Letter to the Editor

Editor:
Coal powered engines were a main source of pulling railroad cars loaded with coal, automobiles, grain, livestock, etc. The engines had smoke stacks that puffed out unhealthy discharges – smoke mixed with cinders and soot. We breathed in these impurities: If clothes were hanging on a line outside and an engine – train with cars went by, the clothes sometimes had to be washed again.

But in the fifties when diesel engines replaced coal engines, people thought cleaning missions would be a reality. But that wasn’t the case. Diesels emitted poisonous fumes that were just as unhealthy as coal engine emissions, but of a different substance – smoke, cinders and soot versus poisonous fumes.

The energy conversion center had all the latest devices to prevent unhealthy emissions in the community. The Bechtel corporation spent one million dollars to conform to the latest environmental regulations. The ECC cannot be built if it doesn’t conform to the current environmental regulations.

The ECC was so carefully planned that Tamarack could supply Renovo’s ECC with a reserve of natural gas by building a pipeline from Tamarack to Renovo in case Renovo was not receiving the volume of natural gas to keep the Renovo plant operating. When was the last time that a corporation like Bechtel invested one million dollars to bring an industry to run?

Today, Renovo should have two industries, Renovo Rail, and an Energy Conversion Center and a well financed Bucktail Medical Center.

Respectfully submitted
Michael Sette
Renovo, PA