Hello readers - my name is John Q. Public, and as a concerned citizen of this community, I feel the urgent need to share with you what is now unfolding in our town. Please share this message as widely as you can.
I have been a resident here for the past 14 years, choosing this quiet and peaceful and beautiful place to live as an ideal location to raise my family, and enjoy the great outdoors, all the while knowing that this is really one of the best places in the world to live.
However, I am now horrified to learn that there are community leaders and politicians, elected officials who have been conspiring behind our backs to turn this pristine area into a toxic waste dump. Their justifications for doing this have stunned and startled me deeply, and I have been going through all 5 stages of grief as I try to cope with this horrible news.
I am shocked, saddened, angered and agitated beyond words. Depression and despair have also happened, but I realized that I could not stay silent, I could not allow any of this to happen.
At stake is my own family - and your family, and an entire community of families in Washington and Idaho, who are now being placed at risk by short-sighted, ill-advised and illogical politicians and community leaders bereft of reason and common sense, who have actively conspired behind the backs of every citizen in this area to bring about this toxic silicon smelter project to our town. You can find the evidence yourselves, it is all published online for all to see.
These same people have weakly assured us that they are going to follow safe practices and procedures during the operation of the silicon plant, but these empty promises do not explain the gigantic twin smokestacks that will be built, towering over the town of Newport!
What could they possibly be for? Are they there for our enjoyment and pleasure? Or do they serve some other nefarious purposes of which we have not been fully informed?
The published literature on silicon smelter emissions will reveal the horrible truth - the gigantic smokestacks are used to disperse the emissions, gasses and dust created by the metallurgical smelting operation.
Because they are to be sited immediately over the town of Newport, this means that they will be dumping the toxins directly into the environment over the town, which will in turn be spread throughout the region and every other nearby town by wind, rain, and snow.
During our frequent inversion episodes where the air quality greatly diminishes, and when there are forest fires in our area, we can expect extremely hazardous air conditions unfit for human and plant health. The air will also stink from the sulfur dioxide emissions while invisibly spreading tiny particulate matter poison throughout the region.
These are the “benefits” of silicon smelting that they have completely refused to talk about. So far, they have simply insisted that the economic benefits alone will outweigh any issues that may arise.
What benefits? The smelter will locally employ no more then 40 or fewer actual positions, with the rest going to skilled and trained outsiders coming into the area. The total number of positions is expected to be 125 - 150 employed persons, but you must weigh this all out in exchange for the declining health and disease caused over a town of at least 5000 people in the immediate vicinity - including the elderly, young children and babies and pregnant woman who will also be exposed to these toxins - 24/7, because the smelter will be running 3 shifts, day and night, non-stop.
Is it even remotely reasonable, or even economically balanced, to trade the lives, health, happiness and enjoyment of thousands of resident for a handful of promised jobs? The very notion is absurd, it is completely beyond all reason and sound thinking. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and yet, Washington leaders at the State and County level continue to press ahead, despite our extreme concerns, totally ignoring our voices.
We will be living under this cloud of emissions for every day of our lives here. Many of these emissions are invisible to the human eye, undetectable except for their taste and smell, yet they are still there, exercising their deadly poison on our health, shortening our lives and promising many of us a slow, agonizing death later in life.
Our esteemed leaders have had virtually no explanations to offer the residents of this community what health risks, long term exposure and levels of disease we might expect from the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide exposure. These gasses will be put directly into the air over our town, over our schools, over our businesses, over our homes and will easily find its way into the lungs, eyes, ears and throats of every citizen in the area.
It is also quite clear to those who have bothered to research this as we have, that they have no idea whatsoever what microsilica dust actually IS, or the clear danger it poses to human health, plants, trees, fish and wildlife.
This is the dust that will be emitted by the silicon plant, affecting workers and employees, their clothes, their families and their children. It is the same dust that will be emitted by the tons into the atmosphere and throughout the region, you will find this dangerous dust in your eyes, ears, nose, throat and lungs where it will bury itself there for a entire lifetime - or whatever is now left of it. It cannot be removed. It cannot be cured. You are now literally infected - for life.
This is the dust that causes silicosis, a deadly, totally incurable disease that will leave you dying a slow, miserable, gasping death. There are other diseases of immense concern too, caused by this dust and gasses being emitted, these include cancer, and Chronic Pulmonary Disease.
Smelters are dangerous. To workers, to managers, to truck drivers, to neighborhoods and to towns. They affect wildlife, fish, air quality, water quality and forests. We can expect more tree mortality, more forest fires, acidification of our waterways and lakes, all thanks to this monstrosity coming to town, and all thanks to our local and State government leaders who brought this terror upon us without or permission, without our consent. It’s a real Halloween Horror Show.
I spoke with State Senator Shelly Short yesterday and she actually believes that she is doing our community a favor by bringing what she called "manufacturing jobs" to our area. She thinks our kids should be thrilled at the thought of graduating from high school and getting a job at the smelter. I bet she wants a better future for HER kids.
ReplyDeleteThis is a one-issue election - vote Karen Hardy for Senate. She has publicly opposed the silicon smelter.
ReplyDeleteSenator Short (incumbent) is brain dead. Washington State officials are seeking to dramatically increase commercial tax revenues; increase competition within the silicon industry; and greenwash it all down our throats as being "good for us".
Not a single Washington State elected official has even bothered to share the human health and environmental concerns related to silicon processing with the public (their voters).
Washington State has in fact, betrayed its core principles and values over this critically important issue. They need our reminder that they work for us, and not against us.