Jill Peek writes:
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I have been attending the recent meetings on the Pall Life Sciences and DEQ proposals for 1.4 Dioxane clean-up in the Unit E aquifer. Because of the potential high impact on neighborhoods and questions of efficacy, a group of residents have written a position statement urging more aggressive clean-up at the plume source and high concentration areas up to and including Maple Village rather than neighborhoods inside the city. The DEQ is accepting public comments through tomorrow, August 16. If you would like to make a public comment which will be considered by the DEQ before their presentation to final court hearing in early September, please send your email to Sybil Kolon at the DEQ: kolons@michigan.gov.
If you would like to read more on this issue, please go to http://www.srsw.org
Thanks,
Jill Peek
---------------------------- Original Message
---------------------------- Subject: Protect Our Neighborhoods! Re: Pall
Dioxane Cleanup
From: "Jeffrey Hutsler"
Date: Thu, August 12, 2004 5:52 pm
To: protect@umich.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear neighbors,
Welcome to the inaugural email of PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS!
We are a group of local residents who intend to pursue an active and
aggressive agenda to inform the community, agencies and political leaders
of the position of our neighborhoods regarding PLS/Gelman dioxane
contamination and remediation, specifically the "leading edge".
We will work to build an extensive contact list and hold those
contacted accountable for their support (or lack thereof).
Plans for this activism include activity in a variety of areas. Our next
email will provide an "ACTION ALERT" base letter that can be used to
comment to MDEQ during the public comment period concluding this Monday,
August 16. As with all "ACTION ALERT" emails distributed, we will focus
on a coordinated response and provide extensive contact information for
groups, agencies, political leaders and media. PROTECT OUR
NEIGHBORHOODS! will work to personally connect with political leaders, as
has begun, and seek their involvement and support as well. A website is
underway.
We believe that our position statement addresses a common concern and
works in concert with many of the ideas and goals we have heard and
experienced within the community.
PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS! POSITION STATEMENT
PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS! is a group of local residents within the
neighborhoods that will be affected by the current clean-up plans. We are
a political activist group dedicated to the preservation and
protection of the health and welfare of our neighborhoods and families.
Our primary goal is to ensure that any remedial alternative instituted in
our neighborhoods is maximally safe, effective and beneficial to all
residents. We believe it is unreasonable and unacceptable to expect the
residential neighborhoods to bear the burden and risks for a problem that
has been allowed to proliferate over the course of several
decades. We currently oppose the MDEQ-proposed leading edge pipeline and
well network because:
1) Pumping a known carcinogen with potentially harmful reproductive
effects from deep underground to within a few feet of the surface within
a residential area is hazardous to the health and welfare of our
families.
2) We are not convinced that the integrity of the pipeline system that
would carry this carcinogen could be adequately guaranteed (i.e. leaks,
breakdowns, etc).
3) The scientific basis for "leading edge" remediation is questionable,
especially within a highly populated residential area.
4) Similar "leading edge" solutions already utilized in the Evergreen
neighborhood have been largely ineffective.
5) It does not make sense to extract dioxane within neighborhoods that
are distant from the original site of contamination when the core areas
and adjacent regions have not been successfully addressed.
6) We categorically oppose the loss of private property owners' rights as
part of any remedial alternative.
We will make every attempt to send emails containing specific
information when most necessary and useful. Obviously, contact will be
made more frequently within the next few weeks
Please consider forwarding this information to your family members,
friends and neighbors. One of our goals, as stated above, is to create
an extensive contact list as quickly as possible. Interested neighbors
simply need to email protect@umich.edu to be added to the mailing list.
We will provide an update on the success of this campaign to you within
the next few days.
Thank you for your support of our families and neighborhoods!
Jeff Hutsler
Chris O'Brien
Mike Romatowski
PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS! is not associated with Pall Life Sciences,
Inc, The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality or any other agency
or group.
protect@umich.edu is a moderated list. All emails sent to the
protect@umich.edu address are reviewed prior to being forwarded to the
individual members. We greatly appreciate your involvement, but one may
unsubscribe by simply sending an email to protect@umich.edu with
"unsubscribe" in the subject line.
