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Show I Citiseims raise pretest : Residents complain about sandblasting operations V Frustrated and dissatisfied with ! action taken thus far in their behalf, n group of citizens known as the 3 pleasant Grove Mobile Home Estates are now attempting to kick " up some dust around the seats of J State and Federal representatives in order to get their complaints heard Iajd acted upon, jay Jacobsen, the incoming chairman for the group, said they have had an ongoing problem for the last 11 years created by the outdoor sandblasting operations of Global Coatings, Inc. adjacent to their mobile home park. People in the mobile home park claim that the company's outdoor sandblasting causes damages to property, emits an offensive odor, creates noise pollution, and has contributed to respiratory problems experienced by some of the residents in the mobile home park. They say they have taken their pleas in the past to city, state, and federal officials, but the problem still exists. During the last city administration, ad-ministration, Harold Trexler, another spokesman for the group, said they filed suit in city court, but the case was thrown out for lack of sufficient evidence. More recently, they have attempted at-tempted to enlist the aid of United States Senators. Mr. Trexler commented that he received a letter from Jake Garn Monday stating that he had discussed the problem with Brent Bradford, Director of the Utah Air Quality Control Board and they said that Global was doing no outside blasting. Bob Matthews, another member of the group, circulated the petition among park residents that went to Senator Garn. There were 100 signatures on the petition. "We have 100 people who signed the statement that Global is doing outside sandblasting, but 100 of us are lying and Mr. Bradford is telling the truth," said Matthews. Global spokesmen do not deny that they have been doing some sandblasting sand-blasting outdoors, however, they claim that the amount done is less than five percent only on pieces to big to get inside. Since the dispute first began, Arthur DeSorcy, owner of the plant, says they added a large metal building to their structure about 18 months ago for the express purpose of accomodating the mobile park residents. The company claims the majority (95 percent) of the sandblasting is done in that building using an automatic blasting machines which have dust catchers on them. Mr. DeSorcy also said a cinder block building has been added to enclose the fans and cut down on noise. The company owner further Claims that the red dust that lies on the tops of trailers and campers in the park can also be found along the railroad tracks belowGeneva. He feels, too, that the dust on the campers parked nearest the factory was there prior to the addition of their sandblasting building and is not from any current activities. Owners of the mobile homes say all they want is to have the sandblasting sand-blasting done indoors using properly approved emission control equipment, equip-ment, for the company to leave them , alone and for them to pay them for the damages. Company officials say they want to cooperate with the people and have taken many steps in this direction. Trexler and Matthews feel they have done nothing. DeSorcy says they stopped working at night because of complaints. com-plaints. Matthews says they are not working around the clock now only because they do not have enough work to do. He claims they are sandblasting every day beginning at 6 or 7 in the morning. The company has been at the site since January of 1972; the first mobile home park residents moved in October of that same year. Jeff Dean, a representative of the Utah Air Quality Control Board, came down to Global Monday to test the possible damage of the outdoor sandblasting. One test indicated that the amount of particulate matter emitted during the sandblasting was just within standard. He ran more tests and the results of those should be ready within a week. "em Reeder of Global said they ha e changed to a different type of sandblasting material, also, to accomodate the residents of the mobile park. The change. cost them $76 a ton more than the material See Sandblast on page 12 Sandblast (Continued from page 1) they had been using previously. Representatives from the suppliers sup-pliers of the sandblasting material were present when the tests were being run. One of them, John Mc-Connel, Mc-Connel, had a report with him indicating in-dicating that the California Air Resource Board had run tests and approved their copper slag for use as a sandblasting material. Donna Brock, Pleasant Grove City councilwoman, was at the site on Monday to hear complaints and determine preliminary results of the test. The parties involved are now awaiting the results of the tests conducted but Mr. Matthews says they are not going to give up until the company has complied with their requests. |