Letters - Sept. 10, 2009

Rein in

Dino Rossi said in his last unsuccessful campaign for governor, it is time to rein in the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE). A current example to support Mr. Rossi’s conclusion is the South Fork Palouse River Water Quality Improvement Report.

The DOE news release dated August 17, 2009 states: “The South Fork Palouse River and several of its tributaries have been polluted by fecal coliform bacteria. They are violating the state’s water quality standards.” The quoted statement is intellectually dishonest and lacks context. DOE’s data in the report (page 6) indicates that 16 of 39 steam monitoring sites violated water quality standards in 2006 and 2007. It does not indicate that all of the sites violated the standards as implied by the news release.

As part of nearly two hour prepared presentation at a August 27, 2009 public meeting, DOE showed a slide of a small sand (mud) flat along the river.

It was stated that DOE employees had observed kids wading (swimming) in this spot and in 7 of 1,000 cases, if the kids ingested the polluted water, they might get sick.

The report says there are about 58 miles of streams in the watershed.

The vast majority of the water course is overgrown with vegetation and not easily accessible by people.

DOE’s slide is a worst case example purposely trying to mislead the viewer into thinking that sand (mud) bars are a common occurrence.

It is a reasonable conclusion that sand (mud) flats could be measured in feet, not miles, and would account for far less than 1% of the total waterway.

The comment period runs through Sept. 25, 2009.

Sid Houpt,

Pullman

Not easy being green

Those worshipping the “green” religion find themselves on the horns of a dilemma.

For years they have railed against corporate greed that ruins the environment and landscape.

They screamed about government colluding with super-rich special interests.

They sued to stop huge developments.

Now that commercial wind farms are the current fad of the green/renewable crowd, the greenies have caved on every principle they have promoted.

Fake agendas always end up being exposed and the elaborate hoax of commercial wind energy has exposed the green movement’s lies.

Integrity is a tough taskmaster.

There is no end to the examples of greenies turning their backs on their so-called priorities in favor of the wind farms.

Ignoring endangered species that are harmed by turbines are just one of many examples.

I like seeing those colorful “Palouse Scenic Byway” signs all over the place. I believed that ensured there are people that would protect the beautiful Palouse landscape from ugly invasive commercial enterprises. Wrong! The Palouse Scenic Byway organization is in favor of commercial wind farms. I guess they don’t understand collateral damage.

Greenie late-comer, Pickens, was all over TV with his phony-baloney wind plan until he found out the government would not hand over the money. He was at least smart enough to know wind is not financially viable and bailed before it bankrupted him.

Whitman County was so arrogant that awhile back they put in zoning that would NOT allow a property owner to build his own home on his own hill. Former Commissioner Finch said he didn’t want to see houses all over the Palouse hilltops. Now the County has zoned to allow 40-story high turbines to be built on those same hills. I asked the county attorney about this and he told me that he could successfully defend that contradictory zoning to both a judge and jury. Wow!

I didn’t move to the rural Palouse only to have a huge commercial monstrosity looming over the beautiful landscape. I am okay with the dust, smoke, chemicals and everything else associated with large farming, but I’ll not stop fighting against the nearly 500-foot tall ineffective wind turbines that fowl the environment and spoil the land. The negatives are being exposed weekly for this illegitimate source of electric energy.

I hope the meaning of the word “renewable” means returning the landscape to what it was, after they finally figure out commercial wind turbines have never reduced one bit of harmful emissions.

The Progressives always talk about their “intentions.” The question should be: “Will it work”? Thirty years of experience shows commercial wind power is a financial boondoggle.

In some cases, the energy it takes to manufacture, transport and install a turbine is as much or more energy than the turbine will produce in its lifetime.

Your tax money is used to subsidize wind developers.

It’s a wealth transfer scheme, from the working class to the super rich, pure and simple.

Don’t forget ENRON was one of the first in the U.S. to get into wind with the government’s help.

That fraud ruined more people than Madoff.

Everything I have seen the green agenda do in the past thirty years, has brought on horrible unintended consequences. Sadly, the greed associated with wind farms has a history of pitting neighbors against each other. A very few land owners in Whitman County will receive huge payments for allowing their land to be used for wind farms. Are you one of them? It’s not a matter of “not in my backyard,” it should be a matter of environmental and economic common sense.

Wind is very unpredictable, therefore expensive to operate.

Electric grids love consistency, so wind energy should never be used commercially.

In reality, wind needs massive back-up sources that must work harder to accommodate the variable wind, so it’s an overall net negative.

No wonder these huge turbines have become known as “monuments to stupidity.” For those of you still not convinced, I challenge you to mount a sail to the top of your car and see how often you make it to work on time.

Commercial wind energy is this generation’s most fraudulent tax scam.

When you hear the words green or renewable it means that the productive taxpaying citizen gets screwed.

And you always thought the greenies hated huge government/corporate money schemes.

Wrong again.

Rick Kiesz,

Thornton