Tim Foulkes sent some beautiful shots of his hike around Simpson Hill this weekend. I always enjoy Tim's photos and I hesitated to bring this up, but, as many of us express our concerns about pollution from LNG and quarry operations, we rarely seem to be able to focus on a real killer, air pollution.Do you see the plume behind Mary? That's from the Woodland mill. Did you know that EPA data for the last available year for this mill, combined with EC data for the St. Stephen flakeboard plant, showed these two local operations were emitting about a ton of toxic chemicals a day into our air, on the average, and this did not include releases to water.
Did you know that the mill has been characterized as among the "top 10% dirtiest" mill operations in the United States. Yet we express little or no concern about this serious long-term pollution in our midst. I believe that it may have impacted stream productivity, fish reproduction, near-shore marine fisheries, and possibly even human health in those areas where the plume most commonly falls, the Maine shore of Passamaquoddy Bay and the islands.
In case you're not sure that this is the mill in the photo, the following map provides an interesting line of sight. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=45.197038,-67.251434&spn=0.256928,0.482712&t=h&z=11
Want to know more? Get in touch and we will link you to the studies including the chemicals of concern which include 4 carcinogens and a crucible of other chemicals that are implicated in a plethora of human diseases. Or you can go to this link and check it out for yourself.
http://scorecard.org/
Quoddy citizens really need to take notice of the existing as well as potential threats that threaten our eco-economy and health.
That's my opinion tonight.
Art
Thanks to Tim and Mary.
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