• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Anti-Sempra Booth Turns Heads at Home and Garden Show Sells Spring

Posted on: Sunday, 19 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By Bob Kirkpatrick, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho

Feb. 19--TWIN FALLS -- Scores of people stood in line waiting to get a taste of homemade ice cream Saturday at the annual Home and Garden Show at the College of Southern Idaho's Eldon Evans Expo Center. But one of the day's busiest booths belonged to a group called Citizens Protecting Resources.

CPR, a Jerome County based group opposed to Sempra Generations proposed coal-fired power plant, is dedicated to preserving a clean environment for the Magic Valley.

"We're over the half way point to reaching our goal of 1,000 signatures," Carl Nellis, spokesman for CPR said. "On Friday we recorded 225 signatures and so far today (by 1 p.m.) we've had 300 people sign our petition."

The anti-Sempra group wants to help prevent the San Diego-based power company from building a 600-megawatt coal-fired plant near Jerome because of what Nellis described as potentially hazardous water and health issues.

"We don't want mercury based pollutants in our water or in the air we breathe," Nellis said. "We're especially concerned about the adverse affects on children and pregnant women."

One of the people helping gather signatures at the CPR booth was Dr. Betty Sugden, a family practitioner in Jerome.

"Even small amounts of mercury can cause toxicity to the nervous system that may lead to mental retardation and hearing loss," Sugden said. "The sulfur and nitrogen released from the coal can also aggravate asthma and emphysema."

Nellis said the group chose to use a petition type of format to get the attention of elected officials because the group was told it cannot address the Planning and Zoning Commission through the initiative process. He said more than 75 percent of the people he has spoken with the first two days of expo said they were willing to sign the petition. The other 25 percent, according to Nellis, said they couldn't sign it because either their jobs required them to remain neutral on the subject, or that they hadn't decided if they were for or against the coal-fired power plant. He said others told him the Magic Valley had to have some type of power source and that they would rather have coal than nuclear because coal generates less radiation.

According to Nellis, coal-fired energy puts out more radiation that nuclear power.

Magic Valley residents supporting the petition to prevent the construction of the coal-fired power plant offered their opinion also.

"I am positively opposed to brining pollution to the Magic Valley," said Ruthie Turnipseed of Filer. "They are not telling us the whole truth. Politicians need to look at the real picture and realize we can't be bought off."

Bob and Bobbie Husome of Buhl said they "didn't want Magic Valley resources to go to California."

Some of the other concerns of the CPR group according to Nellis is the 1,200 or so jobs created with construction of the plant. He said that many of those jobs would be filled by transient construction employees that would move out of the counties once the facility is complete, taking with them disposable income that would normally be spent here.

Nellis said the bulk of the remaining jobs would be high-tech jobs that Jerome and Twin Falls county residents would not be qualified to obtain. But that isn't his biggest concern.

"If Sempra is allowed to build the coal-fired power plant, the Magic Valley would become an industrial community- thereby losing its agricultural identity," Nellis said. "The only thing we'll be know as then is a waste dump for mercury for generations to come."

(Times-News writer Bob Kirkpatrick can be reached at 735-3376 or by email at bkirkpatrick@magicvalley.com)

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Times-News

More News in this Category