Letter: Please find a new location for asphalt plant

Posted 5/11/21

To the editor:

In response to the letter encouraging residents to welcome the asphalt plant in Seekonk, let me first say that I completely agree with your main point: we cannot continue to enjoy …

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Letter: Please find a new location for asphalt plant

Posted

To the editor:

In response to the letter encouraging residents to welcome the asphalt plant in Seekonk, let me first say that I completely agree with your main point: we cannot continue to enjoy the conveniences of modern life without accepting the impact they have on our health and environment.  

I believe we are beginning to realize the consequences of our lifestyles and are becoming more mindful of our choices. With knowledge comes power, and hopefully our infrastructure will not be as heavily reliant on asphalt and other toxic trades in the future. I also agree that we should embrace improvements made to some of the most hazardous industries; however, I worry that implying that we should accept a plant that would be located so closely to wetlands and residential areas because it is an improvement from older designs is harmful.

First, “state-of-the-art” is a subjective term, and the proposed plant will absolutely still produce toxic emissions, even if it’s in compliance with environmental regulations. Allowing it to be built doesn’t mean that one of the (several) existing plants in our area will close. We will still be living with the less-than-ideal air quality and all of the emissions that we currently have, but will be adding the carcinogenic and toxic effects from the new plant to our total toxic burden, harming our health and environment.   

While the site is zoned as industrial, it was zoned decades ago prior to several residential neighborhoods being established, and has only ever been used as “light industrial”. It is unfortunate that this oversight and lack of specificity on paper wasn’t realized by the town of Seekonk until this issue arose.

Last, I want to be clear that we are not villainizing the applicant. He deserves the benefit of the doubt — even if it is widely reported that other asphalt businesses operate outside the confines of their regulations — our concerns are solely based on the operations he has defined in his proposal, and those concerns are backed by multi-disciplinary experts including data provided by the EPA, CDC, medical doctors, toxicologists, scientists with multiple areas of expertise, real estate experts, etc. According to an article published in the Valley Breeze dated May 5, 2017, the same applicant withdrew a similar proposal in Pawtucket and was quoted:

“After discussions with a number of community members and leaders, I realized that it was in everyone’s best interest to move in a different direction,” said Joaquin. “I hadn’t before fully thought of all of the points that they raised, since there had been similar operations in the area in the past. After hearing their concerns, I want to do what we all think is right. I love Pawtucket and my company is vested in the community. We want to be good neighbors, just like everyone else.”  

It’s important to consider how this will seriously impact our whole community, and I really hope that Mr. Joaquin comes to the same conclusion here, and finds a more appropriate location for his plant.

Susan and Jude Kostas 

Barrington

Lisa Davis 

Barrington

Krystal and Matt Higgins 

Barrington

Ann Marie Cardosi

Seekonk, Mass.

Noah Escaler

Seekonk, Mass.

Ruck and Paula Burbank

Seekonk, Mass.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.