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PICTURE PERFECT VERMONT |
| "Time stands still here... You might even forget when it's time to go home" ...Governor Howard Dean |
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Recently I came across an excellent article about the current status of Merchant Power Plants in an industry publication, Power Magazine. Friends suggested I send it to the governor so he could broaden his perspective about the natural gas power plants proposed for southwestern Vermont, and wondered if the governor had an e-mail address since the article was on-line. So I looked at the governor's web page, his virtual office. As I scrolled down the page, an exquisite photograph of Vermont came into view. The dairy farm in the foreground, church and village in the middle, a low cloud revealing tended fields beneath a wooded hillside in the background. The caption reads "Time stands still here... You might even forget when it's time to go home." At the bottom it says "VERMONT". It didn't take me long to recognize the setting: Danby Four Corners, just a few miles from where I live. There's the church, without a steeple, and next to it is the quonset hut for kids to roller skate. There's the Town Hall where the pipeline company, Energy East / New York State Electric & Gas, held their private, closed door meeting for Danby property owners; where the selectboard held a public hearing on the gas project and more than 100 people attended, along with representatives of all the participating companies, two state agencies, and quite a few legislators. It was the best run meeting of all the more than half dozen public forums held so far on this gas project. The next day, Danby citizens voted 185-52 to oppose the gas line. There's the horseback riding stable, and the Danby Four Corners Store, the glue that holds the community together, where you can get the best buy and selection of work boots around and just about everything else, too, including Martin guitars. A mile or so behind the photographer, out of the picture, is the proposed natural gas pipeline route through Danby, following a power line so overgrown with underbrush even I have to look closely to find it. The 100-foot clear-cut they propose will be highly visible. Just past the forested hillside shown at the top of the picture is the acreage owned by OMYA, a privately-owned Swiss mining company, where they plan to clear-cut the trees, strip back the soil and uncover the rich deposit of calcium carbonate. Over the next few decades, OMYA plans to dig a big hole in the hillside shown on the governor's web page. Rumors about OMYA's intentions have been circulating in the valley for years. They have been quietly buying up the mountainside for decades. A few years ago, property owners in the neighborhood were taken out to dinner by OMYA to explain what was going to happen. Somebody mentioned to me that they might pave my winding dirt road and truck the calcium carbonate out that way. Another possibility is to truck it down the Brook Road, or through Tinmouth, or to run a slurry in a pipeline down to Route 7 and put it on rail cars. The week after Danby's public hearing on the gas project, rumors began anew about OMYA's intentions in our valley, that they might start mining operations soon. The ideas of a natural gas pipeline and a slurry pipeline merge and we wonder if the opening of a natural gas pipeline trench will be used for other purposes as well. No, time is not standing still in this photograph of the perfect Vermont. The dairy farm in the foreground is for sale. Our privacy has been invaded by the "progress" of a natural gas pipeline. Our peace and quiet is about to be shattered by years of blasting and trucking because public policy dictates that the exploitation of our natural resources for the benefit of an international, multi-billion dollar company should take precedence over the lives of the people who live here. There is a pipeline route drawn on my border, on a remote hillside above my spring water supply, and the possibility that my other border will become a truck route. A few weeks ago I was discussing this situation with a wise elder and asked him what he thought I should do. He said, "I know you don't want to hear this, but maybe you need to relocate." "You might even forget when it's time to go home," says the governor's web page. I wonder if the governor knows what picture is on his web page. It is my home. But it's your home too, if you love Vermont. What picture do you want to see for the future of Vermont? Annette Smith, Executive Director |
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Copyright © 1999 Vermonters for a Clean Environment. |
Text of a letter to editors, December, 1999