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Show WASATCH COUNTY COURIER MARCH 28, 2001 ee Youth Camp Needs More - asatch then the cost the taxpayers County, —_ with Commissioner Duke | bull- stands by his $1 million dollar a year figure. With a camp this big, surely they will have to hire some local staff. dozing the way, seems intent on forcing the Camp proposed on the Wasatch payers LDS Youth to run the place. “High salary” and County tax- without going through This is a huge project, with such ‘sentence. As far as “affordable houstremendous impact on the county ing” goes we fail to see how the church _and deserves to be studied thoroughshould be treated any differently than any other developer in the county. But © ly. This is not like a ward house or other such tax-exempt place of worregardless of who is right, it still begs. ship. The impact is far, far greater. the question why should the taxpayers. With facilities for 7,500 campers at. of Wasatch County, regardless of their one time, if the average stay is 3 days, _ religion, be forced to. subsidize this that equates to 30,000 individuals a project: week moving into and out of Wasatch is only around a $500,000 a year. The Planner hired by the Church disagrees and “church employment” are not terms one normally hears used in ‘the same the County. Twice the permanent popula- normal channels all other developers (in theory) need to comply with. tion of the county moving in and out of the county weekly has to be a major impact on County resources. Just the MAV’s hauling these 30,000 a deol ~* WASAICH County COURIER. Of course in Wasatch County who you are and who you know has always made it possible to “grease the skids” if you wanted a project approved quick- OPEN UP. WEBER! HERE COMES THE AIRPLANE! campers up and down 1200 South will — VRRRRRRRRROOOMH be a huge impact. This is not a project that warrants rushing through | the system. With a proper amount of ly. But this project is on the fastest _ track we’ve. ever seen. Almost as though the brethren of the Planning County . Commission ‘and the = time for the people’ of the valley to understand the full impact of this project, Commission want this thing approved before anyone can stand back and take an unbiased look at its implications for the county. The Church’s own environmental Impact statement (EIS) says that the project will cost the taxpayers of the county, both LDS and non-LDS alike this can be thoughtfully planned to be a real asset to the community. Rushing the project through to avoid any discourse of divergent opinion is to invite later controversy. Remember Timber Lakes and what a mess that is turning out to be? We are at a loss to figure out why there is such a need to rush this project. Take some time, go through the process ~ and make this project one we can be proud of. nearly $1 million dollars a year in subsidies. The Church’s lead. attorney says that if you factor out the “affordable housing” portion of the equation Don’ t Downplay County’ s Cancer Woes or the past several months interest in the cancer Wasatch County. have been I don’t believe any of us would ed water, and make no mistake about rates in A lot of people - researching and gather- of cancer found in our can come from the “exchange information, including ne of ability to solve a major problem. The media has increased awareness of a potential epidemic. Note Kirsten Shaw’s articies in the Courier about cancer and Mayflower tailings (October 2000 and February 21 and - March 2001) and CBS’s KUTV coverage in late February about the toxic tailings and cancer. Increasing the Wasatch County public’s awareness of - the tremendous hazard this site poses to the public health is without meas- clear “DANGER” to the area and the water supply. Every state and local official I have read about or seen on the — news says so. Even a child playing in a sandbox knows that water runs downhill. Its not “Brain Surgery,” as one of © the state water people put it, “You have little part of “Shangri. La. ” A lot of good | a problem, you clean it up.” So why hasn’t anyone cleaned it up yet? The landowner has been given plenty of time to take the action he has needed to take. We hope that’s where our local and state governments take over and have the “Toxic” mess cleaned up in that’s the way my mother used to tell - learned of another man from Midway who also had Leukemia. Varlan Law mine if a hazard exists is to scientifi- ous that he too had Leukemia. That was three of us within the same year. Two of us were diagnosed in the same to these cancer causing environmental © pollutants we have been subjected to. Only then will we be able to say if the : sky is falling or not. _ The facts as we see aor, are indisputable. There is a higher amount of month that year. What are the odds on Protection Agency’s policy on this kind of contaminate. But what if they don’t do their job? Worse yet, what if they that happening? That was just two short years ago. refuse to do their jobs? But why would tion about people living in Wasatch they? Our next for ce hits a little closer to home. Several of us who live County that have cancer and the rare in the Midway, Wallsburg, Charleston, and Heber city area have been diagnosed recently with a rare form of can-cer. Leukemia has attacked and tried of us who cancer also neighbors. attacks you, you start looking for all the information you can about the disease, You cally gather samples and do the testing had been told less than one year previ- — to determine the amounts of exposure accordance with the Environmental © ure. Bringing it to our attention makes _. all of us aware that a serious and dead- © : to destroy not just those ly problem exists. Then we as local cithave the disease, but this izens can put the appropriate pressure affects our families and on our elected officials to have the - When a killer like cancer problem taken care of. Right? At least © it, the Mayflower Tailings Pond pose a ing information about the various types cancer and live close to you. And we didn’t have to look very far either. knowingly drink or play in contaminat- there has been a heightened dences Of cancer in1 Wasatch, County do not jive with each other. Some of the “Hard” facts we point to are in the | Chronic Mylogenous In February of 1999, I was lying in | Leukemia’s. Leukemia or CML rates should be 1 in my bed at the University Of Utah Medical Center having just lost the — 100,000 per year nationwide. So why contents of my stomach for the second — does our little community have more than 5 people in the past 3 years alone. time that morningI noticed several We should only get one every 5 to 6 people I knew from the Wasatch s. It not only seems higher. It “IS” County area coming and going out in allo higher. And that’s just for CML the hall. That’s when I found out that another young man was in the hospital — Leukemia. What about all the other cancers? The list just goes on and on from Wasatch County suffering from’ on of the families and lives the same illness as myself. destroyed by this killer. Coincidentally, his grandmother lived The only way to accurately deterclose by me in Midway. Later on I also start to look for people who have ‘me it works. We hope our local community leaders will have the intestinal fortitude to take this bul] by the horns and have it taken care of. BRADY HALES MIDWAY RESIDENT Since then we have gathered informa- forms like leukemia etc. We have been amazed at the number and the close proximity to each other all of these cancer patients have been. While we have amassed a staggering list, it cancer in Wasatch County. More than in other areas along the Wasatch Front. And it’s not from being closely related, diet, size of the community, or the whole list of other lame excuses given to us about why every neighbor-hood in this county has almost 50 per- _ cent of the households in it, affected seems that the list is where it will end. Last week the county health by one form of cancer or another. department released reports that in for the Courier wrote, “There’s not an short “look pretty, but don’t do much epidemic in Wasatch - more than that.” The facts are in dis- . pute. We believe that the cancer rates A couple of weeks ago, the editor. County.” How many people have to have their lives destroyed and the lives of their families — the state of Utah is using and the inci- _ before we call it what it is: EPIDEMIC. | |