Another post before I hit the rack..buried inside this morning's daily news...which arrived after 7am I might add...was a story about how our Mayor and members of the City Council were going to hold a study session to finally declare war on GI's "smell problem." I also caught the 10pm NTV story re: the same. While it wasn't mentioned in the pulp and ink copy...NTV's reporter showed video of the Mayor and Council's plan to impose fines on our local and habitual smell miscreants...pretty much naming J.B. Swift on the east side of town...McCain's on the north...and a long standing feedlot on the west side of town. Something to the tune of 1500 smackeroos depending on the results gleaned from the City's "Nasal Ranger SWAT Team."
Now I'm not even close to being one of the brightest lights in the barn...but...don't we already have State and Federal agencies responsible for keeping tabs on offenses to our atmosphere? The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality...the Environmental Protection Agency??? Seems back in 2000 folks in GI complained to the NDEQ about the gagging atmosphere surrounding the Monfort/JBS facility and City Wasterwater Plant...and the complaints went nowhere. I think a few complaints may have been shuttled to the deaf ear of the EPA. Our previous Mayor...now running for Mayor again...could only offer lip service and an official telephone number to an answering machine that citizens could call to "air" their complaints of offensive odors within our little burg. Little has been accomplished in the past 10 years and finally JBS is going to spend millions to upgrade their equipment to tone down the burning blood smell emanating from their plant frequently. Why? Because the State Fair is coming to town and they don't want to "stink."
Regarding McCain's...yes their processing puts out an offensive odor and the feedlot on the west side of town can be rank at times too...although the feedlot has been in place a lot longer than the new housing building around it. I would say the feedlot was there before a third of the present city has been in place.
1 comment:
It is a tough one. Somone raises the corn to feed the cattle that feeds the assembly lines at JB. McKain then makes the french fries and onion rings to eat with the steaks and hamburgers. The employees of all of these places then buy the products they produce. There may be an offensive odor, but in the end, it all smells like MONEY!!!
In the end, that smell is the only smell that counts.
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