it," Hopkins researcher Shannon Doocy said of her work last year. "The people in Liberia couldn't believe it. " The powder, developed by Procter & Gamble Co. with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is now headed for its biggest test yet: the tsunami zone.