Veto HB483

By Robert E. Jewell - IR Letter to the Editor - 04/17/09

The governor represents what is good for our citizens ... and he is one of us. I now tap that trust to ask him to veto HB483.

 

HB483 clearly gives a critical advantage to those who would degrade Montana’s constitutionally guaranteed healthy environment. Unscrupulous developers and industries have always existed, and only strong laws will prevent a return to the ugly days of our past.

 

Growing up in Great Falls, I watched thick, toxic orange liquid flow from Anaconda Smelter pipes into the Missouri River below Black Eagle Falls. Fishing those waters was prohibited. Trout were potentially deadly. Two miles downstream, putrid waste blood from a slaughterhouse flowed into the Missouri. All of this water continued downstream to become drinking water for Fort Benton, Wolf Point...Bismarck, Omaha, St. Louis, etc.

 

Such obscene industrial acts are criminal acts now only because good people fought for protective laws. We can’t allow any laws like HB483 to weaken those hard-fought-for laws.

 

Only fools or the evil would allow industry to trump human health. Please, demonstrate the faith that good Montanans put in you to protect us and our beloved Montana beauty. Veto HB 483.

 

Robert E. Jewell