COMMUNITY

ASPHALT BATCH PLANT AND CONCRETE BATCH PLANT

By: Cindi Bright September 16, 2008

Dear Mayor Temple-I wrote you a couple weeks ago regarding the approval of an asphalt batch plant and a concrete batch plant in the foothills of Mt. Rainier, and am baffled why you have not taken the time to reply. We need your help in saving our City.

We wish to express our desire to stop the building of the proposed asphalt batch plant and the concrete batch plant in Orting, located in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. We are requesting that you as Mayor attend the Pierce County Public Hearing that is set for September 17, 2008 at 9:00am at the Pierce County Annex.
Orting residents and visitors have enjoyed this location for centuries. Orting is a diverse, thriving and safe community. Orting is nestled in the foothills of Mt. Rainier, providing a great place to live, work and play. We value our open space, parks and recreation opportunities, affordable housing, partnership with excellent schools, opportunities for businesses and jobs, involved community and our responsive government.
Orting is recognized for our healthy family environments (the trails, the parks, the bicyclists), and of course our world renowned pristine and majestic views of Mt. Rainier. The quality of life, our total environment and air quality lies solely in your hands, along with our City officials, and Pierce County officials. The decisions that are made will foretell the future of Orting and the future of our quality of life for our families and our children.

We need to maintain this area in as close to its natural state as possible. An asphalt recycling plant would be a major detriment to the environment. Not only in terms of the impact on the environment from both pollution and increased traffic.

Asphalt is produced by mixing rock, sand and recycled asphalt with hot, gluey, petroleum-based asphalt cement. Asphalt plants produce the same emissions as power plants, including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur and lead oxides.

Asphalt plants emit chemicals known to cause cancer and respiratory problems; state toxicologists have testified at hearings on behalf of their office that "we cannot give you an assurance that this facility will be safe for people." Witnesses from other locales where asphalt plants operate told of serious health, odor and noise problems. These toxic fumes have been proven to cause nosebleeds, breathing problems, and heart problems, decrease lung function in children, headaches, major health issues and cancer. There's research that shows there's higher elevated cases of brain cancer in children. Children are very susceptible to these toxins.

Mayor Temple, I am hopeful that you really care about our community as much as the long time residents do and will take the appropriate action to bring to a halt the approval of this asphalt batch plant and a concrete batch plant. Our valuable, precious valley farm land is gone. Once our area, the foothills of Mount Rainier, the beautiful Orting Valley and our magnificent and majestic view of Mount Rainier, the Puyallup and Carbon Rivers are polluted with these toxic emissions; it will all be gone for ever. We must stop the asphalt batch plant and concrete batch plant so our future generations will be able to experience the beauty of all our area has to offer. It is up to you and our elected officials to step up, speak out and to protect our beautiful, pristine Mount Rainier views, our clean air, and our citizens’ health and welfare. Please don’t let your legacy as Mayor be known as a non-responsive legacy.

Thank you,

The Citizens of Orting