To the Editor:
In the June 10 edition of The Smoky Mountain News, the article “Walters hydro plant turns 100” was instructive.
“Because of decades of chemical contamination in the Pigeon River from the now-closed paper mill in Canton, Waterville Lake can’t be drawn down below a certain level. It has a 30-foot limit on its fluctuation specifically because of those contaminants,” the article states.
That means that companies rely on the poisoning of our communities to make their profits. When pushed to clean up their mess, they often go bankrupt and/or play a shell game, but those who profited get to keep their profits.
When the companies won’t pay, it falls back on us, the taxpayers, and the federal Superfund. Or worse, the contamination remains, only to be flushed downriver during some future storm, foisted upon other unsuspecting American communities.
I grew up in an area dominated by paper mills in northeast Wisconsin, and as a result, the testicular cancer rate was three times higher there than the national average. After decades of public pressure, they finally dredged out the river. Monsanto, the sole manufacturer of PCBs, produced about 1.4 billion pounds between the 1930s and 1977, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Our economy and political/legal system are designed to let the wealthy among us get richer at our expense.
Is this the best we can do?
Dan Kowal
Franklin