| 4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, March 3, 1993 a The Dallas Post Hysteria over nuclear waste halts progress The current uproar of opposition to siting a nuclear waste facility in northeastern Pennsylvania is a clear example of many Americans’ immature attitude about the inevitable trade- offs that must be made if a society is to progress. Chem-Nuclear Systems, Inc., the company preparing to build a facility somewhere in Pennsylvania, must find 500 acres of land that meets stringent guidelines relating to the underlying soll, slope and susceptibility to flood, earthquake or other natural influence. The 500 acres must be square (that’s nearly a mile per side), with only the center 50 acres used for actual disposal; the other 450 will be a buffer zone. The material to be stored is considered low-level waste, such as used clothing, glassware, tools and sludge from nuclear power plants, hospitals and laboratories. Low-level is a desig- nation based on the intensity of radiation emitted. Higher level items, such as spent fuel rods, will not be stored in this facility. The storage area itself will be constructed to contain the waste for 500 years, after which the radiation should have dissipated to safe levels. You can read all the details in Grace Dove's articles elsewhere in this issue. : Despite all the precautions being taken, the proposed facility has drawn the knee-jerk reaction that is so common whenever an undesirable accommodation must be made for a corre- sponding benefit. Do the people who so vociferously oppose this facility protest equally loudly the activities that make nuclear waste? Are they willing to step back in time and do without x-rays or radiation therapy in cancer treatment? Perhaps they think we should eliminate radiation producing activities of any kind. If they truly fear the health consequences of radioactive material, that is the only position they can sincerely take, because blocking an orderly, regulated disposal plan will inevitably lead to improper disposal of material— perhaps along their road or in the fields near their home—or ours. y It is long past the time when the United States took respon- sible action to dispose of all the waste we produce, nuclear and otherwise. As with the recent tolerance for large deficit spend- ing, we've drifted along, happy to cash in the rewards while refusing to pay the price. Turning a blind eye to these problems has only raised the price we eventually will pay, whether it's measured in dollars or damaged bodies. There's a case to be made that the Back Mountain or another community should welcome a facility like the proposed one. It will bring good-paying jobs, preserve hundreds of acres of open land and lower tax bills. That's in part because the hysteria that surrounds this facility has forced Chem-Nuclear to pay legal bribes in the form of taxes and fees to any community that accepts its plan. \ 2 A pti Hez2uiny « The United States has BIL in recent years in part because clashes like the fight over nuclear waste disposal have been stalemates. Squarely facing this and other issues and re- solving them will go a long way toward cleaning up our national psyche as well as the environment. Wanted: Outstanding women 'pathfinders’ The Wyoming Valley Women’s Network is looking for a few good women; women to honor with this year’s Pathfinder Award. Each year since 1985, the network has recognized women who have challenged traditional assumptions about women's roles and who have opened new opportunities to their sisters. As in most years, 1992's honorees included a resident of the Back Mountain when Ellie Miller joined past recipients Martha Reese, Susan Sordoni and others. Pathfinder awards will be presented in June at the 9th Annual Luzerne County Women's Conference which will be held at the Penn State campus in Lehman. Nominations, which should include the nominee's name and address as well information about her qualifications for the award, should be sent to the Wyoming Valley Women's Net- work, c/o Esther Gutin, 45 Mallery Place, Wilkes-Barre PA 18701. The deadline for entries is April 15. Do you agree? Disagree? Editorials are the opinion of the management of The Dallas Post. We welcome your opinion on contemporary issues in the form of letters to the editor. If you don't write, the community may never hear a contrasting point of view. Send letters to: The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612. Please include your name, address and a daytime phone number so that we may verify authenticity. We donot publish anonymous letters, but will consider withholding the name in exceptional circumstances. We reserve the right to edit for length and grammar. The Dallas Post Published Weekly by Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 Telephone: 717-675-5211 Ronald A. Bartizek Charlotte E. Bartizek Editor and Publisher Assoclate Publisher Peggy Young Grace R. Dove Advertising Acct. Exec. Reporter Paul Rismiller Production Manager Olga Kostrobala . Classified/typesettin Jean Hillard ypesetng Office Manager MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION AND THE PENNSYLVANIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER'S ASSOCIATION Winter stream Photo by Charlotte Bartizek Letters Affluent seniors should pay more taxes Editor: As an affluent senior citizen, I have come up with a method to . help reduce our national disgrace. I'm talking about the astronomi- cal federaldeficit that we are leav- ing for'otir children and otir'grand- children. I am asking my fellow elder citizens who earn more than $75,000 a year to take a step with me by paying taxes on 100% of their social security rather than on 50% of it as we do now. This small sacrifice - which amounts toa new designer dress or a week- end getaway - will raise as much Auto accident Editor: On Friday, February 19, I was involved in an accident on my way to Penn State University at Lehman. There were three vehicles involved in this accident: my 1991 white Mitsubishi Mirage, a 1989 Dodge van and an unknown brown vehicle. The brown car had been tailgating me and left the scene after the accident occurred. Inci- dentally, the accident occurred only about 500 feet from the en- trance to the Penn State parking lot, at approximately 9:50 a.m. This letter is two-fold. First, I would like to thank the fire, as $300 million a year toward the ever-rising federal deficit. That's over a billion dollars during the next five years including interest. Although this alone will not solve the problem, it is in our power to make a difference. It is our re- sponsibility to see that we leave for our grandchildren the best world we can. It’s time we realize how serious this problem is. Ignoring it will not make it go away; it will just rob our grandchildren of their future. It's just not fair to them, and I'm sure it is not what we as grandparents want to leave as our legacy. If we were at war, everyone would pull together. Well, this is , an economic war, and we must pull together to ensure that we leave the best possible world for our grandchildren. . Please join me and contactyour senators and congressmen im- mediately. Together we'll take the first step toward a debt-free fu- ture. Let’s tell this administration that we want to give a gift to our grandchildren. June Nelson Dallas victim seeks witnesses ambulanmce, and EMT crews from Lehman Twp. and Jackson Twp. who assisted at the scene and transported me, via ambu- lance, to the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Hospital. The paramedics and EMT staff were invaluable aids to me and provided me with comfort and reassurance both at the scene of the accident and on the way to the hospital. My inju- ries, were serious, but not criti- cal, and everyone who assisted me, especially Helen and Bill, should be commended for their caring and compassionate atti- tudes. Secondly, if anyone witnessed this accident and can identify the brown car which left the scene, I would appreciate it if they would. contact the Lehman Twp. Police Department, namely Sgt.Kocher. All information will be held in the strictest confidence. : Once again, thank you to all who helped me at this very con- fusing and frightening time. It is very reassuring to know that you are not “alone” at times like these. Janet M. Milz Ashley A. Case for conservation Many benefits to recycling motor oil By ALENE N. CASE On the night of March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez went aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Eleven million gallons of oil were inadvertently discharged into that pristine marine environ- ment. This winter there was an even more devastating spill in the Shetland Islands. These accidents have alerted the public to the in- sanity of using single-hulled tank- ers and to the major difficulties encountered in trying to clean up spilled oil. But, did you realize that Penn- sylvanians released more oil into the environment during the four years between those spills than was released in the two disasters combined?! Yes—each year do-it- yourself oil changers in our state alone dump more than 9 million gallons of used motor oil into sew- ers, onto the ground, or into the trash. That doesn't count oil leak- ing from underground tanks or disposed of improperly by indus- tries. This environmental damage has been caused right here by ordinary people like us—not by some inebriated ship captain in some far-away place. Used oil is not garbage. It should be treated either as a hazardous waste or as an important resource. One gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of drinking water! It can also create problems for sewage treatment facilities, for fish and other aquatic life, and for landfills which must treat the leachate from their collected garbage. Further- more, the oil we dispose of often contains other toxic substances such as lead, cadmium or ben- zene. So, what can we do about this situation? Treat waste oil as the valuable resource that it is, of course. That same gallon of dirty oil that can ruin a million gallons of water or cause an 8-acre oil slick on your favorite lake can be re- refined to make 2.5 quarts of motor oil. In so doing, we would save more than forty gallons of crude oil. That means that if all the used oil in the United States were recycled we would save 1.3 mil- lion barrels of oil every day. Since it also requires about a third less energy to re-refine this oil than to make new, can we afford not to recycle? Last week this newspaper car- ried a short article on page two that gave valuable information on oil recycling for residents of this local area. As with other types of “recycling, there are rules that must be followed in order to prevent problems. Remember that the businesses that accept waste oil are doing it as a public service. They do not receive any money for the oil so we should make their job as easy as possible. If you do not know the rules and have misplaced the newspaper, please call the D.A.M.A. recycling representative at 696-1134. If you live elsewhere in Pennsylvania, you can find out where to take your used motor oil by calling toll free 1-800-346-4242. When all of us begin to recycle our waste oil, we will be actively participating in the solution of several problems at once. Our . environment will be cleaner and safer. Our nation will not have to depend so heavily on imported oil, which will ease our balance-of- payments deficit. And, there should be fewer ships traveling in danger- ous waters ready to cause the next disaster if something goes wrong. Only yesterday | - Highway cannot be removed until] 60 Years Ago - Mar. 10, 1933 : SCARLET FEVER HITS | KINGSTON TWP. While there is considereable, concern among parents for the! health of their children, there | seems to be no real fear of a, Scarlet Fever epidemic in this | region. At present there are no | cases in Dallas Borough. Three | cases were reported in Kingston | Township. i Before others and visitors of] the newest Girl Scout Troop of Wyoming Council, known as the| Kunkle Girl Scout Troop 59, was | welcomed into the membership of the Council with impressive cere- monies on Saturday at Kunkle, Grange Hall. You could get - Campbell's; Tomato soup, 4 cans 25¢; Tuna fish, 2 cans, 23¢; Hot Cross buns, | 10¢ doz.; lean smoked picnics, 2; lbs. 17¢. | 9) ) p+ ts) 50 Years Ago - Mar. 5, 1943 11,000 IN AREA TO GET WAR RATION BOOK Eleven thousand, two hundred | two Back Mountain persons reg: | istered for War Ration Book #2 at | the 12 registration places estab- lished in the area. There will be ; some others however, after March | 14, because some were uanble to ' Oi secure War Book #2 when they# were unable to present War Book #1 to registrars. These people will be given an opportunity to obtain: ; Book #1, if they can prove they. never had the original book. Then War Book #2 will be issued them. Representatives of the Ameri-= can Red Cross will set up a High-» way First Aid Station at Daniel C.- Roberts Fire House at Harveyso! Lake. All persons in Lake Town-1> ship who have taken First Aid’ training are asked tobe present at. the installation so that they can be instructed in the location of, supplies and become acquainted.- with the facilities available. — Bi 40 Yours Ago Mar: 6, 1953: ni WESTMORELAND HIGH ''- SEEKS ACCREDITATION, Fred Anderson, president of the, ; Dallas Borough-Kingston Town: . ship Joint School Board asked for r evaluation of Westmoreland High, School leading toward recogni- .. tion as an accredited school at Monday night's meeting. In sketching progress of the school system since the last evaluation, he stated with a full time librar- ian, well equipped shop and half the faculty holders of Masters ~ degrees, accrediting would be assured. Collection of clothing for Korea sponsored by the Youth Fellow- ships of Dallas, Shavertown and Trucksville United Methodist Churches will be held in the Back Mountain on Sunday. In case of rain, collection will be postponed until March 15. Dallas-Franklin is in second place in Back Mountain Basket- (J ball League as a result of two wins in the past week, one over Lake- Noxen 89-40 and the other over Lehman-Jackson 84-63. a 30 Years Ago - Mar. 7, 1963 AREA WRESTLERS MAKE REGIONALS John Brominski and Thomas Borthwick became the first Dallas crown. They will compete in tie Northeastern Regionals Saturday at Muhlenburg College in Allen- town. All first place winners from the regional tournament will go on to state finals at Penn State’ University the following Saturday: Kingston Township's aban-i doned homes along Memorial’ a contract is awarded for the: 1 wrestlers to win a PIAA District II &@ 2 4 construction of the proposed 4.61 miles of new highway, Sen. Ha- rold Flack said over the weekend. The legislator from the 20th Sena- * torial District who made special | inquiries into the matter was in- # formed the ruling of the state: department was still to be fol- lowed. You could get - Ripe bananas, 10¢ 1lb.; cucumbers, 3/29¢: Maxwell House Instant Coffee, 10- oz. jar, $1.25; center cut pork | chops, 69¢ Ib. ER 20 Years Ago - Mar. 8, 1973 : AREA PHOTOGRAPHER SAVES ICE FISHERMAN James Kozemchak Sr., Back Mountain photographer was re- sponsible for saving the life of} John Fela, Swoyersville who had * been ice fishing in Northmore- land Township and had broken through the ice. When Jim walked | out on the ice which crumbled beneath his weight, he scrambled to shore and back to his car where J he called for help on a 2-way: radio. Meanwhile Jim's wife hailed" two men in a passing truck. One went for rope while the other! helped Jim push the boat toward | § Fela. They tossed him the rope | where he managed to tie it around | him and the men pulled him to § shore. ig
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers