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Show Letters from Our Readers Dear Mr. Taylor, Mr. Russ Donoghue as Chairman of the Grand County Economic Development Committee Com-mittee has made a significant statement as to the development develop-ment of Spanish Valley. We who live in this area have been deeply concerned by the lack of county-wide zoning, utility regulations and housing policies. There seemed seem-ed to be no restraints as to the plotting of commercial or residential areas. We feared we would have the same crisis planning of the previous era. Now, Mr. Donoghue and the planning committee have a master plan under study which will certainly add to the quality of living in Moab. With this modernization project, will they include underground utilities? Already our unique terrain is crowded with power poles. It looks like a denuded forest. The miles of power lines cut across the sky as angry "graffiti". Recently Continental Telephone Tele-phone has installed underground under-ground cable. Their vision and consideration is indeed appreciated appre-ciated and I hope are impetus to Utah Power and Light to provide plans for the feasibility feasibil-ity of underground power lines. Let us all participate with the planning committee and assist when possible to preserve pre-serve and enhance our picturesque pic-turesque community. Sincerely, (Mrs.) Marie Wilkerson Cedar Hills Dear Sam: What distorted element is there in human beings that makes us want to needlessly and wantonly kill another living thing simply for the pleasurable sake of killing? Wednesday morning a vehicle ve-hicle pulled over to the side of highway 163 about one mile north of Moab. The occu-pant(s), occu-pant(s), using what sounded like a .22 cal. automatic rifle, deliberately opened fire on a flock of Canadian geese that was peacefully feeding in some pastureland along side the highway. Then the vehicle ' promptly , sped away, tossing dirt and stones in its haste to quickly leave the scene. The results were not pleasant to the eye and made me sick with sorrow and disgust. There in the field lay a magnificent gander struggling in agony. The bird made a feeble attempt to regain its senses and follow the other geese to safety, but to no avail. It soon lay dead, its head and body splattered with blood-fatally shot through the neck. What rhyme or reason was there for this needless killing? The party guilty of the shooting did not even want the bird for food! It's one thing for a man to hunt for food, something to which I have absolutely no objections. But to simply take the life of another living thing without provocation can only be termed a low-life deed of some sick and mixed-up individual. Some folks might explain that killing is a fun thing to do; or because the geese were there makes them fair game to be shot at like all 'varmits'. Other people perhaps justify their killing in terms of personal vendettas and grievances-like the mafioso and various terrorist activities afflicting the world today. Maybe there are those, too, who fear and resent the freedom a wild animal or large bird represents, repre-sents, soaring freely without bounds. In contrast are us humans who have been broken and saddled by our own self-inflicted day-to-day grinds. Whatever the reason, it is one I do not share! And I would hope our nrevalent attitudes might change to one of respect for all living things and their rights to life. If not, then the failure to do so will be the saddest, most misguided American tragedy of all. Sincerely, Doug Treadway Dear Sam, The TI issue of January 1 contained a letter-to-the-editor that I feel impelled to answer, from Mr. Ray Alger. While I appreciate being linked with Joe Stocks as a "dedicated writer," I would like to correct a false impression impress-ion Mr. Alger has about the Huntington power plant in particular, and other fossil fuel burning plants in general, especially since so many honestly concerned southern Utahns seem to be laboring under the same false impression. impress-ion. Mr. Alger claims to have witnessed "an absolute miracle" mira-cle" upon seeing the Huntington Hunting-ton plant in full operation with only a "minute amount of smoke coming from the stacks." He intimates that this makes me and others wrong when we contend that such plants contribute smog to this part of Utah. To reply in full to this honest but mistaken impression could easily fill an entire issue of the Times, but I think in all fairness one major point should be established. First, the "absolute miracle" mira-cle" Mr. Alger witnessed is, indeed, just that-but it is a miracle of public relations, not engineering. The waste products of burning coal are quite complex. com-plex. Some of these products are invisible gases, others are highly visible solids. In this ' day of heightened public awareness of pollution, all coal-burning plants put high priority upon ridding their stack outputs of the visible components. Then they plan highly visible public relations campaigns to show naive citizens how "clean" their stacks are. "Look at that, Mr. Citizen-you don't see anything any-thing coming out of that stack, do you? We've really cleaned up!" A "miracle," indeed! Sure, they have cleaned up the highly visible component, the black soot that is so aesthetically objectionable. But they have NOT cleaned up the invisible gases that are pouring out of that stack by the hundreds of tons every day, nor has Utah Power & Light at its Huntington plant. Fortunately, for the. power companies, the visible stuff is fairly easy to remove. Electrostatic Electro-static precipitators do a fine job of catching black soot, but that's about all. Unfortunately, Unfortunate-ly, for the public, the invisible gases that are not removed are the most dangerous by far, and they don't stay invisible for long. Atmospheric chemistry is highly complex, but I think taking just one major invisible gas that is poured out by Huntington and other such plants by the kiloton each week will serve to make my point. Sulfur dioxide, a major component of stack gases from burned coal, is completely invisible as it emerges from the stack. As it pours out, this gas stratifies in the atmosphere, atmos-phere, at a height depending upon several factors but usually well above ground level. Depending upon wind direction and velocity, these great spreading masses of sulfur dioxide gas drift downwind down-wind and accumulate in various regions, pocketed by mountain ranges and other high ground. During temperature temper-ature inversions they may flow on the ground like slow-motion rivers into low areas such as the canyons and gorges of Canyonlands National Park. In the atmosphere, the sulfur dioxide combines with moisture. Within a few hours, or a day or two at most, the resulting sulfuric acid Drecim- tates out into the atmosphere as a visible grayish haze or fog. Other atmospheric factors determine how soon this acidic "smog" settles out, but it does settle to the ground level sooner or later. Sulfuric acid is corrosive to plant and animal tissue. It is also very poisonous, and even trace amounts will cause cumulative effect upon human and animal respiratory tissues. It also seriously affects crops. Huge areas of southern California that were once prime agricultural land have been abandoned in recent decades because of. sulfuric acid fumes from coastal petroleum refineries. But the point that Mr. Alger and others need to understand is that while the stack gases at Huntington are invisible at the plant, they do not stay invisible long, and they are highly deleterious to human, animal and plant health. If Mr. Alger or anyone else would like more details, my files are full of technical reports and references, and my head is full of several years experience as a research chemist for a major petrochemical petro-chemical company, plus a-nother a-nother decade or so as a chemical engineer for two major aerospace firms. Cordially, Fran Barnes |