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NEWPORT, TN- Tennessee Conservation Voters Executive Director Chris Ford issued the following statement immediatley after completing testimony regarding the pending NPDES permit from the North Carolina Division of Water Quality that would allow Blue Ridge paper to continue operating and placing pollutants into the Pigeon River in Canton North Carolina, ultimately effecting the water quality as the river flows into East Tennessee. Mr. Ford joined dozens of professionals in making public comment along with hundreds of citizens of Cocke County, their United States Congressman Phil Roe, State Senator Steve Southerland, Represenative Eddie Yokley and Cocke County Mayor Iliff McMahan, Jr. "I wish to thank Congressman Roe, Senator Southerland, Representative Yokely and Mayor McMahan for their comments and affirmation of something I believe very strongly: the Canton mill has not made near enough progress in efforts to clean the river and the permit North Carolina officials are proposing is deficient and absolutely unacceptable. For over one hundred years, families of Cocke County, including my own, have suffered the injustice and oppression of irresponsible polluters who have simply told them to accept that they have no power to question both the government of North Carolina and the pulp mill they thoughtlessly enable. While I too am concerned for the economic well being of my brothers and sisters in Western North Carolina, I urge them to call upon their government to aid them in every way necessary to develop both their product line and their method of manufacturing in a manner that is innovative, productive and environmentally sound. The employees will need a cleaner mill in order to respond to a market that is sensitive to a greener world economy and the corporate responsibility that must be owned and shared by companies around the world. The very jobs for which they fight will depend upon these actions. Coming into the auditorium tonight I saw a River Memorial containing the names of my own familiy members---Ford, Grooms, Black, Raines----all having left this world too soon from health conditions that invaded their dignity, impugned the right to live peacefully and arrogantly plundered the humble graces of our mountain birthright. Among those names are many persons I will always love, and several whose funerals I officiated. It is in their memory and with their spirit we have joined together to fight this injustice, so that we honor our ancestors by returning the river to its most natural state for our own grandchildren. I am hopeful that this new young generation of Cocke Countians, led by Amelia Taylor and CWEET, mentored by champions of the cause such as Gay Webb and Mayor McMahan will see the day my grandparents longed for---and the justice for which they prayed." Chris Ford is the Executive Director of Tennessee Conservation Voters in Nashville. The father of one daughter, he hails from ten generations of Cocke Countians in and around the Grassy Fork community. ### |
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