Letter to the Editor

Public urged to protest

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

To the Editor:

In reference to the article "Putnam wildlife, waterways affected by REX pipleline" in the Dec. 27 BannerGraphic, Rockies Express also will be building several natural gas compressor stations with one in Bainbridge.

The Bainbridge Compressor Station will not bear their name, nor will the permit that the Indiana Department of Environmental Manage-ment issues. The public response period for comments on this station was from Nov. 21-Dec. 21, 2007. The busiest time of year for most people, I would imagine not very many saw the classified ad run in your paper.

What the classified ad did not tell us was that there would be four stacks belching out toluene and benzene (cancer-causing agents) along with the pollutants mentioned (275 tons a year). Two of these stacks would be 68 feet tall, each with two shorter ones.

IDEM is not requiring an environmental impact statement for the air quality or "scrubbers" to minimize the pollution. I feel that these compressor stations should be included in the federal permit that REX has applied for, and that the air quality is as much a priority as the waterways. Why should our community be polluted by a corporate giant when there is no benefit to be gained by us? I hope your readers will send their letters in protest (in triplicate) to arrive in Washington DC by Jan. 14 to: Kimberly D. Bose, secretary, FERC, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington DC 20426.

Georgia Gray,

Greencastle