| OCR Text |
Show FRIDAY NOVEMBER28, 2003 << wow. sitrib.com >> Our VIEW Duck, duck, goose hile most Utahns have their minds on turkeys these days, we want to put ina good word for someducks. Specifically, the millions of ducks and other waterfowl that stop by the Great Salt Lake during their seasonal migrations. The Jordan Riveris oneof the main sourcesof fresh water for the marshes on the south endof the lake that are critical habitat to migrating birds. The water quality of the Jordan is threatenedby a project that will purify underground waterin the southwest valley anddischargethe sulfates and metals removed from that water intothe river. Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. and the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District are working on whether,over time, theywill pose a toxic threat to birds and other wildlife. But recent tests at a duck-hunting club near the lake showed that selenium levels already are pushing the maximum allowed underthe current federal standard. Those tests are not conclusive, however, and more information needs to be gathered. The project to removepollutants from the groundwater in the southwest valley would divide the affected aquifer into two zones, each of which would be equipped with a treatment plant. Kennecott wouldoperate one, and the water district the other. Wells would extract the water, and a reverseos- mosis process would remove the contaminants. The discharge of the contami- the project, which would accom- nants extracted by the Kennecott plish two worthwhile goals: It would stopthe spreadof an underground plumeof waterpolluted by a century of mining, and it would provide a sourceof puri- plant would be fed into the company’s slurry pipeline for disposal in its tailings ponds. As now proposed, the discharge from thedistrict’s plant would go into the Jor- fied drinking water. Unfortunately, as currentlyde- dan near2100 South. The waterdistrict is studying vised, the project also would add ways to remove metals andsele- to pollution in the Jordan. Fortunately, state officials re- nium from the dischargeat its plant. If that cannot be accom- cently have decidedto take a secondlookat the discharge permit for the project in light of a new plished, Kennecott could be required to impoundall of the con- federal water quality standard for selenium, an element that is essential to waterfowl in trace amounts but is toxic in large quantities. There is roomfor disagreement over whetherthe discharges currently anticipated will meet water quality standards and property, which wouldincrease the project’s costs. That cost must be paid, however, if it proves necessary to protect Great Salt Lake habitat that is essential to migrating birds taminants from both plants on its from two continents. Utah water officials should take reasonable care to protect this resource. Substance abuse or all the goodthe na- tional energybill could havedone, andall the harmit is primedtodo, it their product has caused and give them $2 billion to get into anotherline of work. That wasthe deal-killer for Perhaps Mr. Gowdy would then assert that my wife and I should also not be allowed to be a family and raise children. My wife makes more money than I, pays the bills every month, manages ourfinances and carries the checkbook. I do the laundry, a majority of the cooking, and have also been knowntoscrubtoilets, mop floors and grocery shop. For the record, wesplit yard work evenly. So are we simply “a cheapfacsimile of that which is real,” and do we represent a threat to society’s “standard of virtue for children?” this bill, the latest in Bush-eraassaults on the environment the next big thing in agriculture Ethanol has been promoted as nority Leader TomDaschle of South Dakota, like the energybill cleaner. Both have powerful and because it would double the re- determinedfriends in Congress. Someofthesefriends are determined enoughto put a stop to the whole energy measureif their favorite chemical is not fa- quirementfor ethanol in the na- vored by the final version of the tion’s fuel supply and maintain the tax breaks it nowenjoys. That wasthe poisonpill for other senators, who seethatstill for their substanceof choice. The deadlock means that this energy more subsidies for energyintensive corn production will be a loser for corn farmers, whose promised profits from increased demand will be eaten upbythe bill. Others will vote for anybill that includesthe right support Whatis ‘real’ family? farm belt keeps growing far too muchof. Senators from cornproducingstates, particularly Mi- neutralize each other and take clean-up costs while MTBE makers laugh all the wayto the bank. bill, approvedin the Housebut ever-increasing supply, and for blocked bya well-deserved Senatefilibuster, won't become law before January, if at all. MTBE is onits wayout, fin- taxpayers, whose lungs won't benefit from ethanol fuels as gered as a source of waterpollu- MTBEneedsto be cleaned up. Farmers need to be supported. The taxpayers will haveto help in both cases. But anyassistance much as they would from stricter emissions standardsoncars. tion and malignedas a cancercausing agent. Congressmen from chemicai-producing states, particularly Majority Leader Tom DeLayof Texas, like the en- should comein straightforward waysthat serve the nation, not as ergy bill because it would exempt companies that make MTBE bargaining chips in support ofa bill that otherwise would have from lawsuits over the pollution died long ago. Matt PALMER Bountiful God is not stupid Here we go again. The Massachu- setts Supreme Court finally made same-sex marriages legal. It’s about time! No doubt The Tribune will be getting the same influx of self-righteous letters from people whofind that somebody who is a little different from themselvesis wrong. So whose business is it anyway? Certainly not mine, and whyshould a gay couple notbe allowed to get legally married anyway? No doubt some Bible-pusher will quote some obscure scripture validating his or her own in- ability to cope with anything outside Uranu’s INDEPENDENTVOICE SINCE 1871 Che Salt LakeTribune Publisher Editor WILLIAM DEAN SINGLETON Nancy CONWAY Past Publishers VERN ANDERSON Joun F. Frrzparrick (1924-1960) Executive Editor Editorial Page Editor Joun W. GALLIVAN (1960-1983) Tom BapEN Jerry O'BRIEN (1983-1994) Managing Editors Dominic WeLcH (1994-2002) TIMFrrzpatrick Terry ORME How to reach us their own little bigoted world. Obviously gay people are born the waythey are, soif it is a sin to be gay then God mustbe stupid. Judging from the way most Christians interpret Christianity, somebody is stupid and I don’t think it's God. If people have trouble with the concept of love for your fellow human beings,try reading Christ’s sermon on the mount. I think somewhere in the Bible it says that judgment should be left up to God. Of course, if you think that God is stupid, then maybe that explains youractions. Pau. HUNTER Salt Lake City Bennett’s learning curve When the Department of Energy Phone Number: 801-257-8888 held a public hearing at Tooele High Tribune Fax: 801-257-8525 School, I waspleased that U.S. Sen. Bob E-mail: letters@sltrib.com (Please send text only, attachments will not be opened.) Mail: Public Forum, TheSalt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110 Letter Guidelines: The Tribune welcomes letters of up to 250 words on topics of generalinterest. Letters must includefull Bennett spokeso forcefully against nuclear waste storage in Utah. In no uncertain terms, he stated that Utah was not the place for it, that it should remain where generated. He had learned from PFS, the proponent of the Goshute (nuclear waste storage) proposal, that high-level waste from power genera- tion facilities was packaged so well it would be safe for another 200 years. name, home address and day and evening Bennett stated we needed this time to phone numbers. Only the nameandcity of study the nuclear waste dumpingissue. Until very recently, Bennett did not speak out against Envirocare’s propos- residence are published. Letters may be edited for length, grammarand accuracy. Due to volume, not all submissions are published. His father’s book The first Bush administration was widely criticized for not going after sponsibilities, cannot be consigned.” ing the bag for billions in water methyl tertiary butyl ether — STEPHEN CurRTIS DRABNER Salt LakeCity new marketfor the crops that the If Americans are lucky, though, the two substanceswill andthe otheris ethanol — mostly made from corn. Both are mixed with gasolineto makeit burn Hal B. Heaton, of Provo, writes in the Nov. 25 Public Forum, “Are a few American lives more important than millionsof Iraqi lives?” What the hell is he talking about? In 1967, I served in Vietnam at the age of 18. Many of the Vietnamese hated us because we Americanswere killing Vietnamese in an effort to help them defeat communism. Why do so many Iraqis hate us if we are saving them? Whyare wein Iraq anyway? Do we needtheiroil that badly? Mr. Heaton is worried about Iraqi lives, but we Americans are the ones that are killing most of them. We need to look at the real reasons we are in Iraq. Having served in the military, I can tell you that it hurts me each and every time one of our troops dies in Iraq. for a decade or two, providing a manysenators, who rightly seeit as a crimethat state and local governmentshould be left hold- Onechemicalis called MTBE Americans doingthekilling J. David Gowdy (Forum, Nov. 24) asserts that the real danger of gay marriage is one of identity crisis for children. Apparently, Mr. Gowdyfeels that in order for a child to grow up healthy and well-adjusted, he or she must grow up in a household with male and female authority figures who are archetypes of preconceived and rigid genderroles. He also asserts that these “inherent and immutable duties, emotions and re- is sad that the whole debate in the Senate is down to a wasteful battle between two chemicals. wrappedupasgifts for polluting industries, down with them. THE PUBLIC FORUM Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War, after ejecting Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Defending this decision, George H.W. Bush wrote five years ago in his memoirs, A World Transformed, Page 489: “Trying to eliminate Saddam ... would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. ... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger andotherallies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, there was no viable ‘exit strategy’ we could see, violating anotherset of our principles. ... Going in and occupyingIraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nation’s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivablystill be an occupying powerin a bitterly hostile land.” The neo-conservatives who assem- bled the second Bush administration seemto have a mind-set that payslittle attention to what others think, causing the United States now to suffer almost all the terrible consequences that were so presciently predicted by thefirst President Bush. Does this meanthat the current President Bush avoids reading even his father’s memoirs as he proudly says he avoids reading newspapers? M. WALKER WALLACE Salt Lake City Rules ofthe road I'd like to share something from the Utah Driver’s Handbook with any and al. He finally recognized there are few differences between power plantgenerated waste of PFS and weaponsprogram waste Envirocare wanted to store. However, there are two notewor- thy differences: 1) The waste from Fernald and Niagra are neither pack- aged as is that from PFS, nor are they safe for two minutes and 2) the review process for the PFS proposal involved numerouspublic hearings and debates, while the U.S. House of Representatives’ discussions of Envirocare’s re- quest has been entirely furtive and underhanded. Kudos to Elder Russell Ballard, Most Rev. George Neiderauer, Jon Huntsman, Rocky Anderson andthe Alliance for Unity for helping Sen. Bennett throughthis critical learning process. JAMES WEBSTER HEAL Uta Salt Lake City Any means necessary I realize that watchingtelevision is easier than actually studying history, but please at least do some investigation of your own before forming your opinion. AnwarArafat’s point of view (Tribune, Nov. 9) is typical of a Palestinian youth and is based on his personal experience and his parents’ and grandparents’ personal experiences. Palestinian resistance is a product of the Israeli occupation, not viceversa. That is based on history, not a 2,000-year-old book or last week’s episode of “60 Minutes.” And because the Palestinians are not allowed to build any kind of military in the conventional sense, they will continue to use unconventional methods. Right or wrong,it is reality. People fighting for their homes will use any methods at their disposal. So, until Israel either wipes ovt the Palestinians completely or removes its settlements on Palestinian land, we can expect the continue. all bicyclists who maybe reading: suicide bombings to BRYANT CHRISTENSEN “Bicycle riders on public streets and highways have the samerights and responsibilities as automobile drivers. Drivers of motor vehicles must treat West Fordan bicycle riders the same as drivers of other vehicles. Bicyclists are not out of place on the roadway, they are part of the traffic and share the road with other drivers. They must obey stop signs,traffic lights and most othertraffic laws andsigns.” Every dayI see cyclists running red lights, ignoring stop signs, changing lanes without signaling and riding againsttraffic. To those who knowingly do so, please obey the rules of the road just as the rest of us motorists do. Lewis KNORR Salt Lake City, I would think, as a newspaper, The Tribune should be fair and balanced, but your opinion section shows that your true colors backliberals running for public office, green land-grab groups, criticism of President Bush and reprints from rags like The New York Times. The only reason your paper makes it to my house is for the coupons and to start the fire in my woodburning stove. CHARLES CHAPPELL |
