And so it goes…
“The state Department of Ecology also was pleased.”
No doubt. To be clear, there is no real monitoring of the plume that engulfs Port Townsend on any given day. We have no idea where the current toxic chemicals are falling. Think I’m crazy?
Here’s the official list of the toxins coming out of the mill.
http://iaspub.epa.gov/enviro/tris_control.tris_print?tris_id=98368PRTTW100PA
To sum it up so you don’t have to jump links, into the air around here they are dumping 3200 pounds of lead, 20000 pounds of Hydrocloric Acid, 17000 pounds of Formaldehyde, 76000 pounds of Ammonia, 29000 pounds of Acetaldehyde, 11000 pounds of Acetaldehyde, and 380000 (right 380 hundred thousand) pounds of various Methanol, among other compounds a year. Now they want to change the mix, but don’t want to go through the process of producing an Environmental Impact Statement.
All this ‘looking the other way’ under a democratic regime in the state, and locally. Lord knows how much worse it would be with Republicans in command…
It’s really a scandal and people wonder why voter turnout is low. Third party anyone?
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee has affirmed a decision by the state Department of Ecology that the Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s $55 million biomass energy project doesn’t need an environmental impact statement.
http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=31181&SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound |
How about the Justice Party challenge? I am up for a change.
In Mason County we are studying ways around the regulatory agencies, who really only regulate HOW MUCH HARM the citizens can be subjected to.
I thought the superior court judges in Thurston County were better than this though… a really bad, sad decision for the folks in PT.
It’s more than just democratic or republican legislators Alf.
We need to change the Commerce Act of the United States Constitution, which allows any manner of bad behavior, also more than 100 years of supreme court decisions that favor the corporation, up to today, where the corporation has more rights than the citizen. We need to overturn layer upon layer of supreme court decisions that support industry’s right to pollute over the citizens right to live.
It’s a long, slow battle, and requires waking up those who still believe anyone – EPA, Ecology, ORCAA, etc. – exist to protect the citizen. They are permitting agencies for polluters, and they determine how much harm the polluting industries can do locally, and then the superior court judges bless their bad for human life decisions….
I think that it’s time for a Green Party challenge to the Democrats here locally. Isn’t anyone willing to change the status quo?