THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9605310007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 43 lines
The U.S. Navy is about to place a hazardous-waste incinerator at the Norfolk Naval Base. The Naval Base is located right in the middle of Hampton Roads - a densely populated area of more than a million and a half people. This facility has been given a new name, ``plasma torch burner,'' to disguise it from the unpopular word ``incinerator.''
Most of the people in the Hampton Roads area have no idea of the long-term health effects that may be caused by this so-called hazardous-waste treatment facility, which your newspaper said ``produces only benign gases.'' All information available to me on similar facilities indicates a 30-mile radius of extreme-danger air pollution, and ground contamination zone.
The people of this area should not be made test cases for new, unproved technology. There must be a more suitable test-and-operating site for this type of air-polluting facility. Why can't this new technology, if so urgently needed by the Navy to save operating cost, be tested and proved in an unpopulated area? Why transfer Navy operating cost to health-and-human-suffering cost? Why further pollute Hampton Roads' air quality, which is already at the danger-point saturation level. Why place unnecessary health risks on the people of this densely populated area? Why jeopardize 1.5 million people?
I don't expect any help from the local, state and federal governments in resolving this most critical problem. I'm sure, big money, corporate America and uninformed bureaucrats are behind this venture. They will convince local politicians and officials with favors, technical theories, half-truths and titles behind their names that this so-called ``hazardous-waste-treatment facility'' is economically good for the community and safe to operate, because there are similar facilities in Montana and Pittsburgh, Pa. We, the people, must ask, ``What are the long-term test results of the effects produced by those facilities?'' I don't believe they can produce valid and certified test-result data.
We must help save Hampton Roads and future generations from the toxicities of this unproven facility. We must not risk our children's future and health to save the U.S. Navy a few operating dollars. Contact government representatives and express your views and concerns.
REGINALD S. EARLY
Virginia Beach, May 20, 1996 by CNB