Well, here’s a sentence I never thought I would write: Dr. Gott blew it.

Dr. Peter Gott is a retired internist who graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine and spent decades in practice. He writes a medical advice column that appears in newspapers around the country, including the Register. The outfit he works for reports that he received 6,000 letters from readers each month.

This week, the good doctor raised the dander of several local readers with the following statement: “Outdated medications can be discarded easily by flushing them down the toilet.”

Maybe that’s so where you operate, doc, in Wickliffe, Ohio, but not in Coombsville. In fact, concern about prescription drug traces tainting water supplies is part of a debate about bringing reclaimed water to Coombsville, the lovely rolling countryside in the shadow of Mount George.

The battle for Coombsville isn’t really about what are known as PPCPs, Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products as Pollutants. You’ll be shocked, shocked to know the debate is actually about money and politics.

Napa County officials have proposed installing a reclaimed water pipeline for irrigation and landscaping from Napa State Hospital to Coombsville, where groundwater tables are not holding up so well. They have further proposed that property owners in the area, known for these purposes as the Milliken-Sarco-Tulocay watershed, pay for the pipeline. The smaller property owners have not cottoned to this idea, suggesting that the county, which has approved many thirsty new vineyards in the area, as well as the big land owners, foot the bill.

Some have questioned the safety of this water, citing concerns about PPCPs.

Trace amounts of PPCPs such as prescription and over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics and lotions are found in most municipal and other water supplies in the United States. Scientists suspect these traces have an adverse effect on living things. Not humans, or at least the research doesn’t support that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But fish, in particular, are vulnerable.

So what does the federal government suggest?

A 2007 edict from the Office of National Drug Control Policy makes a few recommendations, including opting not to flush disused drugs unless specifically suggested on the bottle. The agency suggests mixing medications with “an undesirable substance, such as coffee grounds or kitty litter,” and then placing them in sealable cans or bags. It also touts pharmaceutical waste pick-up programs available in some areas.

The policy lists 13 flushable drugs (out of thousands of products believed to be part of the problem), several of which have names that sound like they come from a science fiction novel: Zerit, Daytrana, Xyrem.

So it would appear the ultra-reliable Dr. Gott, representing perhaps the one feature in the Register for which I have never previously received a complaint, has made a mistake — just like the doomed superhero Daytrana when she battled the fearsome Xyrem and his army for control of the Zerit galaxy.

I hope things don’t get that bad in Coombsville.