Burning Issue - NY factory wants to burn tires, polluting VT

[midnight armadillo]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/03/26/burning_issue/?page=1

Great and lengthy article.
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Burning Issue
What happens when an upstate New York paper mill that wants to burn tires for fuel runs into worried Vermonters who fear that prevailing winds will carry dangerous chemicals across Lake Champlain and far into New England?

By Stephen Kiernan | March 26, 2006

FROM THE ROOFTOP of the International Paper mill in Ticonderoga, New York, the view to the east is postcard-pretty: Lake Champlain lies silver in the valley, rolling hills shape the near lands of Vermont, and in the distance stand some of the highest peaks of the Green Mountains.

The view west, by contrast, is blocked by a smokestack that measures 13 feet wide and 205 feet high (more than five times as tall as Fenway Park's Green Monster). From this black tube of stainless steel, steam and papermaking emissions rise by the ton, day and night, like an arm of toxic white.

This particular intersection of industry and beauty has generated conflict in the surrounding communities for decades. And now a proposal to burn tire chips in the paper mill's furnace has sparked an environmental controversy of a whole new order. Replacing oil with tires would save the plant millions of dollars on energy, perhaps preserving hundreds of endangered jobs. But burning tires would also release toxins that would sail, due to prevailing westerly winds, onto farms and homes across Lake Champlain. What goes up in New York comes down in New England.

The proposal has catalyzed people on both sides of the water to demonstrate and to crowd hearings. It has drawn thousands of letters and petition signatures to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which will decide whether the plant may burn tires. It has sown division between the previously friendly Republican governors on each shore and both states' congressional delegations. Last month, Vermont filed a lawsuit against New York to block the project.

[acmavm]

1. This is simply one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of. My God,

do you know what a tire fire smells like? And they're impossible to put out. The pollution is not only dangerous by physically sickening. As in make you want to hurl on the spot.

What the hell do these friggin' morons do for smarts on a good day? I'm wondering if they need help tying their shoes.

[midnight armadillo]

2. Hillary Clinton is all for it

The whole NY congressional delegation is 100% behind the plan.

Screw you HC.

[400Years]

3. where are all the anti-smoking types on this? chirping crickets

[Massacure]

4. VT should pull a page from the Republican Playbook.

Built a huge fence along the border with New York. Instead of making it eight feet high though, make it eight miles.