I recently heard something that made me chuckle.
I doubt if many people further east of me will recall this, but I know a lot to the west of me will recall the time some very self-confident men showed up with a budget (so we heard) of one million dollars to spend persuading the peasants in this area that what they needed was a nuclear power plant about 50 miles northwest of where I live. The fact that it was to be slammed down on top of a huge pool of fresh underground water was of no importance.
The first mistake they made was to approach a family about buying their land, and to keep the deal secret. I guess the next move was to then tell the neighbours that family number one was going to sell their land so they might as well, too. Oh, did they pick the wrong family! Not only did they get in touch with all the neighbours, they ran up the flag to signal the whole countryside.
Along with others, I was in the thick of the fight. There were meetings, there were presentations, we even had a young lawyer come to help us from Sierra Legal, the group of lawyers who fight for the environment. At one meeting, a man stood up and said he was from the part of Canada where the nuclear plant that wanted to build another here was located and everything was just fine there. The young lawyer smiled and informed u that she, too, was from there and everything was not just fine.
Anyway, the smooth talking men did not succeed in their venture.
What recently made me chuckle was the news that the plant, that big plant whose representatives want to put another on top of that underground fresh water, will be closed in the year 2024.
I don’t have to say any more.
Christine Pike
Waseca
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