More Complaints
The Joplin Globe, Sunday, December 3, 2006, reports on more odor complaints last week. According to Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) spokesman, Richard Beydler, due to the weather, the MDNR staff was prevented from getting out to verify the stink with their Stink-o-Meter. The article references "a number of complaints" and also "several complaints" in describing the intensity, duration, and likely source of the odor, Renewable Environmental Solutions LLC (RES).
Fifteen days has lapsed since the last documented violation. Where's the $25,000 Fine?
posted by CuriousGeorge @ 3:38 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Renewable Energy Solutions is the most promising new technology for a great source of energy and all I read about in this paper is the negative. It sounds like there is a vested interest, both from the state and the media, in hassling this company and creating public outcry. Why not do a real investigation on the problem and take your personal stink-o-meter from in front of your monitor and over to the plant, walk around the town, smell more than just smells. Dig up something with some substance worth reading on the issue.
From what I've read in the past RES has only poured private monies into the plant to make it work. Having to pay for someone else's waste to turn it into cheap fuel, sterile water and inert fertilizer seems like a crime to me. What other "wonderful" uses do you have for turkey and pig waste that has a better benefit than lowering your fuel bills and cleaning up your environment. Didn't those turkey processors have to "PAY" to have their waste taken away before? If not who is competing for the waste stream and driving up the costs for RES? I'd love to know what the cost of their oil would be if they got the turkey leftovers for free. Where did it wind up before, the river system? Carthage drinking water? Sewage treatment plant? Isn't RES making things better than before besides a smell?
I remember driving by one of those factory farms and the smell can be so bad that you can't see the road. Yes the odor from processing plants is very offensive. I'm sure that RES has had a smell problem but has anyone offered a broader, win-win solution or is it left totally up to RES to foot the bill?
Has the city or state offered to help RES relocate? Suggestion: Offer them a deal, "we'll find a new site for your plant and you provide us with reduced fuel costs at our hospital co-gen plant or public vehicle fuel and lots of well paying jobs". Give them one of those famous tax incentives big oil enjoys to drop a toxic refinery in you community. Hey! Don't those smell too?
If you don't, someone else will and because of a little short sightedness causing a lot of hassle, RES will pull up stakes and go somewhere else. There is already talk about Europe. If RES picks up and goes to friendlier places, who looses? Not RES. Maybe in the short term they'll have to spend some moving cash but make no mistake, someone will pay handsomely for their technology. They will generate lots of jobs, clean up lots of communities and create lots of cheap light sweet crude for SOMEONE ELSE.
Turkey waste is just one possible source of raw material for this process. How many tire dumps exist in or around Carthage or within trucking distance? What about municipal waste or sewage treatment? Can you imagine people being excited to recycle because the end result has a direct impact on their electric bills or the quality of their water? How about Carthage getting 'on the map' for being the first community to not only accept but to promote this process. Everyone would enjoy driving low emission vehicles. Farmers convert their tractors to use RES fuel directly saving them 50% or more. Could you imagine a portable RES truck pulls up to a farm, sucks up the animal waste and in 1 hour the farmer has enough fuel, water and fertilizer to last him a month? What about a restaurants waste oil? How about your dumps? The possibilities are endless but maybe not for Carthage, MO.
If it happens that RES relocates, I'm sure some people in Carthage will cheer and celebrate. Be careful for what you wish. After RES has gone and you find yourself going to Wal-Mart to get your rubber muck boots, water purifiers and air fresheners, ask yourself if the alternative to RES is better, please really look at it honestly, will it be worth it?
p.s. Don't delude yourself into thinking this is the first time a good thing has been pushed aside in favor of the status quo. Our current political, economic and environmental condition proves otherwise.
Ken Stoneburg
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