Thank you for your Aug. 19 editorial titled “Water disruption in Wyoming Valley puts focus on precious resource – and aging pipes.” It is true that we need to prepare ourselves for water disruptions, and that our community is poised to do so.

I want to add that I am grateful that the likelihood of water access disruption is about to go down because of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Water Rule, which was to take effect Friday.

Some Pennsylvanians might be suspicious of government rules. As a deacon in the Orthodox Church, I believe this rule is worth supporting because it is crucial to the integrity of all God’s sacred creation.

In Orthodox Christian theology, water is not only a gift from God and important to the sacrament of baptism, but it is also a central component of all of creation – including more than 90 percent of our own bodies.

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Nationwide, the Clean Water Rule protects the drinking water sources of 117 million people; that’s one in every three Americans. Eight million people rely on drinking water from systems supplied by headwater, seasonal or rain-dependent streams in Pennsylvania.

The rule restores protection to 60 percent of America’s streams that should have been protected by the Clean Water Act but haven’t had safeguards implemented. That means our fish and agriculture will be freer of pollutants, and so will our bodies.

So, let’s keep the faith in clean water, including by supporting the Clean Water Rule.

Deacon Sergei Kapral

Plains Township