LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Coverage recalls Peace Corps ties
3/9/2014Thank you for your coverage of the upheaval in Ukraine. My family has a special place in our hearts for Ukrainians; my daughter was a Peace Corps volunteer there. She taught English at a school in the Kiev region.
My scenario for peace: With the United Nations as facilitator, convene negotiations among the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ukraine, Crimea, and Russia. The endgame would be a NATO-Ukraine partnership and an alliance between Russia and Crimea.
KEVIN JOYCE
Sylvania
Landfill issue needs attention
In response to Thomas Walton’s Jan. 27 op-ed column, “Is Maumee Bay landfill an ecological time bomb?”: As chief chemist for the City of Oregon from 1977 to 1981, I agree with former Toledo chief chemist Tom Kovacik’s concern that the placement of pathogens and untreated sewage sludge on the dredge island Facility 3 is an ecological time bomb.
Facility 3 was designed to address dredging solids. It is not designed as a landfill for untreated sewage sludge.
When I worked in the environmental field from 1981 to 1998, my company was required by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to prove by scientific studies that we could do our job and protect the environment. Where are local civic activists now to protect Lake Erie?
Maumee Bay State Park has been plagued with beach closures because of pathogenic bacteria. Now S&L Fertilizer is dumping untreated sewage sludge that includes pathogenic bacteria onto the surface of Facility 3, before offering any proof that these bacteria will not contaminate the park. If it is unable to prove this, it needs to stop now.
Before we do any more damage, we should determine the proper use of Facility 3. S&L must prove by testing that it is making soil that isn’t going to leach contaminants. Facility 3 should be developed into a port facility, not a sludge lagoon.
LYNN SHERMAN
Perrysburg