February 9. 2007
To:David Mason Jr.
Plant Manager
Georgia-Pacific
1975 Watkins Road
Columbus, OH43207
Mr. Mason,
I am asking for your help because I’m very worried about Georgia-Pacific’s plant effect on the environment around their facility. I’m not one of those “fanatical environment crusaders” who normally writes letters or pickets or whatever they do. I’m just an average mother who is concerned, felt compelled to let you know why, and ask for your help. I know it’s long, but WOULD YOU PLEASE READ MY ENTIRE LETTER? It is important to me to know that you read it. I pray and trust that you will.
Terry Tucker, the cousin of a very close friend of mine, was killed in the 1997 explosion at your plant. That was a very traumatic event that made big headlines in the papers. Terry’s death and G-P’s safety and environmental issues were huge, exciting headlines for a short time, but soon after many forgot about it. However, since then, Georgia-Pacific has continued to negatively affect the lives of many other individuals by contaminating the environment around your plant. Terry lost his life in one day. How many other people are slowly and quietly becoming ill over time, and dying, because of your plant?
What must you do to change? I am requesting that you
1)CLOSE GEORGIA-PACIFIC’S TOXIC PIT. It must be replaced with a modern waste water treatment facility. It is unreal to acknowledge that toxic waste is seeping into the surrounding ground water, especially given what we know today, and do nothing about it.
2)RENOVATE FORMALDEHYDE PRODUCTION. The formaldehyde produced at Georgia-Pacific is cancer-causing, and its vapors must not be allowed to affect those in the Columbus area. This renovation was implemented for the production of resin, and must also be done for formaldehyde.
3)REDUCE TOXIC AIR EMISSIONS FROM THE PLANT. It is unconscionable to release these toxins into the air. I know that you wouldn’t want your family to breathe these toxins, and neither should those who live near the plant.
Terry died in 1997. We can’t go back and change that. Terry will never be back in our lives. We don’t know how many more people have become ill or died since then due to Georgia-Pacific’s toxic wastes. We can’t go back and change that either. How many more people might die due to G-P’s toxic wastes? We CAN change that!
I know that if Georgia-Pacific truly is a respectable company, you will step up and do what is needed to be a “good neighbor”. Positive actions should happen not only in response to lawsuits and court orders. They must be taken outof respect for health and life, and seeing that there is nootheroption except to keep our environment clean. I know that G-P will step up to their responsibilities.
Please, for a moment,would you do something for me? Would you imagine YOU AND YOUR FAMILY living 500 yards from the G-P plant? Truly sit at your desk and imagine for a several minutes what it would feel like.
Even though the water tastes ok, is it really ok to drink? Is it ok to put in your baby’s bottle? When you tell your kids to go outside to play and get fresh air, you see them swinging and running with flushed, red cheeks. Are they really breathing healthy fresh air? Or, did you send them out to breathe air that might give them cancer after they play it in for 15 or 20 years? As a parent, should you feel guilty sending them out to play where you know toxic emissions are being released? Should you keep them indoors to play?
You wonder these questions, but you don’t know the answers. And, you worry about the answers. You realize that you as a “regular” neighborhood person can’t go over and replace the toxic pit that is seeping wastes into your well water. You can’t renovate the processes at the plant that release emissions into your back yard. You can’t clean up the water and the air, only G-P can. What does it feel like? You feel powerless. Imprisoned.
And it feels scary. Downright scary.
Mr. Mason, are you done envisioning what it would feel like for YOUR family to live in that small home near the plant? Did you really do it, or did you just skim this letter briefly? I hope you really did take the time to lean back in your chair and imagine what it would really feel like to live near the plant. Having done that, you’re nowmentally back to your own desk in your own office. Back to this moment. With thatvision of your familyin your mind, I ask that you nowtakeactions that you would want taken to protect YOUR family. As plant manager, you DO have the power to help keep our environment clean, and I pray you use that power to help us all.
Thanks in advance for your concern.
Mary Ellen Magee
662 Fleetrun Ave
Gahanna, OH43230-3230