Incineration poses many hazards to adjacent communities based on my more than 20 years experience as a government regulator inspecting incinerators and as a public advocacy consultant reviewing accidents, leaks, explosions and operational problems associated with these facilities. Incineration is a dangerous technology because there are so many problems that can and do result in release of unsafe emissions to both workers and communities. All incinerator permits authorize normal rates of emissions assuming the incinerator will only perform in a normal manner, which is highly misleading due to upset conditions; even normal emissions may not be safe since cumulative and synergistic chemical effects are poorly known to science. Fact is, all incinerators experience many upsets, which are difficult to review during permitting because they tend to be unpredictable. Often there are no limits on the number of upsets per year, the volume of emissions per upset or the length of time each upset may last.
Your editorials need to be more objective about incineration and its hazards, including a lengthy, untidy history in the U.S. Just as incineration has evolved as far as it can but continues to be unsafe, new alternative treatment technologies have been emerging and are replacing incineration of hazardous waste, medical waste and other waste streams. In early 1996, the Federal EPA approved use of the first alternative disposal technology for PCB destruction by Commodore. Alternative technologies offer safety and performance features lacking in incinerators.
Neil J. Carman, Ph.D.
Former State of Texas investigator of industrial plants including incinerators
Austin, Texas
Southern Heritage
Former NAACP chapter president H. K. Edgerton is marching more than 1,300 miles to promote Southern Heritage awareness. Edgerton, a black defender of various Confederate causes, is walking across Dixie from the Tar Heel State of North Carolina to the Lone Star state of Texas to rally Southerners to the cause of defending Southern heritage and symbols. He seeks to emphasize the rightfulness of the Confederate cause here in the South, across the United States and around the world.
He also hopes to raise money for the Southern Legal Resource Center and the SCV for heritage defense.
Ken Bundrum
Jacksonville
Race
I see that "race" has been brought up again as a reason for placing African-Haitian refugees in the processing center near Homestead, Fla. The theme seems to be that they are of African descent and that Cuban immigrants are not subject to this treatment. Not so! All refugees go to the center on Krome Avenue for processing. While stationed at Homestead (military) and later retired in the area I observed firsthand the treatment of immigrants. I was in the Keys when the Mariel Boatlift was underway.
Some of these immigrants were African-Cubans. There was no discrimination shown against them. Indeed, most Cubans were of Spanish-Cuban descent.
What is missing from the equation is that they were fleeing from a communist dictatorship with whom we had a hostile relationship? Have we forgotten that Cuba had Soviet missiles deployed on their island that were aimed at us? Have we already forgotten the "Cold War"?
Yes, they received different treatment in their processing from other refugees because of the communist connection — still do. We passed laws to favor this type of refugee. They had to come here "illegally" as President Castro would incarcerate them (or worse) if caught trying to leave Cuba.
The same does not apply to the majority of Haitians or any other illegal refugee. To imply that it is racial discrimination flies in the face of truth. And by the way — the detention center was an army missile battalion headquarters before becoming the processing center. It had the same fence around it then as now. It was fine for the soldiers and should be fine for the detainees seeking asylum in our country.
Dan O’Donnell
Anniston
