Letters To The Editor

Thu., Aug. 31, 1995

BUSINESS

WWP oil spill policy is correct

Apparently, Bill Stimson (“WWP generates obfuscation,” Letters, Aug. 25) does not know the meaning of obfuscation. Here are the facts.

The volume of oil is 75,000 gallons. The oil is mixed with sand and gravel at 15 and 40 feet below the surface. The risk of ground rot and contamination is low. The risk of more leaking or more free flow is low. The risk of aquifer mixing is very low.

Bunker C-type oil is of low toxicity and humans would have to have direct, long-term contact. Even if that were to happen, unlikely as that is, the environmental and human health impact would be minimal.

My opinion is that the Sun International lawsuit is a cynical and possibly greedy action. Anyone who looks at this objectively can see that what is needed here is compromise, not another lawsuit. Especially a lawsuit some are increasingly viewing as frivolous and capitalistic.

Washington Water Power Co. seems to be doing everything a responsible company should do in a situation like this. The Davenport is a stunningly beautiful hotel that must be restored to it’s former and glorious state. We should be looking forward to a grand opening, not a grand lawsuit. David Elton Spokane

WWP overpowers wronged customers

Recently you had a story on the plight of some Four Lakes residents. Thanks to Washington Water Power Co., these people have had a great many electrical appliances ruined because of a faulty WWP transformer.

However, WWP refuses to reimburse them, claiming that the residents are responsible for monitoring WWP’s equipment. I checked and found that WWP has not budged from this position.

Wouldn’t it be remarkable if WWP were half as ready to accept financial responsibility for its screw-up as it is to rake in its profits?

Wouldn’t it be equally amazing if some elected official(s) who were not in big business’ pocket took an interest in this situation and actually did something to help their constituents?

Pipe dreams, of course. What will probably happen is that the Four Lakes people will have to hire a lawyer and sue, if they have the money to go up against WWP. Few will have the money to do this, as some of these people can’t even afford to replace their ruined appliances.

WWP will stall and appeal until the residents can no longer afford to continue their efforts for justice.

And people wonder why we need laws to control business. Don Wall Cheney

Smith’s got a raw deal

Shame, shame, shame on the state of Washington.

Penalties recently levied upon Smith’s Furniture were an example of selective enforcement of consumer protection and very unfair.

We all know we’ve walked into stores all over town advertising items on sale that aren’t in stock. We all know we’ve attended sales events where large mark-downs are advertised, only to find that prices are not marked down at all. The charges against Smith’s, for which the company was fined $450,000, were the same selling practices used by 50 percent to 80 percent of the stores in Spokane, including some of the largest and most reputable.

I’ve done business with Smith’s Furniture since it came to Spokane and found its business practices to be above the norm. I have used Smith’s criticized one year free financing and received just exactly that. It was clearly explained to me what the terms were at the time of financing.

The charges levied against Smith’s are a prime example of overzealous, malcontent, overregulation of business. In fact, it makes me wonder if the Department of Consumer Concerns and/or state attorney general had an ulterior motive to single Smith’s out for this harsh punishment.

I feel sorry for Smith’s employees who are now out of work and hope Smith’s will find a way to reopen stores here. I’ll be happy to be the first customer. David Hazzard Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Support wildlife commission

As government at all levels is recognizing the need to encourage local decision making, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking the opposite tack.

Increasingly bureaucratic responses to natural resource management are the norm from Olympia. Unlike the Department of Natural Resources, which has an elected head, Fish and Wildlife has a governor’s appointee for its director. He isn’t accountable to constituents.

The last two governor appointees have failed to empower local officials to provide timely, common sense responses to local problems. Customer service is virtually nonexistent.

We need to return to a citizens’ commission that represents the resource and the communities they serve. Thirty-four states operate with a commission as the policy body for the agency, including Idaho and Oregon. It’s time to return this authority to the people of Washington state. Linda Stephan Nine Mile Falls

Referendum part of socialist plot

Referendum 48 isn’t the central issue on whether citizens should have property rights, or whether they should be compensated by the public if part or all their property is taken or declared unusable for the better interest of the public.

The central issue is, do we support the Constitution and a democratic republic or the environmental and animal rights activists’ preference for socialism, meaning government ownership, management and control?

With the aid of paid signature gatherers and financial support of national activist organizations, these extremists have set the stage for a battle in November. They put referendum 48 on the ballot in a campaign to invalidate property rights Initiative 164, initiated by citizens and ratified by the Legislature.

The environmental and animal rights movement to sanitize the earth and turn the countryside back to the plants and animals has closed factories, timber, fishing and agriculture industries the middle class and undereducated depended on to earn a decent, honorable living. The socialist movement is a primary factor in our economic woes and oppressive government.

We can’t continue to let our government take our constitutional rights by manipulating the generalities of the Constitution, such as, in the public’s interest, for national interest or the general welfare.

Anyone who believes in democracy and the Constitution, owns a home, property, or ever hopes to, must vote yes on referendum 48. A yes vote means we want to keep our constitutional rights, and Initiative 164 makes government pay if it takes them. Ellis Baumgarner Toledo, Wash.

FORESTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Forest truth? Priggee’s stumped

The Milt Priggee cartoon on Aug. 25, showing the United States as a field of stumps except for a little patch in the Northwest is like most of the news and editorial coverage of environmental issues by The Spokesman-Review.

The growth of Eastern forests is the greatest environmental development in this century, according a recent cover story in Atlantic Monthly magazine. Maine is now the most forested state in the United States. This happened because of private land ownership and initiative, by the way, not because of government.

The United States now has over 720 million acres of forested land, up from about 600 million in the 1920’s, and the rate of increase of timber, by volume, over harvest is around 33 percent annually. About two-thirds of land forested when the Pilgrims landed is forested. That doesn’t include the Great Plains, western deserts or other areas Priggee shows covered with stumps where, of course, no trees grew.

This cartoon should also show the Northwest forests in flame. By allowing environmental groups to block human intervention on our public lands, we have created sick and dead forests choked with unprecedented volumes of fuel for the inevitable fires. Mari Lynne Spokane

End quackery in our forests

Boise Cascade has published a series of advertisements in The Spokesman-Review drawing medical and historical analogies between smallpox vaccinations for children and Boise Cascade’s “scientific treatment” of “deteriorating forests” - forests damaged by decades of overcutting.

One ad shows the drawing of man inserting something into a child’s arm, with the caption, “Dr. Jenner inoculating a young boy (circa 1796).”

Because Boise Cascade is a multi-billion-dollar, transnational corporation that profits from cutting public trees at public expense, it’s not surprising the analogy is utterly false. Smallpox vaccinations don’t kill children.

Boise Cascade’s “scientific treatment,” however, kills trees, streams, wildlife and entire forests.

If Boise Cascade wants to draw an accurate historical parallel with its forest practices, it should recaption the drawing, Dr. Mengele treating a young Jewish or Gypsy boy (circa 1944).”

The parallel is apt. At death camps, Nazi physicians used phenol to control typhus and other contagious diseases. Children, adults on the medical block and others who had the potential to become ill were selected for “scientific treatment” - the injection of phenol into the patient’s bloodstream. Most patients died almost immediately, and thus didn’t spread the disease.

On public lands, Boise Cascade kills trees and forests ostensibly for the same purpose, but both examples are lies promulgated to allow the perpetrators to continue their destruction.

The government and a mercenary media are helping transnational corporations destroy our forests. The American people must put a stop to this. Derrick Jensen Spokane

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