This letter by Ken Dufty was in response to John Coker’s statements at this week’s groundwater committee meeting.
Chairman Coker:
As you know, at this morning’s Eastern Shore of Virginia Groundwater Committee (GWC) meeting, I submitted a 6-page letter covering three topics. The first one was a request/petition to allow a two minute public comment period at the end of each GWC meeting. Because that request was dismissed with your statement that you “gave us a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, and now you want one at the end”, as predicted I am forced and indeed compelled to respond to the remarks you made after I delivered my address to the attending reps from Tyson Foods. Note that in that plea, I asked the poultry giant to “draw a line in the sand” and announce that there will be no more industrial broiler operations allowed in Accomack County, as it appears saturation of these facilities has been achieved. Next, you reacted to my warnings about harm to the environment, quality of life, and impacts to the aquifer from this build-out.
Because I was never given a chance to respond because you failed to consider my request for a post-meeting comment period, I offer the following rebuttal.
I. You stated that it is not our job to tell business what they can or cannot do. I disagree.
After you dismissed out of hand my request for a brief public comment period following the official conduct of the groundwater committee, you rather angrily said that it is not our (meaning government, I assume) job to tell businesses like Tyson what they can or cannot do.
However, if the citizens in Northampton County did not demand and persuade the Board of Supervisors to tell the poultry industry that they would not be able to build their industrial sized broiler houses unless they adhered to a 1,000 foot setback in Northampton County, we indeed would be in the same poultry-saturated situation that residents find themselves saddled with in our county to the north.
The inference that we should not regulate or advise businesses what they can or cannot do, i.e. deregulation, is a suggestion that may perhaps work for the industry or unchecked commerce, but it most certainly is not protective in most cases of public health, natural resources, or the environment. These three are assets that once lost are very difficult to recover or retrieve, and the suggestion that government should just take a “hands-off” posture when dealing with prospective or existing industry or business is patently absurd and indeed insulting.
II. Next you stated that we have to wait until the “scientists” tell us what is good for us (or not), and whether industry is creating or will create any harm to our natural resources, public health, or the sustainable environment. Then you named Britt MacMillan as the scientist who we should rely on to tell us whether or not we should worry about the health or sustainability of our aquifer.
First, to respond to these rather troubling remarks, to my knowledge Britt MacMillan, although well regarded, is not a “scientist”. He is a groundwater consultant.
Second, many if not all of the major environmental and public health travesties of all time were created because these “scientists” or “experts” assured regulators that proposed actions by business or industry were harmless and benign. To recap just a few:
From 1946 to 1976, General Electric Company dumped
thousands of pounds of PCB's from their Fort Edward Plant into
the Thompson Island Pool because the "scientists" assured
regulators that there would be no lasting effect from the
discharge. Today, 43 years after that discharge was stopped
by court order, the Hudson River is still the largest superfund
site in the world;
*Medical Scientists and experts assured the FDA that opioids were harmless, non-addictive, and could be doled out like candy
to patients needing pain relief. They were never challenged by
those regulators who we rely on to protect us. I need to say no
more. The scientists who created this horrendous epidemic do.
*Scientists and experts assured the EPA and other regulators
that deepwater drilling of oil in the Gulf of Mexico was
safe, controlled, and no harm would ever result from this
activity. The 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill turned out to
be the world's largest man made environmental disaster,thanks
to the empty promises and assurances by the "expert"
"scientists". Their failure to protect and ensure that no harm
would ensue from this deep water exploratory well will
reportedly have negative implications and effectss that will last
for generations;
*Scientists and experts assured state regulators that it was
fine to tap the Flint River to provide drinking water to residents in Flint, Michigan. These scientists failed to advise that
chemicals needed to be added to this river water to neutralize its acidity, and because of that failure lead leached from the city's
aging pipes and resulted in lead contamination in those who
drank this water, perhaps causing ill effects that could last a
lifetime in sensitive individuals and young, unsuspecting
residents;
* Scientists and consultants failed to adequately assess and
predict the drawdown of the aquifer under Virginia Beach in the
late 1970's causing a halt in economic development for nearly
15 years until the pipe from Lake Gaston was constructed and
placed online at a cost exceeding a half-billion dollars; Indeed, nearly every major environmental acccident, release of contaminants, spills or even the ill-placement of nuclear power plants (including Shoreham) were the result of miscalculations, omissions, oversights or blatant incompetence by the “experts” and “scientists” who either profited from looking the other way or simply lacked the scientific integrity or grasp to protect the public from catastrophic consequences.
Conclusion
It was clear to me by your questioning of Mr. McMillan and your transparent attempt to get him to say that there was perhaps an over-estimation of the amount of water that would be drawn from our aquifer by the 54 facilities currently under technical evaluation by the DEQ (an admission that Mr. McMillan refused to give), that you have become a fan of and for the poultry industry.
This is most concerting for us here in Northampton County as many, many citizens spent a good deal of their time, resource, and energy protecting this county from the same industrial fate that is now plaguing
residents living in our sister county to the north.
In closing, we urge you to show more respect for your own constituency and our work in protecting Northampton county from environmental degradation and assault. It is worth noting that after the meeting a friend remarked to me that perhaps you ran for supervisor in the wrong county. To add to that remark, I can tell you my friends have a horse farm for sale in the Pungoteague area and will probably cut you a great deal. And because you appear to be courting friends in high poultry places, perhaps you can encourage the owners of the adjacent 24 industrial broiler-house operation to silence their exhaust fans when you invite friends over for that backyard barbeque…something my friends have yet to perfect.
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Interestingly enough (but not too surprising), the lion’s share of comments this week in this weekly rag pertain to politics (of which we can do nothing – are they listening?) and menial swipes at Tyson and its paltry fines (thank you Jack and Mollie). But comments delivered in response to Ken Dufty’s letter to John Coker and the Groundwater Committee? Um…crickets?
If you really don’t care about the quality of water you consume, you should truly think about your children and your children’s children. You see, like the famous song says…you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. Take paradise, put up a parking lot. Take a long sip of the numbers below. Think about your future. Thank you, Ken Dufty for your vigilance.
An informational session about all the pending DEQ groundwater withdrawal permits will be held at 6 p.m., April 30, Nandua High School. Public hearings will follow on other dates.
Also discussed briefly was an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on local Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) that was included in the committee’s agenda packet.
McMillan referred to them as “nebulous,” or vague, because it “doesn’t tell whether it is a problem or not.” He noted that the list is a “good place to start.”
The majority of the releases were for nitrate which is not considered as dangerous as metals.
A staff summary showed “five jurisdictions report more on-site releases than Accomack County. They are Montgomery, Covington, Chesterfield, Hopewell, and Isle of Wight. Perdue releases almost 13 times as much as Tyson and is responsible for 92.7% of TRI released in Accomack County.”
Peracetic acid, a bleaching agent for food starch and a component of antimicrobial washes for poultry carcasses and fruit is among the newer releases being seen. Baxter said the federal government requires its use. The staff characterized it as “a strong oxidizing agent and severe irritant to the skin, eyes, and respiratory system.”
The toxics releases as related to each facility are:
Perdue:
1.07 million pounds nitrate compounds, up from 699,640 in 2016, and more than double from 2015.
76 pounds peracetic acid to water, up from 29 pounds in 2016,
75,900 pounds hydrogen sulfide to air, down from 83,880 pounds in 2016.
Tyson:
56,996 pounds nitrate compounds to water, up from 31,053 pounds in 2016, and 22,332 pounds in 2015
30,441 pounds ammonia to air, up from 2,736 pounds in 2016
580 pounds of peracetic acid to air, up from 0.
KMX Chemical:
3,680 pounds ethylene glycol, up (up from 750 pounds) to air
346 pounds methanol, up from 250 pounds) to air
NASA-Wallops Flight Facility
526 pounds polycyclic aromatic compounds are managed on-site via recycling compared to none in previous years.
In 2015, there were air releases of 27 pounds of chromium and 246.07 pounds of lead.
In 2016, there was an air release of 88 pounds of lead.
In 2017, 18 pounds of Naphthalene and 88 pounds of lead, both as air releases.
(as taken from The Eastern Shore Post – April 20th edition)
And these are just the “air releases”. So, not only are they (Tyson and Perdue) asking to “pull” more from the aquifer but imagine what they “pump” back into the environment.
Has anyone thought to run the cancer numbers comparable to other counties along the east coast? You’ll find, the Eastern Shore (Delmarva) has a much higher percentage than those without Agri-Industry. It is no coincidence… And all the crickets sing…
Dear friend and fellow American patriot, Chas Cornweller, dude, this very thread right here is very much about POLITICS!
Yes, Chas, that is what this thread is all about, along with good citizenship of course on the part of Mr. Dufty, who I wish we had up here in the corrupt third-world ****hole of New York, a polluter’s paradise.
And what kind of comments can be made in here, anyway, given what Mr. Dufty said in his concluding remarks: “In closing, we urge you to show more respect for your own constituency and our work in protecting Northampton county from environmental degradation and assault.”
Doesn’t that say what needs to be said?
What further comment, pray tell, dear friend Chas, is really needed to amplify on that?
Maybe Supervisor Coker joined the “Cash for Cluckers” club? This super secret club is sponsored by Tysons and Perdue and it allows local, state, and federal leaders the ability to enjoy the financial benefits of the chicken lifestyle.
A priceless comment, Mr. Metheny, which calls to memory Obama’s plan to destroy usable property in a futile effort to increase economic activity. I wish I could have been so clever–congratulations!
Mr. Cornweller, I agree that this article is worthy of comment, and Mr. Dufty’s sharp analysis deserves much praise. Many of us have little time to be on line; hence, my failure to add a reply until now.
Except for your first paragraph, your own response displayed erudition and command of the facts surrounding this sad phenomenon. Your first paragraph has a couple of fallacies; obviously, because the Mirror is an intangible medium, it cannot be a “rag”; moreover, because its journalism is good enough to attract your commentary, it also cannot be a metaphorical “rag”. As someone commented somewhere in another Mirror article, the print publications in Accomack and Northampton are banal and insipid. The Mirror presents the only true, comprehensive, investigative journalism available in the area.
I believe you object primarily to the Mirror’s viewpoint from the Right. But leftist publications and commentators attract no following. They always fail for lack of support. They’re angry and display no sense of humor.
Your more important mistake, however, was trying to “prove a negative”–attempting to show that evidence of absence is absence of evidence. The Mirror has attracted DOZENS of objections during the last few years to the County Supervisors’ support of expanded CAFOS, as well as extended commentary on the deterioration of the quality of life in Accomack County. Many of these comments were as erudite as yours printed above. Maybe people have exhausted what they have to say, but I know the concern is there–though it may not be EVIDENT in this issue of the Mirror, it certainly is not ABSENT.
Unlike you, who printed valuable statistics and analysis, all I can do is make a general statement that I sense a pall, a feeling of gloom, hanging over the County, evidenced by the number of businesses and houses for sale. Skilled people are leaving or retiring, and the County is filling up with the unskilled and uneducated, for whose support the taxpayers will be on the hook.
I believe the general disgust at how poorly we are governed in this matter very much exists. I think a day of reckoning will come; at that time, Tyson, Perdue, CAFO owners and operators, and, ideally, some present and former Supervisors would do well to prepare to face compensatory and punitive damages for the spread of disease and death resulting from the ruinous business which the Board of Supervisors is supporting.
By the way, I grew up in Somerset County and helped my father raise chickens as a child, so I’m familiar with the business as it existed then on a smaller scale. Again, many of us on the Right (in my case, Alt-Right) appreciate your comments.
And what Mr. Dufty is engaging in here, dear friend and fellow American patriot and concerned citizen Chas Cornweller is a very unique form of politics here in the United States of America, or at least in the Old Dominion of Virginia, since we to the north of you in the corrupt third-world ****hole now known as the Soviet Socialist Republic of New York have been stripped of this right by Democratic Socialist governor Young Andy Cuomo, known as “petitioning for redress of grievance,” and if someone were to teach a course in how to petition for redress, this letter above serves as an excellent example, and what is unique about Mr. Dufty is that he is not some fancy, gold-plated, white-shoed Harvard lawyer charging ten or fifteen thousand dollars an hour to secure people’s rights for them, if they can afford to buy them.
To the contrary, Mr. Dufty is about as “Joe Common American” as anyone can be, and yet, one day, he put aside his personal life and did what all Americans are supposed to do, although most shy from it – he stepped up to the plate and spoke truth to some of the most powerful people in America, if not the world, including Young Andy Cuomo’s Da, “Big Mario” Cuomo, who Mr. Dufty not only faced down, but actually prevailed against, which is something unheard of in this corrupt third-world ****hole.
Mr. Dufty was Joe Common Man, doing it the AMERICAN WAY, getting up in the morning and going to work in a steel mill and minding his own business and paying his bills as a responsible citizen does, and riding his Harvey-Davis putt-putt, when Mario Cuomo decided that he wanted to pollute the air in the community that Mr. Dufty lived in – and there Mr. Dufty became like that mouse in the poster giving the finger to the stooping eagle and saying “BRING IT ON!”
Twice more, I saw or witnessed Mr. Dufty standing up the the corrupt New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as an advocate for the common citizens to be adversely impacted by corrupt practices of the NYSDEC, and in both cases, it was in some large part due to the efforts of Mr. Dufty as a citizen advocate that the citizens were able to prevail.
Mr. Dufty is also unique in that he leaves the emotion at home when he makes these petitions.
Yes, a lot of people screeching and screaming and hollering and shouting out the old “HEY HEY HO HO” gets a lot of media coverage, but when it comes down to brass tacks, and as we can see from Mr. Dufty’s excellent letter above, it always does, and you have to go to court, the judge isn’t going to be impressed by a lot of mindless shrieking that the world is going to end.
The judge is going to want to know if you have EXHAUSTED ALL ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES – did you tell them what you grievance was in plain words, and did you give them a chance to respond?
And there is how you do it, above here in Mr. Dufty’s letter.
And dear friend Chas, that brings us back to your opening line in your post above that, “Interestingly enough (but not too surprising), the lion’s share of comments this week in this weekly rag pertain to politics (of which we can do nothing – are they listening?).”
What Mr. Dufty, a common American citizen without a rich daddy or a Harvard law degree, has been able to accomplish in terms of environmental protection for the common folks without economic power or political clout by successfully and intelligently standing up to these ignorant, and corrupt hack politicians like Mario Cuomo, former governor of the corrupt third-world ****hole of New York state, and the corrupt New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, a totally mis-named state agency if there ever was one, shoots your argument about “of which we can do nothing” right in the foot, does it not?
Mr. Green and Mr. Plante what a welcome reprise to an article I feared lay abandoned. I am wont to explain myself, but I believe what I have done, worked. So, I won’t kick that barking dog. Mr. Green, first and foremost, thank you. Thank you for your diligence and thank you for your critique of my comment. I welcome any and all criticism of my writing. My friends still call me “Wordsmith”. I tend to get a bit ‘windy’ here. But, I blanch at the thought of keeping stride with my good friend and ‘fellow patriot’ Mr. Plante. So, here too, I will try to be brief.
My explanation is two-fold. It’s a little like ringing that village bell. Begin with a an interesting aside. Insult or praise usually works. Grab the interest from the get-go. Later, present the facts and the cold hard truth. By then, most folks are ready to continue reading and therefore will muddle through less interesting information. I was not being harsh when I called the “Mirror” a rag. I wasn’t trying to insult Mr. Creed’s fine efforts here. I used ‘rag’ in the journalistic colloquial jargon. Kind of a term of endearment. And yes, I’d agree, Mr. Creed does dig deep into the various nefarious dealings done dirt cheap on the Eastern Shore. It is the main reason I return week after week. And though, and you must admit, Mr. Creed and this blog does lean right, I enjoy tapping the ole tree trunk just to see what is causing that buzzing sound from time to time. You see, I believe every viewpoint has many sides and it is up to someone like me to present (or play) the devil’s advocate side of things. Is it a perfect world? Oh hell no. Never will be. Can we make it better? We sure as hell can try. So, thank you. And mostly, thank you for pointing out that the “Mirror” has attracted dozens (perhaps hundreds by now) of objections over the years. That, I see as a positive as well. And yes, there will be a day of reckoning for the Accomack Board of Supervisors and for Northampton’s if they follow in the footsteps and allow Tyson and Perdue growth southward. And you being from Somerset County know exactly what I am speaking of. Thank you for your succinct and kind response. I, from my perch in my ivory tower and from the left, appreciate your comments. And an aside…one thing both the far right and the far left can agree on is this. We both love clean air, clean water and a bay full of live sports fish.