Now that the bashing of Mrs. Vorwaller has quelled and we have
returned to complacent composure, perhaps we can be reasonable about
admitting some environmental dangers that do exist in our pleasant
valley.

According to a recent notice from the Utah Department of
Environmental Quality, the TOCDF has commenced its metal parts
furnace VX trial burn. The six VX (chemical warfare) runs are
necessary . . . "for measuring emissions." (Shall we continue to
contend there are no toxic emissions in the air we breathe?) Another
TOCDF notice re-evaluates "the current method of calculating
threshold levels of chemical agent in the Life Support System (LSS)
Air" since previous methods "undermined the intent of monitoring LSS
Air."

Also, the Deseret Chemical Depot asked for a modification to its
permit to monitor its Metal Parts Furnace using "modified monitoring
conditions." All of these notices, of course, added a concern for
the protection of human health and the environment. (This is
consistent with the rhetoric disseminated during atomic testing that
our neighbors in Southern Utah bought and, subsequently, died over.)

There appears to be no end to the disrespectful notion that county
citizens are dispensable and that our land mass has little value
except for desecration. The latest example of such labeling is the
national mercury storage issue. Mercury has the potential to poison
air, water, the living and yet-to-be-born. Has tax dollar
consumption grown so greedy in support of governmental programs and
personnel that our elected officials opt to stand mute at opposing
the transfer of mercury stockpiles to Tooele? Surely, we residents
of Tooele Valley will succumb to harmful exploitation if local
self-interest retreats to careless or absent leadership.

Our environmental demise is falling now on the second generation of
children we say we cherish. They, like their mothers, fathers, and
siblings, are dying from causes that a few brave ones like the
too-young-to-die Mr. Vorwaller attempted to identify in his years of
suffering. What is to prevent this legacy of unhealthy acceptance to
fall on a third generation? The recently published brouhaha about
the ãsilent conspiracyä boils down to dollars. It appears too many
of us love money more than life.

Carolyn Palmer
Stansbury Park