For Those Following Along...

For Those Following Along...

Rich and I are ready to stick our journalist/investigator/sleepless nighter hats in the back of our closets for now.  The wild violets arrived yesterday, calling us back to the field.  

But as we ended up being the point people for this story unfolding in our neighborhood, I feel responsible to let you know where the story lies.  

Firstly, Thank You!

I can not believe how this community of people is capable of rallying together.  Seeing the turn out, the suggestions, the spreading of the word, the willingness to speak up to the Ohio EPA, the love sent our way, etc…it was a reminder of the collective good…and the inherent goodness that I believe lies in all of us.

With our limited resources, namely the that of time, we feel we have done what we can to attempt to first stop the destruction of the  neighboring protected habitat and wetlands, and then to bring awareness to what is happening on General Motor’s property which lies along Wolf Creek.  And so from here on out, we feel compelled to jump into our spring workload which is officially here, and to contribute the good we have set out to contribute to the world: caring for the little piece of land we inhabit, bringing it back to life in pursuit of a happy ecosystem surrounding our vegetable garden and raising these kids of ours to understand that they are stewards of the earth that gives so much to us.

We simply have reached the end of our abilities as quasi-investigators, journalists, reporters…whatever we have been for the past few weeks.  And we have enough information now to understand that there is not much more we can do than to encourage people to flood the Ohio EPA’s inbox with public comments voicing concern before the comment period is closed on April 17th.


The Story As We Know It

The short of it is that the DNR regulations are written in a way which benefit those with enough resources to take what they would like and do with it what they please.  The two endangered bat species which live/lived in the woodlands and wetlands on General Motors property are only protected in between breeding seasons.  Though the protected space was banned from being farmed, it was rezoned as industrial land and so long as the space was not ‘disturbed’ during the bats breeding season which by the DNR’s bureaucratic standards starts on April 1st, it could be decimated and built upon.  The Ohio EPA granted ‘tentative approval’ to GM to clear the space they desire to build upon.  Ultimately, they cleared about 2/3 of the wooded space, leaving a very thin line of buffer that has a silt line running through it and which by building code standards they can not build upon.

What hasn’t been approved by the Ohio EPA is GM’s building application for this space.  Any application submitted to the EPA must be available for the public to see and then to comment on.  The application materials were not published and available to see until I doggedly called the Ohio EPA.  They told me that it should have been on their site, but there must have been a ‘technical glitch’.  The materials are up on the site and you can view them via the link below.  The destruction to the wetlands, the endangered species, and the proximity of the proposed project to Wolf Creek are all evident in the documents.  A silver lining in reading the documents came to light: the facility proposed will be an extension of the small powertrain production facility already on the property.  There will be less by-products from this sort of production facility than say a battery production plant.

Rich attended our city’s town council meeting to voice concern over the lack of communication from the town, also airing our concerns regarding water safety for the Wolf Creek Watershed.  We asked for better communication and also learned that so far no other properties in the area are zoned for industrial use.  We plan to be more active in town (something we must make time for) and Rich was even invited to throw his hat in the ring for the open planning commission seat.

When on the phone last with the EPA, I was told that a ‘large number’ of comments have been submitted already and we hope that we can have as many more flood their inbox as possible before commenting closes and they make a decision by June 18th at the very latest.

Our concerns which we communicated in our public comment include:

-disappointment in the communication between the OEPA, who is entrusted as an authoritative agency with communicating with the consitituents which their decision affect

-insistence upon mitigation of water contamination with concern for Wolf Creek, a tributary to the Great Miami.  Frankly, with all of the developable space NOT adjacent to our waterway, it seems unnecessary to allow industry to mingle with water

-outrage at approving removal protected habitat for endangered species, the reason that these species are dwindling and struggling for survival to start with.  Further outrage at disturbing wetland space.  So little habitat and wetlands are left in agricultural land.  Ultimately, how is the EPA protecting the environment or the citizens who depend on it?

If you feel compelled, you can take the time to make a comment by emailing your concerns to epa.dswcomments@epa.ohio.gov with reference number 238487W for this General Motors project. Public comment closes on April 17th and a decision will be made shortly after.

This week we are planting 225 trees on our property.  This fall we have plans to plant 300 more directly on the edge of property closest to the lost wetlands and woodlands.  We are fortunate that the water flow from General Motors’ property actually flows away from our property.  We are all unlucky because it flows toward Wolf Creek.  We intend to stay here and to grow this place of ours greener, fuller of life, and to continue to test our water as we always have to be safe.  But we sure as heck hope that the EPA and the engineers of this proposed project feel they are held accountable by a large group of us to maintain water safety.

Thank you for listening and unless there is major news, I’m done reporting on this story.  Back to the simply life we designed for ourselves!

Thanks for everything,

Sam

You can read over and see maps for this proposal by following this link:


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