The
Forum:
The risk
is acceptable: America needs companies who are in the LPG business
To the Editor on July 17:
Over the past few weeks, I've tried to read up and familiarize
myself with the LPG Gas Storage issue going on in Watkins Glen. I no
longer live in the area, but I am not ruling out the possibility of
returning one day and again making it my home. As such, I thought it
would be wise to read up on the local issues, specifically those pertaining
to the environment and impacting our beautiful lake and surrounding
waterfalls and gorges.
I read about a lot of protests against the LPG facility. I see that
there are concerns over the safety of the water supply as it relates
to the storage. I see that there are concerns about the semi-truck traffic
that will coincide with the facility. I've also read about concerns
in regard to pipelines that will be used in the project.
I'm happy to see so many people in my hometown concerned with environmental
safety. It is something we should all be cognizant of while we walk
this earth. You only get one life and one planet. I am, however, curious
as to why all of a sudden there is this newfound concern for environmental
safety now that an LPG facility is on the horizon.
The economic lifeblood of Watkins Glen are the paychecks given out
to the hundreds of workers employed by the two salt plants on the lake.
Those paychecks are earned by men who work often back-breaking, dirty
jobs. These dirty jobs come at a cost. That cost is and always has been
pollution. Both plants must follow EPA standards, but even those standards
cannot and have not eliminated the intentional and incidental polluting
of Seneca Lake. It's something we know is there, but we have decided
to look past as a sort of trade-off. Those plants provide valuable jobs,
and the value of those jobs far exceeds the amount of pollution they
cause.
Along with the water pollution comes the air and noise pollution of
the trucks that haul salt and other chemicals used in the salt mining
process in and out of town. This has been going on for decades, around
the clock, 365 days a year. There is always the risk of accidents with
trucks, whether it be spills or mechanical failures like the one that
happened when I was a kid that killed the woman backing out of her driveway
where the Pizza Hut now sits. You can't avoid risks. We accept them,
because they are necessary for the greater good.
We've always accepted the risks that come with pipelines. They are
a part of the local landscape and have been for years -- long before
my siblings and I would use them as sled paths in the winter on places
like Meads Hill Road near the racetrack.
We've always accepted the risks that come with the booming wine industry
in the Finger Lakes region. The same trucks that haul salt and salt
mining chemicals around the northeast are hauling wine and wine making
products to and from the area. Some of those wine making products include
dangerous pesticides necessary for mass grape-growing in order to sustain
the wine making business. The use of these pesticides is widespread,
but we look past it because it is a necessary risk. A quick Google search
yielded only one winery on the southern half of Seneca Lake that is
certified organic and does not use these pesticides. The rest use some
form or another.
One of the risks associated with pesticide use is runoff that pollutes
our streams and other water sources high up on the hills above Seneca
Lake. The wine industry does their best to minimize the runoff and stay
as environmentally friendly as they can. Like the salt plants, however,
there is no way to completely eliminate the pollution, and the result
is pesticides finding their way to our lake. Again, it's a risk, but
one that is necessary in order to benefit the region.
There are risks with LPG storage. Nobody is arguing that. But those
risks are minimal. Can the worst happen? Sure, just like the trucks
that lose control and kill people. Anytime human life is a risk, we
must take notice. But we must also accept risk.
For a long time it was a secret that the Seneca Army Depot in Romulus
along Seneca Lake was the largest storage facility of nuclear weapons
during the Cold War. By the 1980s, the secret was known by most in the
area. The risk of storing nuclear weapons was accepted, because it was
necessary to the mission of national security. Would we prefer those
nukes be stored elsewhere? Sure. Who wouldn't? But they had to be somewhere
and at the time, that somewhere was Romulus.
This brings us back to LPG storage. A hot topic since the late 1990s
has been energy independence for America. In order to achieve this and
to stop sending our young men and women to foreign countries to fight
wars over oil -- something many in the area have protested -- we need
to be willing to make sacrifices at home. It doesn't matter if we are
creating eight or 800 jobs -- America needs companies who are in the
LPG business. Those companies need a place to store LPG. These companies
provide us with energy and yes, make money off of it. They, like the
salt plants and the wine industry, have strict federal and state guidelines
to follow in order to remain compliant and conduct business. Some of
those guidelines involve the safety of their employees and the safe
storage of their product. That product makes these people money. They
don't want it to leak or explode. That is their lifeblood and they are
going to do everything they can to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Are there risks with the process? Of course there are. But to sit down
at a local level and call those risks unnecessary is a slap in the face
to the hundreds of other towns across the country making similar or
greater sacrifices with similar or greater risks for the greater good
of our nation. Several people I've argued with have told me that I'm
not seeing the big picture with this issue. I disagree. The picture
I see goes beyond the two hills that frame Seneca Lake.
Jesse Scott,
Omaha, Nebraska
WGHS Class of 1997
|