Update:  It seems that Alliance/Rose did not contact Salome Restaurant to make arrangements for their open house.  The restaurant contacted them through their Facebook page last night and told them that they were welcome to have lunch there but there would be no “meeting”.  I am unsure now if Loren will even show up.  I believe that the same thing will happen at Crystal’s.  They were naive to believe that only a few people would show up.  We need to concentrate on the Saturday Open House at the Community Center and have as many people show up as possible.

I usually don’t do posts every day, but it wasn’t five minutes after I posted about the Open Houses on the 27th and the 28th that I learned that Alliance/Rose has planned another Open House on the 29th.  This one will be at the Centennial Community Center on Saturday February 29th from 12:00 to 3:00 pm.

This is yet another opportunity to tell Loren and the Rose people how we feel about them building an industrial smelter in our community.  Despite the stipulations that they have stated to make, there are still major problems with this project:

• This is still a heavy industrial plant in a valley that is predominately agriculture and residence zoned.  This kind of facility was never supposed to be a part of McMullen Valley.  The community has never wanted or planned for this type of facility.
• The smelter will still pollute with 35 tons of nitrogen oxides, aluminum particulate mater, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead and, dioxins and furans. (Think Agent Orange)  The total amount of hazardous emissions annually will be 35 tons per year, as stated in ADEQ’s Technical Review and that’s even with all the emission control measures that the company touts, and ADEQ requires applied.  Because of the changes they said the are making, Alliance should be reapplying to ADEQ as they have been  however at this point they have not done so.
• Alliance will still have an extreme amount of truck traffic coming and going from the smelter.  Now, much of traffic will be going directly through the middle of Wenden right next to our Water Department and our School and through the children’s cross walk.
• They have not addressed ADEQ and revised their application to indicate a process change to not use chlorine, so at this point the claim to not use chlorine is empty.  Without the revised application, they still have a five year license to use chlorine if they decide an alternative method is not cost effective.
• They will still be located near a flood plain and a wash that floods frequently and with increased severity.  They are in the critical zone of Wenden’s land subsidence bowl which causes active fissures and sink holes.
• They will still produce over 200,000 pounds of highly hazardous salt cake which has the potential to contaminate the aquifer which the valley relies on. Salt cake could get washed away in the wash and contaminate a large area including farm land, Salome community and all the way to the end of the valley.
• This company has only one employee, has no bank account in their name, no experience in owning or operating a smelter and wants to spend $30 million, but does not have a formal business plan.  What legitimate business does that…and Supervisor Duce Minor wants the county to trust them?

WHAT’S IN IT FOR DUCE???

One wonders…  Here are some disturbing issues surrounding Duce’s behavior:

• He arranged for three meetings with us and Alliance/Rose for the stated reason to learn more about the project.  That was not true.  He was looking for a way to get this project approved and give himself political cover.  Since he is not involved in our community, (if he was ethical and moral) he would allow the representative that is responsible for our community to actually represent her constituents.
• He is actively pursuing an agenda to get this project approved by avoiding a special meeting for the community by having the location of the next meeting in Parker rather than Wenden AND instructing Alliance/Rose on what to do next AND shooting the approval path with other county officials.
• He has proposed an actual plan that HE thinks he could execute…to go around Holly, essentially disenfranchising her and getting this project approved despite the overwhelming opposition of the community.
• He is doing everything he can to avoid having to appear in front of the community in a supervisor meeting where he wants to vote to approve this project.
• He believes and has stated that while there was a lot of opposition to the egg farms in Bouse and now that they are here, there is little or no opposition. On the contrary,  everything that we hear from talking to people in Bouse, that there is still very strong opposition, but there is little they can do now.  What reality is Duce living in?
• Duce refused to even recognize that this project will drive property values down and push winter visitors away, encourage people to sell their properties, discourage tourism and essentially kill our economy.

What we can do right now:

Have as many people as possible attend the Open House at the Community Center then we will take the next steps.  Show them how we feel about their smelter.