So, it's been made clear yet again that it is perfectly legal to hit and kill pedestrians with your car in Port Angeles. The "Our Town" clowns will doubtlessly be happy about this news.
Meanwhile, for those holding out hope for the (former!) Nippon mill, where a buyer has been announced...Just remember how good Port Angeles is at screwing things up. In other words, don't start counting your new chickens quite yet.
But do be careful crossing the street.
The mill will be shuttered for at least six months to a year. Cleaner air in Port Angeles during that interval! Less disturbing noise! Fewer chip trucks rumbling through downtown! No ugly "steam" spewing from the mill's smokestacks! Twenty million gallons of water a day staying in the Elwha River instead of being sent to the mill through the industrial water line!
ReplyDeleteThe mill's closure is a blow to its workers and their families. But for the shut-down period, at least, think about the quality of life and environmental improvements to everyone.
The Co-Gen plant will keep going during that time, so..
DeleteHow COLD.
DeleteHope you cosy up, and are warm and happy tonight.
Hey, Anonymous 6:12 PM...
DeleteNow, the OP can chime in and defend themselves if they want, but allow me to do so as well.
It's really, really simple: A few jobs are less important than clean air and water for EVERYONE. A few jobs are less important than a political system that is open, honest, responsive and works for EVERYONE. The mill has been a source of actual, harmful pollution, as well as a corrupting influence on local politics FOR DECADES. That harms EVERYONE, while providing jobs for just a FEW.
It is not cold to say this. These are just the facts. No one is wishing the former Nippon workers ill. And, furthermore, it is not wishing them ill to wish for clear air, clean water, and clean local politics.
I hope this is somewhat clarifying for you.
How about the hit to the City's budget, with the operations shut down for 6 months or longer? Is that an issue?
DeleteYes, it's a major issue for the City - one involving a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, you know what? THEY SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING.
DeleteAND BUDGETED ACCORDINGLY.
Duh.
This city think ahead?
DeleteDidn't we just see an excellent example of how well they think ahead, with the unanimous vote to reject any conservation efforts for the halibut?
Why look up from the trough those morons are so happily feeding from? Why look into the issues, and "think ahead"?
With the fish issue as an example, not one of the local leaders bothered to look beyond the hillbilly pleas to just keep fishing. Only a couple weeks earlier, the US Secretary of Commerce declares a fisheries emergency for the west coast, from California to Alaska. THAT was not enough of a warning flag to look a little closer? Oh no, not for Clallam County and it's morons.
But, had they looked a little further, they would have gained even more appreciation for the seriousness of the situation THEY THEMSELVES claim to be concerned about: the future of fishing as an industry for their constituents.
A quick Google search finds the salmon fisheries in Japan are also in trouble, with headlines like "Japans Salmon Fisheries in Historic Collapse".
And, on the other side of the continent? "Shrinking wild Salmon Starve at Sea as North Atlantic warms".
See a bigger picture pattern?
A need to "think ahead"?
Hey, good luck finding drug-free workers to make your cardboard boxes.
ReplyDeleteWhether the boiler is operating or not does not make a blip on the air pollution sensors at the Fifth Street monitoring location.
ReplyDeleteIsn't is just AMAZING how we can load tons of wood into big trucks, transport it all for miles, burn it at huge volumes, and there is NO pollution generated.
DeleteIt is just like MAGIC.
And, a we see, the earth is in BETTER condition now, than before the industrial revolution. More animals running all over the place, more birds flying in the skies and chirping in the trees. And SO many MORE fish in the sea.
Human activities are not only harmless, not even a "blip on the sensors", it is like MAGIC!
I didn't say no pollution, you did. The pollutants from Nippon relative to pollutants from open burning and woodstoves do not make a dent upon the health-based standards set by law.
DeleteI KNOW! Relative to Chernobyl, Fukushima is but a "blip on the sensors".
DeleteIt is all just fine, fine, fine.
That's a very dramatic analogy but unrelated. Right now the air pollution index is 12 in PA. Please locate somewhere cleaner.
DeleteSo somebody on this thread is insisting that the alleged reading from one air pollution monitor this morning proves that the Nippon Mill has never polluted the air in Port Angeles? Unbelievable.
DeleteDoes the one air monitor measure ultra fine pollution? Does it measure the constant rotten-egg stink emanating from the mill? Is it the sole source for proving that the air around the monitoring station is "clean"?
Anybody with a nose and asthmatic tendencies knows that the Nippon Mill's emissions harmed the air quality and the organisms exposed to it.
Ummmmm..... and hasn't the mill been basically shut down since late January?
And, if the "co-generation plant" is still operating, then that's a misnomer. If the plant is just burning wood in order to generate electricity, then there is no "co" there anymore. Call the environmental permit police!
The "constant" rotten egg smell could only be attributable to anaerobic conditions in the clarifiers. So no pulping sludge for papermaking, no odor. Check the index over the long term, not just a snapshot basis, and you will be pressed to find cleaner air elsewhere. PM2.5 is the national standard for fine particulate measured on Fifth Street.
DeleteDon't fall for this scam about a new industry coming in in a few months and saving us from ourselves. This is a ploy to gain the water rights and maybe even the 90 million dollar co gen plant. There will be no jobs coming out of this. You read it first here. SCAM ALERT Notice to city council don't sign any new long-term agreements related to water. It will not bring jobs. Maybe allow a year to year contract for water but any long term agreement is an invitation for the city to get ripped off AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteYep. Cue Lucy and that damned football, Charlie Brown...I mean, Mayor Downie.
DeleteWow, County prosecutor Mark Nickles is chicken-shit. He is afraid to go up against karen unger at a trial. he prosecutes someone for maybe suggesting he might harm a couple of lesbians but for actually running over and killing someone-free pass.
ReplyDelete