I am so glad the local papers published the dire facts about Minnesota’s Fibrowatt incinerator (Fibrominn) and let the public know it has been cited by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for a number of violations and fined $65,000. In addition, Fibrominn has agreed to install a sulfur dioxide monitor to the tune of $80,000. Great! Now they can monitor the levels of sulfur dioxide they are putting into everyone’s lungs. Fibrowatt officials have admitted there were problems but claimed the problems were a “little more than paperwork errors.” To me, it sounds like they just didn’t get a chance to “cook the books.” If it’s just paperwork errors, why do they miss emission testing dates by months, fail performance tests, and experience excess nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide emissions?
It’s been said that groups who oppose the plant remained silent during much of the planning stages and then suddenly came out of the woodwork. First of all, much of the planning and deals have been made behind close doors and when things were discussed in open session, the company was not named, therefore, not allowing for public discussion. I travel CC Camp Road and was amazed to see water lines to the incinerator site have already been put in! Fibrowatt hasn’t even reached an agreement with the local power companies nor started to applying for permits. How can the commissioners spend money to lay water lines before any of this other stuff happened? Also, The Mount Airy News headlined an article on March 9, 2009 that read “Crowd says ‘NO’ to Fibrowatt plant.” The Board of Commissioners would have heard a lot more opposition if the general public were given more of a chance to express their views.
Commissioner Craig Hunter is quoted as saying that “none of these groups (CACHE and BREDL) or their supporters have any credibility with me or the BOC.” That their agendas will fall on “deaf ear.” And when I sent an email to Paul Johnson reminding him we don’t live in a dictatorship and he and the other commissioners needed to listen to their constituents, he wrote back “Your comment about a Dictatorship is absolutely correct. I am so glad that out Founding Fathers set a system up to where the Majority rules and not the Minority. Thanks to them groups like yours cannot overrule the Logical Majority.” So, these five guys are the “Logical Majority?” Whatever that means.
Chairmen Craig Hunter talked about his trip to Benson, Minnosota. He said, “they flew in, rented a van and stopped in town to get a perspective in town. We couldn’t see steam or smoke from downtown. As we got closer, we could see the facility in the distance, we would stop every mile or half mile. We are down wind, so we though if there was a smell, we would be able to smell it.......we got out in the parking lot — smelling, looking and listening. Once we got into the facility, two or three things stuck out in my mind, there was no odor.” Mr. Hunter should know the poison that comes out of the smokestack, the stuff that is going to harm you is colorless and odorless. I would suggest to Mr. Hunter, that instead of basing his opinion on a quick trip in and out of Benson, he reread the letter from Darlene Martinson Ross who lives in Benson and said she hoped the people of Elkin would’t make the same mistake the people of Benson did.
Joan Vasata
Elkin
Post a Comment
