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Pasco Letters to the Editor

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2008

For A Better Future

Regarding Tom Jackson's "Hillsborough Trash Surprise Echoes Here" column (Feb. 19), it is fortunate for the citizens of Pasco County that neither he nor the landfill applicant is responsible for crunching the solid waste disposal numbers in our county.

The range of disposal rates proposed by his preferred applicant varies 100 percent ($35 to $70 per ton), which we believe is reflective of the uncontrolled cost increases Pasco citizens will see from this private company.

Since Jackson is not a resident of Pasco County, he would not know that the county officials responsible for managing our Shady Hills waste-to-energy facility have such sharp pencils that Progress Energy is paying our taxpayers $16 million for electricity in 2008, and this increases annually to $40 million by 2024 for just the existing plant. (This is prior to any expansion.)

Additionally, the disposal rates have been steady for the life of the plant. Jackson's applicant was at the county meeting where these revenue and cost numbers were discussed, but they apparently choose to ignore the real facts.

And we agree there is something to be said about publicly traded companies like Covanta or Tampa Tribune/Media General that are listed on major stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange. They have a significantly higher level of governmental and public scrutiny of their businesses to do the right thing.

A privately held company like the one Jackson supports prefers to operate without the same level of scrutiny.

The recent Florida Department of Environmental Protection citation they received for dumping Class 1 waste in their Class 3 dump is just a reflection of what we believe will be a continued laissez-faire operational attitude near the Green Swamp and our sensitive drinking water supplies. In this case they were caught, but their retort is it was "just a minor oversight" on their part, "trust us."

We believe Pasco County will be much better served by an experienced solid waste disposal company using modern, proven solid waste technology for our future.

CARL ROTH

Protectors of

Florida's Legacy

Naive Or Willing?

Readers of the Tribune and viewers of our local television news programs are well aware that communist China is ranked No. 5 in Parade Magazine's list of the top 10 most brutal regimes in the world led by brutal dictators who would make Hitler or Stalin seem mild mannered.

How can the world forget that highlight event of Chinese "democracy," the brutal massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square?

Within the past week our nation's security forces (the FBI and CIA) uncovered another case of Chinese espionage in the United States, an attempt to steal our nation's most secret military technology.

Yet Tampa Bay area schools and churches continue to lead groups of naive and gullible children to Beijing to be indoctrinated and brainwashed. A case in point is a recent "choir trip" to China sponsored by a local United Methodist congregation.

Are the organizers of these trips, the adults who accompany your children and the reporters who write glowingly about them also gullible and naive, or are they willing collaborators? Would they have similarly collaborated in a "cultural exchange" trip to Nazi Germany and a visit to a killing site of the Holocaust?

P.J. CORR

Wesley Chapel

The Best Running

Even a chimpanzee can figure out who to vote for in November. It won't be Obama because he wants to spend $270 billion a year on Socialist giveaways we can't afford. And the chimps won't be voting for Hillary because she wants to spend $267 billion a year on Socialist giveaways.

Neither one can give plausible answers as to where the money is going to come from. That leaves John McCain, who wants to spend $7 billion a year and balance the budget. The budget hasn't been balanced since 1969, when, of all people, Richard Nixon did it.

McCain has many flaws - among them, illegal immigration amnesty. However, he will win in November. Not that that is a good thing, but because he is the best we have running.

JOHN LALLEMAND

Dade City

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