HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0212.361 1996-1998 ~C~~~-~~ -~p. ~ ~ ~1~~~17
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April 15, 1997
To: Chairman and Members or the Bawai'i County Council
From: Robert Jacobson, RN
POB 900
Aurtiatovn, ffi, 96760
To Whom It May Concern:
I am opposed to the proposed irradiation project that the mayor wants us buy
into to the tune of $2 million. I oppose thin entire project because of its
catastrophic coats and impacts to those of us on the Big Island. The County
Council persona all clamor for economic data when testimony is given. If you
look at the basic economics of this project it falls flat on its face.
Critiquing this project within the four pillars of the Green Party is
the best way to examine this folly. These four pillars include social justice,
ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy, and non-violence.
> Social Justice
Where is the social justice o£ taxing ua all to put the vapor heat papaya treat-
ment facilities out of business? The required quantities of fruit to make the
plant profitable according to Isomedix are greater than 5 million pounds per
year. This would be at the expense of the vapor heat companies and employees or
taxpayers to pay for unused capacity. Why the rambutan growers should be re-
warded for planting something with no market does not make sense. Will someone
give me $2 million for exercising bad judgement? The potential of a worldwide
boycott on Hawaiian agricultural products would impact all farmers on this is-
land. The Japanese consumer groups have already stated their intent to initiate
such a boycott if we start exporting irradiated produce. One councilperson I
spoke with stated that though they didn't want any of their own children to work
in an irradiation facility, if someone else's child was desperate enough to work
in a cancer causing facility backed with county funds, they had no problem with
that. That councilperson and others likened working in such a plant to eating
hamburgers, or driving a car.
Ecological Aisdom
This plant is a disaster waiting to happen. The fuel units (Cobalt 60) must be
stored up to 120 years before recharging within a nuclear reactor. Who will
store the spent fuel? The nuclear industry is a Ponzi scheme of profits
being collected without any regard for ultimate costs to be borne by the
public at large.
> Grassroots Democracy
No sit® for this plant has been identified and it won't be announced until prom-
ises and slick talk can beat down opposition. Did you vote in the last election
to give $2 million to a handful of farmers unwilling to do market research be-
fore planting crops? How much did you vote to give away next year, S3 million?
This plant is not expected to make money for at least two years, according to
the rosiest projections. (And of course, this doesn't measure the true costs of
operating a plant. Things are subsidized like infrastructure, property taxes,
fuel costs. There's gotta be a lot of things that aren't in their economic pro-
jections.) Who will benefit? This quantity of money could help many diverai- ~1!L
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Mef Presented
• ftst• MAY 1 5 1997
fled agricultural projects and broaden our tax base. Rambutan growers eay their
local markets are saturated. Ask around this state and you'll find these farm-
ers that are pushing irradiation have not exploited local marketing. Did you
vote to give a handout to the mayor's friends? If so, why not write him a check
yourself and leave the rest of us poor folks alone.
D Non-Violence
violence is inflicted on generations of people all over the world by the nuclear
industry. Aorkers every inch of the way from uranium mines to the workers at
the reactor treating the cobalt to the transportation and dockyard workers
bringing it to the plant in Hilo and back again to the storage site for the used
cobalt 60. The innocent residents that ingest the low level wastes at the
mines, near the reactor and storage facilities, and where the uses irradiator is
brought to on this island. ?Then water soluble Cesium 137 is substituted for the
Cobalt 60, spills of this waste will seep into the groundwater of surrounding
ocean to give us all a legacy of cancer, suffering and death.
Let your councilperson know how you feel about this bill. Though if you don't,
perhaps your children won't live long enough to criticize you for funding this
boondoggle. /
Sinc®rely, ~~~//~,~J
Rohort Jacobson