Connie Simpson, RN speaking at 9/27/11 ORCAA/Simpson HearingIS SNIFFING FOR POLLUTION SCIENTIFIC?
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Connie Simpson Mason County ProgressiveTO: ORCAA
RE: Simpson Shelton Waterfront Air Operating Permit (AOP) Renewal
I have questions:
Does ORCAA measure PM smaller than 2.5 (the most dangerous size for human lungs), or PM 2.5 and greater?
What, exactly, does the air monitor in downtown Shelton monitor?
I’ve been told that if citizens call with complaints about emissions and/or bad smells ostensibly coming from the Simpson/Olympic Panel site, ORCAA sends a person to smell the air. Is sniffing for pollution a scientific way to assess air pollution?
Simpson Lumber Co. has been disingenuous, if not duplicitous, with this community. In the past they have announced that their current mill would only be in use a few days a year during times the proposed Solomon facility might be shut down.
They also told the public that when the new facility was built, both plants would have BACT filtering systems, which would upgrade the filtering technology at the "old" current facility. Materials and presentations by Simpson reps I’ve seen since, tell us those promises are no longer viable.
I believe ORCAA should be extremely careful with a company whose word is ever changing — making their estimates and expectations of pollutants released over Hood Canal, Mason County and Shelton specifically, not very reliable.
As a long time resident, a nurse and a grandmother to children living near Simpson, I depend on my governmental agencies to act on behalf of the public, not the industry. Air pollution, as you well know, kills. And, it kills the weakest and most vulnerable first, but, make no mistake, any amount of air pollution you inhale in the course of your day has a cumulative, negative affect on your health.
I know ORCAA does not deal with contamination of soil or water, and yet, the sediment near the Simpson Mill, adjacent to Hood Canal waters, has a poisonously high level of dioxins. Dioxins which have fallen from the sky.
I disagree with Simpson’s PR person:
Eating shellfish from Oakland Bay IS a hazard to health, and there is a state report I read which said (I paraphrase) that it would take eating shellfish daily for more than 30 days to harm a person. Personally, I wouldn’t eat anything from that area on the chance that the current data is just not accurate and it takes a lot less dioxin than mentioned to harm a person’s health.
Do not allow any industry to endanger our local, state or planetary environment.
Sincerely,
Connie Simpson, RN
Shelton, WA
Photo by Christine
These are wonderful questions and comments, and I fear they fell on deaf ears at the public hearing.
ReplyDeleteEdmund Burke said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
I consider it evil to poison the citizens of rural towns and communities because they do not have the means ($$$) to protect themselves from corporate polluters.
At the ORCAA hearing, good men and women of Shelton spoke eloquently and articulately in DEFENSE of the right of the people to breathe deeply in our community.
There was a single speaker who appeared and spoke in SUPPORT of the continued polluting of our air and water; and he was a paid spokesman for the very company seeking to extend it's air polluting permit, who is not a resident of Shelton or Mason County.
Notwithstanding the written and oral comments and questions submitted to ORCAA, I expect two things to occur: First, ORCAA will ignore the citizens' concerns and questions presented at the September hearing, as they have ignored questions and comments since January 31, 2011, in connection with Adage; and, second, ORCAA will issue a five-year air polluting permit to Simpson Timber Co.
Shame on ORCAA, who continues to make a mockery of their mission and vision statements by their support of polluting industry! Shame on them.