The word “biomass” has come to mean another timber industry give-away of what’s left of forests via lies, the consequences of which are poisoning our natural resources. A reputable state forest council site offers a sound debunking of the biomass hype.
As per the Sept. 28 land use hearing testimony on the in-the-works downtown Vancouver plant, and valid air-quality concerns aside, the concern of water should also be raising eyebrows. The plant’s water demands 72,000 gallons minimum per day when many municipalities across the nation are already at water limits; and the plant’s discharge of toxic wastewater is 30,000 gallons minimum from the operational boiler alone per day — likely affecting open-air waterways.
In this scenario, the phrase “thinning restoration” most accurately applies to voting out of office those who willfully decimate our quality of life (e.g. Dick Armey’s army: candidates endorsed by FreedomWorks or the Tea Party Express), and to exposing those corporations propping them up (e.g. Koch Industries). Rather than surrender any semblance of journalistic responsibility, The Columbian might try investigating and publishing the collusion between corporate and political elites wherein our natural resources are being turned over to polluting profiteers. By doing so, an otherwise uninformed electorate might actually be informed.
Edie Cotton
Vancouver
