From bread basket to wastebasket

To the editor:

How does it happen in a democracy that a handful of men on the “planning commission,” who are appointed to that commission by one man, the mayor of the Mat-Su Borough, can make a decision that impacts the health and safety of hundreds of families and acres of rich, productive farmland in south Palmer?

These seven men have made it known that they are very much in favor of the plan submitted by the applicant, that is, the private monofill dump entity.

No matter that south Palmer already has a polluting monofill dump.

No matter that the proposed site is ever-so-close to residential homes, Kepler-Bradley Lakes recreation area, and directly across the highway from the enormous gravel pit where heavy equipment and trains rattle the ground every day.

No matter that the aquifer that feeds water to hundreds of families and many acres of farmland lies just beneath the proposed dumpsite.

No matter that that those same families and farmers are steadfast in their opposition to this private dump.

These seven guys, and the mayor who appointed them, still want to approve this awful private dump.

It’s going to accept asbestos, cut into pieces. It’s going to welcome all manner of other building and industrial trash from Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska. It will effectively turn south Palmer into the wastebasket of Alaska.

We can’t figure why they want this, or why they would do this to the good people who live here. Will it create jobs? Sure, three of them. Money? Somebody must be in line to get some. I used to like the mayor. Now, not so much.

Barbara Landi

Palmer