No Fed. ‘Earmark’

At Strafford Mine

At the November meeting of the Elizabeth Mine Community Advisory Group, a suggestion was made to ask our Congressional delegation to earmark funds for the Superfund in Strafford.

Subsequently a letter authored by Bob Walker and signed by members of his study group and the chairs of the Thetford and Strafford Selectboards was sent to the members of the Congressional delegation asking for $26 million to complete the project.

It is understandable that people would like to see an end to this project which has gone on for over eight years, has cost over $20 million, and has left the river it was supposed to clean up in far worse shape than when the project started. However using an earmark on this project would be exceptionally irresponsible.

Funding for Superfund projects is allocated on the basis of threats to human health. The projects with the greatest threat to human health receive top priority. To earmark funding for the Elizabeth Mine Site, where the project manager says that even with the discoloration of the river, there is not a threat to human health, ahead of chemical and waste dumps directly affecting people’s lives, would be unconscionable.

The members of the Vermont Congressional delegation have been very careful in their use of the earmark privilege. They would be wise to ignore this flawed request.

John Freitag

South Strafford