Plant will pollute air
| Semitrailer trucks will be entering and leaving the proposed Chippewa Falls sand plant as often as every 1 1/2 minutes, delivering sand to the plant within one-half mile of surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. Think of the amount of diesel fumes concentrated in the air at the plant while the semis dump their loads, not to mention fugitive sand blowing while it is being disgorged from the trucks and loaded onto railroad cars. The state Department of Natural Resources calculates the diesel fumes at the plant site. Monitoring the air after the plant is already operating is like locking the barn door after the horse is gone. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to regulate the fumes on the road, but the EPA doesn't measure our rural air. They assume it is clean. The Clean Air Task Force says the lifetime cancer risk from diesel soot in Chippewa Falls already is 133 times greater than the EPA's acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million. After the plant is working, it will be much greater. Cancer will not be the only health risk for the people. According to the Clean Air Task Force, as of 2010 diesel fumes will cause an estimated 27,000 nonfatal heart attacks and 410,00 asthma attacks in U.S. adults annually, as well as roughly 12,000 cases of chronic bronchitis, 15,000 hospital admissions, 2.4 million lost-work days and 14 million restricted activity days. That's just for emissions from trucks moving through towns. Add the emissions from the "parking lot" effect of the diesel semis at the plant and the intense number of trucks on the road. Don't open your windows for fresh air either day or night any day of the year. Diesel fumes, resin fumes and fugitive dust will be ready to enter. VERA HEMMINGER Chippewa Falls |