Letter: Questions about a ‘haz mat’ site

Your article "Is a 'haz mat' site in Woodbury's future?" in the April 16 edition of the Woodbury Bulletin, as with many of the articles you publish, provides the residents of Woodbury with important information about our community.

Providing a hazardous materials/hazardous waste collection site in Washington County, which I imagine is mandatory under the law, helps to ensure batteries, solvents, oil and other harmful materials do not reach the solid waste stream or worse the ditch where it would adversely impact our soil, our water supply, plants, area wildlife and us.

The article suggests that the only thing Washington County officials are concerned about is the cost and convenience to them, not the cost, convenience or welfare to residents.

Locating such a facility in southeast Woodbury, which eventually will be subdivided for housing, would help to ensure more vehicle miles traveled by all county residents, adversely impact nearby property values (which the author is not).

I have to wonder what environmental impacts such a facility would pose. A more sensible approach would be to analyze where users live and routinely travel, such as near shopping centers or more heavily traveled county roads and highways.

Has the County considered partnering with existing facilities such as Mn/DOT's highway maintenance truck station on Hwy 5 near I-694, or the truck permitting and weight station along westbound I-94?

Such partnerships have proven to reduce everyone's costs and community impact and minimize creating future brown fields where people live and children play.

Finally, I wonder why the Woodbury Bulletin writer did not pose questions of suitability to the information sources used for this article. Is the Bulletin merely a mouthpiece for local government? I would expect a community newspaper would take a greater interest in the welfare of the community it serves.

Some clarification on this point would be helpful.

Mike Olson

Woodbury

Tags: opinion, hazardous, materials, olson, woodbury