I moved to Washington State in 1993 from my home in Southern California. I was a founding member of the Forest Preservation Society concerned with Land Management Planning on Forest Service lands. My involvement included researching environmental d...↓
I raised my family in a foothill community of the Angeles National Forest (now burning at a rapid rate) and organized restoration projects after fires. My family built and restored hiking trails and spent many weekends backpacking in those mountains with a Boy Scout Troop.
Once my six children graduated from high school, I moved into the mountains to run a campground for three years, where we took families on hikes and other outdoor activities, teaching the history and ecology of the area. After that, I was fortunate to live in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness on homesteaded land for three years.
These experiences gave me great insight to what global change really was. I saw changes on a day to day basis. I lived with nature close up. I saw the consequences of my presence there.
Upon moving to Seattle, I continued my interest with Land Management Planning, Washington history and the incredible Hanford project. I completed a Masters in Whole Systems Design centering around the relationships of my high school, its environment and community. I taught a student run Outdoor Education class, bringing students into different parts of Washington for outdoor experiences.
Whole Systems Design is basically a study of the consequences of our actions. Here are my reasons why this Methanol plant should not be built.
1. There is no such thing as mitigation with global change.
2. After last week's air quality from the fires along the West Coast (I thought it looked like nuclear winter), why would the state take the chance that any type of "accident" from this plant or the ships and trains that transport this stuff would not permanently damage the proposed location?
3. The extraction of so many gallons of water for production causes an imbalance in the ecology of the area.
4. The water in the river is not clean. Hanford has been leaking nuclear waste from the beginning. They did studies that showed this. Now, tanks are leaking and nuclear waste is brought up the river to be deposited in Hanford's landfill from Bremerton. They store medical nuclear waste. It will always be a Superfund site.
5. The EPA website shows 69 Superfund sites in the state of Washington. Do we need the potential for another?
6. The Chinese want this plant, but they are transferring many of their energy sources to wind and solar to divest themselves from the fossil fuels they must import. What guarantee is there that this plant and its cleanup won't be abandoned?
7. Why aren't the Chinese building this plant in China, bringing the fracked gas directly from Canada? My assumption is they do not want the environmental consequences on their land and water.
8. We have enough plastic that the Chinese propose to manufacture from this methanol. It is raining down on us – killing animals, including us, that ingest minute particles with our drinking water.
9. Our Governor ran to be the Climate Change Presidential Candidate. This is counter to his statements during the Primary. How in the world could he approve this project?
This Pandemic has given us the opportunity to stand back and really look at what we are doing to this planet. When we were all housebound, the air was cleaner, the noise pollution was down so that we could actually hear the birds, and my vegetable plants grew and produced more than I could possibly use.
At some point in time, the Department of Ecology and our state government, including its Governor, must do what we did in the Pandemic. We must stop. These projects add to the many forms of pollution that create Super Fund Sites. This is your opportunity to act in behalf of our environment and all living things.
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