Opponents of N-waste facility out in force at Unity

UNITY — Tempers flared Monday night at a forum on the siting of a low level radioactive waste facility in Unity Plantation.

An estimated 550 people attended the forum in the Unity College gymnasium. Speaking in favor of siting the waste facility were Matthew Scott and Dr. John Gibbons of the Maine Low-Level Radioactive Waste Authority. On the opposite side of the panel were Jeff Barnum of the True Mountain Alliance, a citizens group that opposes sites in Industry and New Vineyard, and longtime anti-nuclear activist Rep. Maria Holt, D-Bath, who represents District 74.

At the outset, a procession of Unity College students dressed in mourning and as skeletons carried a coffin reading “don’t waste our planet.”

Jean Myrick, chairman of the Unity Township Alliance, a citizens group opposed to the siting and sponsor of the forum, read a letter from Central Maine Power Company requesting that anti-nuclear signs placed on utility poles in the area be removed for safety reasons.

Deborah Diemer of Unity said, “CMP is the main generator of radioactive waste for this facility. The state has its own heavy load limit signs stapled to those same poles. The reason they want our signs removed is not for safety. It’s because they are not happy with our opposition to the dump.”

August Misner, a Burnham selectman, said he had sent the authority a list of 30 questions asked by residents. “You’re obligated to answer them. I’ll just ask the last one. On the 200 acres you plan to use, if we raise the money to put four $40,000 homes on the site, will you come live there with your children? This is a travesty.”

Holding up a map of Maine, Barnum said the predecessor to the waste agency in the early 1980s had targeted 23 potential sites in the state. None of the authority’s 29 technical and three volunteered sites were the same except the one in Unity Plantation, he said.

When Scott began to speak, another group of students filed in wearing animal masks. “I hope that break doesn’t come off my time,” he said. “We all need a break. I’m not here to debate the nuclear power issue. My job is to find a site for a facility if necessary.”

When Sandy Olson of Troy asked a question about Nickel 63 of Dr. Gibbons, the authority’s health expert, he said, “I don’t minimize the hazards,” someone in the audience challenged the truth of his statement. “I resent the fact that someone called me a liar,” he said.

Alice Cheeseman, chairman of the Unity Democratic Committee, read a statement from the committee opposing such a facility anywhere in the state. She asked Rep. Holt what voters could do to make elected officials responsive to the nuclear issue.

Holt answered, “You should demand answers from candidates. Ask them, `Have you recommended closure of Maine Yankee?’ ”

Scott said the authority’s intent is to build a facility that won’t leak. He acknowledged that the federal government’s handling of high level nuclear wastes is “a disgrace. We plan to have an engineered facility that will prevent such problems.”

Tom Dunn of Albion claimed that E. D. “Chip” Bessey, who volunteered to have his land used for the facility, never had clear title. He said tax liens had never been executed on the previous owners.

Scott responded that the authority’s attorneys are satisfied with their title search and that Bessey had every right to sell the land to the authority, which has a one-year option on the property.