MDNS: MITIGATED OR MANIPULATED?

IS OUR HEALTH NOT SIGNIFICANT?

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Katherine Price Mason County Progressive

Shortly, as early as tomorrow, those who have requested to be kept informed by the City of Shelton will receive an email from the City in connection with the proposed Simpson/Solomon second biomass incinerator proposed for the Shelton Harbor. The email will have links to the documents the City has prepared. The acronym for those documents is MDNS, which stands for "Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance."

At first blush, this makes my head spin, as in "Determination of Non-Significance". However, I am not sure what the "mitigated" part means and, of course, I have not seen the documents yet.

Webster's defines mitigate as: "to cause to become less harsh or hostile; to make less severe or painful." Therefore, perhaps we ought to take hope that the "mitigated" part of the determination of non-significance may be pleasing to the air-breathers...and then again, on this very blog I have seen pigs fly.

So, while I am a "Pollyanna" at heart, I am still suspicious.

The City is having a meeting on Monday, the 28th, at 6:00 p.m. It is a study session and I don't imagine that Simpson/Solomon is on the Agenda. However, once we have digested the MDNS, we may wish to attend that hearing to (a) thank the City for the mitigation, if that is indeed going to make the new incinerator "less hostile or painful"; or (b) to share our thoughts with the City as soon as possible after having an opportunity to review the MDNS.

Having just cleared my dining room table of piles of paper in connection with ADAGE, I suppose it is is only fitting that now I can cover it again with the MDNS documents.

Our work continues, air-breathers, sharpen your pencils and get your highlighters out...again.