Wednesday, December 28, 2011

SIMPSON DATA SAGA UPDATE

THE QUEST CONTINUES

Submitted to Shelton Blog by John Cox & Christine Armond

Mason County Progressive
Email sent to Linda Matthews, Simpson Lumber Environmental Coordinator:


FROM:
John Cox and Christine Armond
TO: "Linda Matthews" LMatthe@simpson.com
CC: "David McEntee" dmcente@simpson.com, "Tony Enslow" tenslow@simpson.com, "Mark Goodin" mark.goodin@orcaa.org
DATE: December 14, 2011
SUBJECT: ORCAA SHELTON AIR MONITOR DATA REQUEST

Dear Ms. Matthews,


RE: Simpson Lumber's Shelton incinerator output vs. ORCAA's monitor readings

We noticed that Mark Goodin cc'd you his response to our email regarding ORCAA's air monitor and Simpson's Shelton incinerator. From that, we take it that you are the "go to" person at Simpson for this issue.

From Mark Goodin's response, our opinion, and the opinion of other community members, the chart that Tony Enslow, Simpson's Project Engineer, provided cannot be used to support valid conclusions about the efficacy of ORCAA's PM 2.5 monitor, and it's ability to measure the impact of the Simpson Shelton Incinerator's PM 2.5 emissions.

After seeing the chart, we requested more data from Mr. Enslow, and he replied that it was not available. We are again requesting that Simpson Lumber Company provide us with more data.

Specifically, we request the boiler output data for the period of 4/17/11 to the current date, in hourly increments (or smaller increments if available).

We need these data in order to attempt to come to a valid conclusion regarding the efficacy of the air monitor, and hope Simpson Lumber will cooperate with this citizen effort.

Thank you for your time.

John Cox
Christine Armond
Shelton, WA

____________________________

To date, there has been no response from Linda Matthews. However, we did receive the following message on our answering machine on 12/19/11 from Dave McEntee, Simpson, V.P., who we had cc'd a copy of our email to Ms. Matthews:

John and Christine:

This is Dave McEntee.

I got an email forwarded to me from Linda Matthews, requesting data from Simpson,

I just want to tell a little bit about that. You know, the analysis Simpson did with respect to the downtown monitoring station was a one time, early look at the station results at our boiler operation.

We went to auto response with respect to the topic, and we understand the view and we accept the view of ORCAA's that the data are not conclusive, or doesn't necessarily represent a scientific correlation.

So, end of the day, we're not continuing this analysis, and with respect to your request, do not plan on any additional efforts in this regard, so I think we're respecting ORCAA's view that they'll provide that kind of analysis.

Thanks for your interest, however.

If Simpson does take on any additional work in this regard or in any related matter, we certainly plan on sharing it.

Thanks and have a good holiday.

____________________________

OUR RESPONSE TO DAVE MCENTEE:


FROM: John Cox and Christine Armond
TO: "Dave McEntee" dmcente@simpson.com
CC: "Linda Matthews" LMatthe@simpson.com, "Mark Goodin" mark.goodin@orcaa.org
DATE: December 28. 2011
SUBJECT: SIMPSON SHELTON BOILER OUTPUT DATA REQUEST

Dear Mr. McEntee,

RE: Simpson Shelton boiler output data request

Thank you for leaving a response on our answering machine to our email to Linda Matthews.

To further clarify: we are not requesting additional Simpson analysis of data, but the raw boiler output data for the period of 4/17/11 to the current date, in at least hourly increments (the same data sent to ORCAA).

We understand that these data are sent to ORCAA semiannually, and therefore become public information. We had hoped that Simpson would cooperate with this citizen effort to ensure that the ORCAA air monitor is doing its job correctly.

As you are aware, many important decisions are based on the monitor's performance, and it would be good to know that these decisions are, in fact, valid. At this point, we have doubts. You may not have any doubts; ORCAA may not have any doubts; we, however, do.

We hope Simpson Lumber will significantly speed up the inquiry process by assisting us with this request of community interest.

Thank you.

John Cox
Christine Armond
Shelton, WA

STAY TUNED...

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:


Link to previous related post "SIMPSON DATA QUESTIONED":
http://masoncountyprogressive.blogspot.com/2011/12/simpson-data-questioned.html

2 comments:

  1. Way to go, guys- keep asking those "hard" questions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you both for holding their feet to the fire... it may be that we have to ask ORCAA to move the monitor... but where? Would the Port of Shelton Marina be a better location; one that might give us more accurate information?? I was really hopeful that the new public safety building would be an excellent location, given that the prior location was at the hospital.

    Thank goodness for the rain; if Simpson is burning it's bringing the particulate matter down to the ground (and into the harbor).

    Thanks for keeping us posted with the Simpson double-speak emails and phone messages!

    ReplyDelete