Jack Llewellyn’s letter (Herald, Feb. 26) a week in advance of the Planning Commission’s hearing on the King II Mine lauds praise on Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua for creating jobs and generating tax revenue and completely ignores the health and safety of the tax payers who live on County Road 120 and suffer the effects of more than 200 coal trucks per day on a narrow, winding county road.
The letter contains not a single word about the dangerous and destructive levels of air, dust and noise pollution and the environmental degradation and safety of the children and families in proximity on CR 120. The sheer levels of coal production from the King II mine suggest the company must be profitable enough to create a sensible solution to the destruction of the health and safety of its neighbors.
The mine can coexist with its rural neighbors with the construction of a private, haul road for the trucks between CR 120 and State Highway 140. Llewellyn’s plea claims it “makes little sense for local governments to unnecessarily ... threaten the survival of a major local economic driver,” but the mine itself threatens the survival of the peace, safety and health of the rural residents in it’s path.
Michael Anziano
Hesperus
