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contamination will have been spread, at however low a <br />concentration, into previously clean, UNcontaminated areas of our <br />City. <br />It is clear that, as long as spray irrigation is allowed to <br />continue at increasing levels, the landfill will NOT be cleaned <br />up. The residents near the landfill and the rest of our City will <br />be safe ONLY after the landfill has been cleaned up. <br />It is my belief that proceeding with the proposed discharge will <br />only prolong the application of "bandaid" approaches such as spray <br />irrigation of contaminated water, and will delay the true cleanup <br />of the old landfill. As a matter of principle, I cannot support a <br />decision which will prolong the agony which Lake Elmo and its <br />residents continuo to suffer because of the Lake Jane Landfill, <br />without some promise of a definite end to the suffering. As far as <br />I know, the Counties have no plans to end the suffering. <br />Thus, I intend to vote against this agreement. I do not intend to <br />belittle the efforts of those who bargained for it. It would be a <br />good agreement IF it were contingent on some plan to remove the <br />source of contamination. This in fact has been my position for <br />many months. Let me read a sentence from a letter I wrote to the <br />City dated June 13, 1988, almost a year ago: <br />"In summary, the proposed discharge should be allowed onyx; if it <br />is part of a carefully planned and definite program to actually <br />clean out the contamination of the old landfill." <br />Some say that the Counties have been generous in their granting of <br />concessions in this agreement. They say, "If Lake Elmo does not <br />enter this agreement, the Counties will go ahead and do the <br />discharge anyway, and Lake Elmo will lose all leverage." In my <br />opinion there is not much to lose. The increased frequency of <br />testing will only continue for the first year if the results are <br />clean. For most of the chemicals involved, the drinking water <br />standards are not that different from surface water standards; <br />some are higher, and some are lower. Once the 12 homes along Eagle <br />Point Creek have had their wells tested as a baseline, no other <br />testing will be provided. And I am told this baseline test will <br />only cost about 51.00 per well. Thus, I do not see that Lake Elmo <br />and its residents will be losing much by not entering into this <br />agreement. And why are the Counties blackmailing Lake Elmo by not <br />volunteering to do these things anyway? They are the morally right <br />things to do. <br />The Counties do not at present have to clean up the landfill. The <br />Counties at present do not even need Lake Elmo's permission to <br />pump water off the site. I want to make it clear that Lake Elmo is <br />entering this agreement only under extreme duress. It is my hope <br />that, futile though it may be, my voting against this agreement <br />will make someone, somewhere down the line think just a little <br />harder about actually cleaning up this cancerous sore in our City. <br />The agony of our City will be in the record, and maybe, just <br />maybe, someone in a position of authority will be affected <br />positively and have the courage to say, "Stop! Enough is enough. <br />It is time to stop treating this cancer with bandaids and remove <br />it once and for all." <br />