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Show Hatch 'Undecided' On MX Missile Decision Many people of southwestern Utah are willing to accept deployment of the MX missile, but only with major effort by the Air Force to mitigrate effects of development, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he was surprised to learn during a three-day tour of the MX impact area. Sen. Hatch indicated he had expected much stronger opposition. Sen. Hatch spent three days last week meeting with health care officials, alw enforcement officials, mayors, county commissioners and over 200 other persons in Beaver, Millard and Sevier counties. He was sampling public opinion and gathering information on impacts of energy and defense devleopment in the region. "Support for the project increases when you take care of the problems," Sen. Hatch said. "Only one person at the meeting would favor the race-track deployment as it stands, but 95-percent of the people with whom I met would favor a reasonable alternative to the race-track in the same area. Support rises to 97-percent in favor if you add in compensation for the problems of development and planning." Hatch emphasized his sample was not scientific, but merely a count of people at the meetings. "No one really likes weapons of war. No one wants development if it's bad. Everybody would like to see the missile go somewhere else, but national security comes first. If we have to have the missile, and if the Air Force will give straight stories, and if there are successful efforts to present the rape of the landscape and the lifestyle they they accept the missile," Sen. Hatch said. In response to questions at a town meeting in Richfield, Sen. Hatch said he is sold on MX, but not only deployment of MX in Utah. "It is critical to maintain our triad defense missiles, bombers and submarines, all capable of retaliatory attack. The U.S. in falling behind in missile capacity, that will leave us vulnerable to attack." "My mind is not made up on deployment," Hatch said. "There are too many questions in everyone's mind yet to be answered, and the situation is changing. For example, Air Force projections have already been scaled down, from 30,000 people needed at the height of construction to an estimated 15,000. "This is far from resolved and I guarantee Congress will debate all sides of the issue." |