Big coal a big no-no

To the editor:

So, big coal is coming to the Mat-Su and our borough assembly is in favor.

Residents’ wishes are being overruled in the interest of a questionable net increase of jobs (what family or business will be eager to move to a coal mining town?), almost certain permanent pollution of surface and ground water sources, air pollution downwind, destruction of a moose hunting area and decreasing property values around the mining area and the coal trucking route.

My concern, as a physician, is the inevitable traffic injuries and deaths that will occur from the year-round 100 daily loads (one truck encounter every seven minutes) from the mine sites to the Port MacKenzie loading docks, traveling on our already packed roadways. Perhaps the assembly and Usibelli consider this as a normal cost of doing business, if they have considered this hazard at all.

This project has been poorly thought out and the coal leases should be permanently taken off the table. We are not Appalachia and desperate for money, and what was appropriate is no longer.

David Werner, M.D.

Palmer