Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com
I write to thank the Bangor Daily News for publishing John Krueger’s July 27 commentary “Environmental justice requires a higher standard for Juniper Ridge expansion.” It is especially commendable that with this column the BDN informs Mainers of the cancer disparities between Wabanaki people who live on Indian Island, which is next to the landfill, and Maine’s general population.
As a society, do we really want to support the expansion of a landfill that could be contributing to disproportionate rates of cancer among Wabanaki people living near Juniper Ridge? Do we want to support an expansion that could increase rather than mitigate the cancer rates of the mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, of an entire group of people?
As Krueger also points out, the fishing of the Penobscot River is federally legally protected for Wabanaki people and continuing to pollute this river, as the landfill may do, means continued exposure to cancer-linked chemicals for the Wabanaki who consume fish. In effect, I believe the landfill’s expansion will increase this injustice.
Even for those who do not partake in traditional sustenance fishing, simply breathing the air that blew from a fire that broke out at the landfill can be a significant exposure to carcinogens. And, even if we as a society decide that we just do not care about the suffering and dying of Wabanaki people, the Penobscot River is here to stay. Its health will matter to coming generations. We owe them something better than cancer-causing pollution.
Claire Millikin
Owls Head