Letter to the editor: Randy Bridges

Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life wishes to express its appreciation for the “biodiesel advocate” who was quoted in Thursday’s edition of the R&L saying our “group’s concerns over production safety was almost laughable.”

I immediately called this advocate, John Bonitz, to verify that he actually had the nerve to say something so grossly irresponsible.

He confirmed the quote as correct and proceeded into a diatribe about how misplaced our concerns were. He said if we were more open to communication, we would realize how innocuous a biodiesel plant really is.

This disregard for the hazards involved in a chemical plant is typical of the attitude we have encountered time and again from proponents of the proposed location of the facility on Snow Creek Road. These proponents include Kenneth Vaughn, Iredell County Agricultural Extension Service director, Jeff McNeely, Iredell County planning board member, and the entire planning board, as well as the Iredell County Board of Commissioners, with the notable exception of Sara Haire Tice.

I commend Commissioner Tice for standing up for what is right when she stated the 1998 R-20 rezoning on Snow Creek Road was a contract with the property owners, that this area would remain a residential community.

She was the lone commissioner who honored that commitment.

Do you find it a bit ironic that thousands of our tax dollars are being squandered to fight a battle that should never have been necessary?

The proposed operation involves a 10,000-gallon tank of methanol, which is highly explosive when exposed to the air and which was the source of four explosions and fires at biodiesel plants in 2006. An unpublicized fact is that right here in Statesville, on Aug. 30, 2006, a 10,000-square-foot building burned to the ground as a result of a methanol fire at a biodiesel plant.

Three businesses were destroyed and lives were endangered.

Thankfully, no one lost his life in that fire, as happened in an Idaho biodiesel plant on July 7, 2006.

The McLains should move the proposed plant to an industrial site where it belongs, and save everyone a lot of trouble.

Randy Bridges
Statesville