Miles Stands With Citizens of Mason County

Port Commissioner Jack Miles at Thurston County Moratorium Hearing

CLEAN AIR IS AN ABSOLUTE HUMAN RIGHT

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Katherine Price Mason County Progressive

The Journal's reporting in "Miles' harassment claim dismissed" (2-10-11) and the Journal's "Clarification" (2-17-11) are articles more representative of the FAUX News style of journalism than I had been expecting. Both the initial article, and the so-called "Clarification", were written to put Jack Miles in a bad light. I would like to put Jack Miles in a slightly better light here.

As a Port Commissioner, Jack Miles was uniquely qualified to form an early opinion in connection with the proposed Adage project. His familiarity with the Port's property on Johns Prairie, and the mix of businesses, residences and the MCRA fields gave him reason to question the "fit" of this industry for this area. The environmental degradation a plant this vast above Oakland Bay could cause propelled him to inform himself about the pros and cons of the facility.

After reviewing the papers written by the American Lung and Heart Associations, Jack concluded that the science did not support placing a plant capable of producing such volumes of pollutants on Johns Prairie.

Jack Also knew that the increased truck traffic to feed the Adage plant would add another layer of air pollution. Jack was concerned about the increased volume of truck traffic that would be passing by the schools, the hospital and the senior living facilities. He saw a nightmare for traffic, with the diesel trucks idling at the stop light by Walmart, backing traffic onto Highway 101, idling at the four way stop, competing for the road with our often impatient teenage drivers travelling to and from school. Jack saw this as a recipe for disaster.

In fact, the more he looked at it, the more Jack believed this project was a poor fit for our community, and he had the audacity to speak openly about his concerns.

Jack Miles is going to receive bad press in Mason County from now until the good old boys club is no longer in charge, because he stands with the citizens of Shelton and Mason County against the people who believe they own Mason County. Folks like:

• The members of the Mason County Timber Barons, some of whose fine families are represented by some of our elected officials.
• The EDC, who is congratulating itself for the 24 permanent jobs Adage might bring.
• The Chamber Pot, who are all gung-ho to "burn-baby-burn."
• Citizens for a Prosperous Mason County and their fearless leader, Dick Taylor, who all want to sell our air quality for those 24 promised jobs.

Jack stands with the ordinary citizens of Mason County:

• The citizen groups who have been informing our citizens for ten months about the dangers of burning wood for energy, and who believe that clean air is an absolute human right.
• The doctors, nurses, and scientists, those pesky "fact-based" people, who know that Adage and the other biomass incinerators, proposed and existing, are an assault on the health of every citizen exposed to their pollution.
• The children and the grandparents of Mason County.

In fact, Jack believes the children of Mason County should be able to play ball at MCRA without damaging their young lungs, and he believes that we grandmothers should be able to sit and watch our grandchildren play ball at MCRA without damaging our old lungs.

We should not expect to see the Journal report anything positive about Jack Miles in their coverage of the upcoming election for Port of Shelton Commissioner. The Journal, like the rest of Mason County, still belongs to the good old boys.

We newcomers (my family has only been in Mason County since 1940), are going to have to seek elsewhere for accurate information in the coming months.

Keep it light.

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

LINK to letter of clarification to the Journal written by Jack Miles' attorney:
http://myweb.hcc.net/pkands/docs/AttorneyLetter.pdf