THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 21, 1995 TAG: 9501200026
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
As a lifelong Democrat, I confess that I find myself in complete agreement with Governor Allen's realistic approach on environmentalism (editorial, Jan. 16).
We all should remember the horror stories committed in the name of ``environmentalism''; a man who cleared a field to grow hay in Gloucester was prosecuted and lost his life's savings; the proposed and needed Southeastern Expressway is now history; other new highways, such as the link between Raleigh and Hampton Roads are endangered; numerous industries have closed their doors and left to locate in places such as unregulated Mexico, Central America, China, Taiwan. . . .
You cite tourism as an ideal industry (and it is), but where will the tourists come from with our declining industrial base? Already, Colonial Williamsburg, one of our nation's top attractions, has experienced decline.
Everyone wants clean air, but air flows. It is not stagnant. There are no filters at the border with Mexico. We cannot stop the global winds coming in from Red China.
You noted Governor Allen's willingness to allow the burning of medical waste in Bland and Hopewell. You quoted one resident as saying, ``They're pro-business. They don't care about the environment.'' So what are the alternatives? End surgical operations? Shut down hospitals and let our children, parents (and us) die needlessly?
Since we can't bury medical waste or dump into waterways, the logical thing to do is to burn it. Does such incineration harm the air? I have read no reports in your paper of any detrimental effects from the one in Norfolk, which burns medical byproducts from not only local hospitals but from many of those in New York City. (Many may not even know it is here - on Indian River Road.)
The Clean Air Act sets standards which can never be achieved and, more important, makes us the only nation in the world to go it alone. If one was really sincere, it should be automatic that we ban imports from nations which have no concern about the environment and no laws to protect it.
America constitutes only 4 percent of the world's population and has 100 percent of the world's environmental laws. We in the United States cannot continue to go it alone without going down the economic tube.
``The worst form of pollution,'' said millionaire Malcolm Forbes, ``is unemployment.'' We had best keep that in mind.
FAYE J. DILLON
Norfolk, Jan. 17, 1995 by CNB