Dear Editor,
Page 24 of your April 25 issue had a photo of a parade float depicting our Texas governor sucking on a smoke stack [“
Naked City,” News]. The Midlothian, Texas cement kilns have been incinerating toxic wastes since 1986. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality allow huge amounts of toxins to be burned there and call it “recycling.” What TXI can't burn is sent to cement kilns in Monterrey, Mexico.
The float clearly shows our governor's tragic addiction. The fumes affect all the Dallas-Fort Worth region's health. The residues of this organized crime (poisoning the public for profit) are mixed in with cement for playgrounds, water pipes, houses, etc. The Downwinders at Risk made the float with the letters TXI on the side. The letters need to be larger. Perhaps in full color on the front page? Hideously poisoned, the folks in Midlothian have been struggling against all odds for 20 years. Please see
www.downwindersatrisk.org. Austin is often downwind from the toxics-burners and the two old, leaky, shoddy reactors at Glen Rose, Texas (Comanche Peak is actually closer to Austin than the Z-STNP reactors). Follow the plume 40 miles, and you will see.