Page 388 - scvhs19761979minutes

. .j-I KNOW YOU' LL BE INTERESTED IN THIS EDITORIAL ••••
Jim Foy - KNBC

KNBC EDITORIAL

OHOG FARMS AND CHEMICAL WASTES

10,000_people up around Saugus aren't going to like this
one. That's how many people signed a petition to keep an
industrial chemical reprocessing plant from being built on
720 ·acres_there. They're saying "dump the· dump."

As we see it, the reasons for building it are stronger.-.and
more compelling than the reasons against it; if, and only if,
the other possib~~ locations don't measure· up.

First, what we're talking about isn't a.dump. There's
a need for something to be done with hard-to-handle industrial
wastes: oils, _solvents, pesticides, acids ,,,and many others._
Right now, those ~aste~are bein~ mi~ed ~it:h trash at a few
spots - dumps - and buried, hoping it'll -all go away. ~roub~e
is, industrial wastes don't go away. And Sout~ern California
is running out of places to hide those wastes. The new plant
won't just bury them. It'll re-process, re-cycle or chemically
destroy them,· too. We think that's good.

__ On the negative side, no one wants to live anywhere
()ear a plant like that. Families living within a few miles
of the place say they prefer the hog farm that's there now.
And they say spots out in the desert would be just as good
and would bother fewer people.
That's the point that we think needs more study; study we
think should an:d can be done by county authorities, focusing on the
geologic and ground water questions.

Then, if the Saugus location turns out to be the best available
spot, the plant should be built there.

The problem of what to do with industrial chemical waste
won't go away until an advanced technology plant starts working
somewhere.

#II-903
Broadcast times: 9/10-6:55PM; 9/10-Sign-Off; 9/11-6:55 AM
Time: 1:46

( )