TELL SIMPSON TO CLEAN UP ITS ACT!

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER

Submitted to Shelton Blog by John Cox Mason County Progressive

On Tuesday, September 27th, at 5:00 PM at the Shelton Civic Center, ORCAA (Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency) will be conducting a public hearing for Simpson Lumber's air pollution permit five year renewal.

I don't expect Simpson will have any problems getting the OK to continue with what they have been doing in downtown Shelton for decades. They will continue to pollute the air, water, ground and the ethers as they have been doing for decades. They will continue to provide some jobs to placate the rabble, and continue to furiously convert green trees into cash to fill their pockets. All this is nothing new.

Not to mention that the ORCAA/EPA permitting process is a joke. A very serious joke. A lot of very talented and dedicated people are working for an organization that has been so compromised by politics that is it is just a rubber stamp for industry. If you are big enough and/or can provide enough cash, you get to do whatever you want in this country, as long as you can make it look "good".

You can have a smokestack belching tremendous amounts of toxic, people killing pollution, but if ORCAA says OK? Well it must be OK. Right?

The County Commissioners think so. The Port of Shelton Commissioners think so (except for Jack Miles). The City of Shelton officials think so. The Chamber of Commerce and all rest of the money changers think so.

And I wonder how many of all the folks I've just mentioned live near the downtown Simpson facility? How many of them can't escape the toxic stinking air downtown when Simpson's incinerator is spewing its load into the air? No problem, right? ORCAA says all is well.

Well no, it's not alright. It's not OK.

I tend to see our environment, the Earth, as a temple and it is being desecrated. It is being stripped and sold by those that serve the darker sides of our nature: selfishness and greed, and they have a lot of power.

So why bother going to the Simpson air permit hearing? How can we fight such power?

I know it's a bit cliche, but here it is: we must speak truth to power...again and again and AGAIN. Absolutely nothing happens unless we citizens make our voices heard.

A number of years ago, my co-conspirator (and spouse) and I lived for some time in a thatched hut in a rural part of South India. The mosquitoes there were many and mean. As they were tiny, it was no big deal when just one would occasionally buzz your ear during the day (when not many were out and about) -- you could just easily swat it away. But at night, it was a much different story. There were so many of them out for our blood that they would actually form a black pulsating cloud on the mosquito net, and the sound of their wings was an all pervasive buzzing. The mosquitoes were in control.

As individuals, we may not be able to overcome the forces of greed, but if we take a tip from the mosquitoes...

See you at the hearing! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

SIMPSON AOP RENEWAL
ORCAA PUBLIC HEARING

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

at

5:00 PM

at

Shelton Civic Center
525 West Cota Street
Shelton, WA 98584

COMMENTS ACCEPTED UP TO CLOSE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Link to Simpson permit documents on ORCAA website:
http://www.orcaa.org/public-involvement/draft-air-operating-permits/#simpson

Link to previous related post "A Call to Action": http://masoncountyprogressive.blogspot.com/2011/08/call-to-action.html