Dear readers:

     I don't wish to be controversial but I can not let this pass without comment.

     I was involved with the group RRG in the very beginning. In short order, I realized that at the minimum they were misdirected and at the most this was "Greenwashing." I'm not saying that JH was aware but what I am saying is that he is trying to perpetuate this MYTH that the PCBs were headed here. I am posting some articles, JH's quote and some information that was given to the heads of RRG, and it was ignored to the detriment and misdirection of the community. I guess you have to control the information to get the outcome you wish.

     Mr. Hufnagle writes:

> "when it looked like the Hudson River PCB’s were going to be shipped to CWM in Porter a couple of years ago, I walked from Albany to the gates of CWM in a barrel, 350 miles, and was on TV, radio and at least a dozen newspapers statewide. Recently, the EPA announced that Porter was an unlikely destination for the PCB’s. I may have been part of the snowball that got that avalanche rolling.">

Unfortunately, the following is true and documentable--

Subj: Fwd: PCB's "most likely" not coming to Niagara
Date: 1/28/2005 6:22:35 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: NiagaraNet 

       
      I told Mr. William Choboy and Rev. Charles Lamb person-to-person and clearly in an email that these materials were not destined to be sent here, dated March 26, 2002.   I cited an article in the magazine The Scientist (and Web reference--PCB Dilemma, by Ricki Lewis, March 19, 2001), that included a statement by a specific EPA spokesperson (Richard Caspe, Dir. Superfund-EPA Region 2. Dec., 12, 2001), stating the final disposition would be in Texas-by rail or barge. PLEASE SEE DATES!

      I suggested at that time to RRG, that they send a letter to the EPA official asking specifically if the Hudson PCB dredgings were destined for here or not, before they launched their anti-PCB effort.This information provided to RRG was completely ignored--(or maybe not), as no inquiry letter was ever sent to this EPA official and RRG proceeded to foster the perception that the PCBs were headed to Niagara County. "The PCBs are coming, the PCBs are coming." 

     A great misdirection of effort. Read on.

      Imagine all the human capital and volunteer energy that was expended by RRG, all the money collected, all the flyers passed, the ribbons on trees, telephone poles and sign posts--To protest the PCB's which they weren't coming here in the first place.

...---...ALL THE WHILE The High Level African K-65 radioactive wastes were quietly reclassified through an unprecedented and little known, Bush Administration supported-2004 Energy-bill appropriations legislation, and now will remain buried here in Niagara County forever.

     In addition to this--

     Plutonium was found in direct contact with soils at the LOOW site, and, the LOOW site Air Force Plant #38 (Nazis, lasers and rocket tests) was demolished without a peep in Lewiston-Porter.

     Literally and concurrently, RRG held press conferences about PCB's--directly across the street from where the demolition was taking place. Talk about turning your back on issues! Or, perhaps more appropriately, directing the lens of the camera. "HEY, LOOK OVER HERE."

     This mentions nothing about their (RRG) involvement with the L-P school grounds testing.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the name of this group should have been GRR.  Government Responsible for Residents...responsible for how they think, how they vote, what they're told, how they're told to act-react, what to oppose and or not, responsible for creating public opinion, deciding who's credible, etc.

Lou Ricciuti
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Forwarded Message:
Subj: PCB's "most likely" not coming to Niagara
Date: 1/28/2005 5:04:16 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: NiagaraNet


NIAGARA GAZETTE
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Wednesday, January 26, 2003, page 3A

       PCB's "most likely" not coming to Niagara

       Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency announced that contaminated sediment from the Hudson River are not likely to be headed to CWM Chemical Services in Porter for disposal.

       The CWM site will "most likely not be the site" where the dirty sediment to be dredged from the Hudson River starting in 2006 will go, according to David King, director of the Hudson of the EPA Hudson River Field Office, in a release from the office of state Sen. George Maziarz, R_Newfane.

       The final decision has not yet been made and will not be made for several months, according to John Haggard, Hudson River Program Manager for General Electric.  Over a thirty year period, GE dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson.

       Sites in Texas, Michigan and Utah are the top candidates because they are all accessible by rail or barge, an EPA requirement in this matter.

       CWM in Porter is not accessible by rail or barge.
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If you look up the titled article, you will see that what I am saying is the accurate account of what's going on behind the scenes, and behind your back. This HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE was promised for 60 years to be removed...yes, there was an original government agreement to send this stuff back to where it came from (Africa--just like what Bush said was in the Mid-East). Needless to say, you, the citizens of Niagaera County have heard nothing of this and NOTHING FROM RRG while all this was happening!

That's the facts. I'm sorry if this seems confrontational but the truth be told or we are all destined to do the slow health meltdown into oblivion.

Cheers,

Louis Ricicuti

The following is an excerpt from an unpublished article I've written on the subject.

Copyright-2004-2005  Louis Ricciuti

>> "A mile behind that dirt pile sits a rocket fuel factory and testing facility located on the LOOW site that was operated by the US Air Force and Bell Aerospace for more than 40 years. Called Air Force Plant #38, the facility conducted highly secretive military activities in the buildings and concrete bunkers located on several hundred acres in the woods of Lewiston - Porter. These activities included the creation and testing of high-energy rocket and jet fuel--including the liftoff engine and hypergolic (self-igniting) space fuel for the Apollo Lunar Module, thousands of rocket engine firings from a steel I-beam test stand, communications transmitter testing, and, something called C.O.I.L., the acronym for Chemical Oxygen Injection (Iodine) Laser. This laser testing was the precursor to the Star Wars space-based laser defense system touted in the 1980s by President Reagan.

Recently, AF Plant 38 was demolished without any public notice, meetings or environmental impact statement. More than 20 buildings were scraped to their foundations and the demolition debris was trucked to various metal scrappers including one in Canada. According to Town of Porter Supervisor Merton Weipert, part of the load "exploded at a Canadian scrap yard causing some degree of evacuation." Supervisor Weipert described one type of load as containing something resembling "hand grenade-like canisters."

How these materials were allowed to be shipped across one of the US - Canada International bridges without notice is a question in need of an answer. Why these materials are still being found on the LOOW site after years of numerous "cleanups" demands another.

Unfortunately, the US military is not governed by, and are exempt from environmental laws, so there has been no official explanation or statement regarding this recent demolition and the incident in Canada other than that offered by Porter's Weipert. Whatever materials that were used for various secret experiments in the woods of Lewiston and Porter may remain buried just below the surface forever." >>