Assembly, mayor show disregard for health, safety

To the editor:

As a concerned physician with 38 years of practice in this Valley, I attended the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting on Sept. 18. I, and many others, testified in favor of having a Comprehensive Health Impact Assessment done on Usibelli’s Wishbone Hill Mine project and the two other much larger prospective strip mines a little farther up the Valley.

My concern was not the lowering of property values in proximity to the mines or the contamination of the aquifer that feeds our wells in the lower Valley by the slurry ponds created by the washing of coal, but the more immediate safety of our roads between the mines and the port at Point MacKenzie. An encounter with a coal truck every eight minutes between the mines and the port 24/7, regardless of road conditions, is going to cost lives.

The assembly, with exception of Jim Colver and Warren Keogh, voted to deep-six this study. In doing so, the rest of the assembly and the mayor himself showed a very blatant disregard to the health and safety of their constituents. I have a feeling that any personal injury attorney worth his salt will go looking for deeper pockets than those of the coal companies when either a fatality or serious injury occurs on the highways.

I’m certainly no lawyer, but I wonder if those pockets may be those of the borough. There is an election on Oct. 2. The mayor’s seat and one other are up for re-election. Time to vote.

David P. Werner, M.D.

Palmer