My ties to Susquehanna County go back three generations. My grandparents emigrated from Europe to the Forest City area back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although my parents moved to New Jersey in the 1950s and raised a family there, our family made frequent trips “back home” throughout the years. I grew up with a love of the woods and farms of northeastern Pennsylvania. As soon as I had my first job I was saving money to buy land in the country. My Susquehanna County roots took me to Harmony Township in 1981, where I purchased 20 acres of wooded land that bordered a trout stream. It was my dream to keep these woods forever wild and maybe retire there some day. I camped in these woods and loved exploring the plants and wildlife that inhabited my land. In order to protect these lands forever, in 1998 I drew up a will leaving this land to The Nature Conservancy.

My dreams have recently been dashed as I get an unwelcome education courtesy of the natural gas pipeline industry. The wooded land that I always thought was mine, I now come to learn could soon become a gouged out 110 foot wide scar upon the land. Although I want no part of this pipeline from a company that calls itself The “Constitution” Pipeline company, I was told that they would simply declare eminent domain and force a right of way across my woods, and rock wall, and old stone piles from the days when my land was a farm. This would all be destroyed so a 30 inch pipeline could carry natural gas to another pipeline where it could then be sent to New York ports and possibly overseas.

The kicker is I will still be responsible for this land. I will still have to pay the taxes and secure insurance for it. The pipeline will unwittingly become an ATV highway, and if you add in the access road that encircles the plot where I would have built a retirement home, the land has become worthless to me. It no longer offers the respite I seek from the busy world. Constitution claims they are bringing jobs to the area, but I have already spoken to a local timber guy whom has lost business to the tree cutting companies brought in by the pipeline companies. Constitution also states in their filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that they would raise the local unemployment numbers by only.02 percent, and that is only temporarily. They will use mostly their own workforce from out of state.

Pipelines already crisscross northeastern Pennsylvania like a tic-tack-toe board. It has been suggested that this particular open access pipeline is just a back door way into New York state where fracking is banned at this time. My land just happens to be on its path to access these future gas sites. Is this pipeline really necessary? I say no! Is it for the greater good? I say no to that too. It is only for the purpose of making more money for the already affluent gas industry.

So just because I bought and paid for my land 32 years ago, continue to pay taxes on it, designated it under the clean and green program to state I would not develop it, and simply thought I could forever keep 20 acres on this planet from being developed doesn’t mean anything. In the US, eminent domain laws see to it that our land is not really our own. It’s sad to say, but my dream of forever protecting just a 20 acre parcel of woods on this planet has become nothing more than a pipe-dream!

Sincerely,

Janet Terchek

Roselle Park, NJ

Two-and-a half years ago Japan was hit with the biggest earthquake in a thousand years. The death toll from the 9.0 temblor was 16,000. Additionally, 160,000 were made homeless. Then 340,000 were displaced by the tsunami that followed. But the most troubling aftermath of the mega quake and tsunami was the destruction of a complex of four nuclear power plants at Fukushima.

Three of the four crippled reactors suffered an event unique in the history of nuclear energy: a meltdown; now the island nation has three.

A meltdown occurs when the core of a nuclear reactor fails to receive sufficient cooling water. The temperature of the core soars to 6,000 F, melts through the steel reactor, then through the concrete floor of the reactor building, and on down into the earth.

To this date, no one knows where the three 150-ton, hellishly-hot blobs of uranium are located. Some speculate that they might have seared down 40-feet into the soil. Why is this of prime importance?

The three meltdowns sit right atop the main freshwater aquifer that services Tokyo, Japan's capital. What happens if the household water in Japan's biggest city and the surrounding metropolitan area totaling 35 million residents becomes radioactive?

There is yet a more serious threat posed by the fourth reactor, one that threatens the very existence of Japan as a state: building 4.

Building 4 stores 1,535 new and used fuel rod assemblies. Each assembly holds 72 fuel rods for a total of 110,520 rods. These rods are immersed in a cooling pool 100 feet above the ground floor. The building, wracked by an explosion, is highly unstable.

If it collapses, 507 tons of enriched uranium would plunge to the ground creating a radioactive maelstrom. The entire site would have to be evacuated, permanently.

The cooling pools in buildings 1, 2, and 3, would be left without workers to pour the hundreds of tons of water necessary to keep the fuel rods from being exposed to air. Lacking attendants the contents of the now dry pools would auto-ignite to form of string of radiation infernos.

Fukushima could dwarf Chernobyl---if it hasn't already

Japan is under the gun to extract the fuel assemblies before anyone of four events brings building 4 crashing down.

More earthquakes. Fukushima continues to be rocked by trimmers. Recently, a 7.3 rattled the Fukushima area. Building 4 seems to have escaped obvious damage. Nevertheless, its structural integrity may have been further compromised.

Typhoons. Several typhoons with high winds and heavy rain have buffeted Fukushima. The storm-soaked earth surrounding building 4 may have been appreciably weakened.

Overflow of cooling water. The four reactors need hundreds of tons of cooling water pumped into their cooling pools every day to keep the temperatures down and the depth of the water up. Some of this water escapes into the ground softening the soggy earth that supports the buildings.

Buildup of groundwater. An estimated 1,000 tons of groundwater flows daily from the surrounding hills into the basements of the reactor buildings and runs out highly toxic. Roughly one-third of this water is captured and stored in 1,000 storage tanks.
 But 700 tons flows unchecked into the Pacific. In an effort to prevent the befouled water from emptying into the sea, a retaining wall has been built between the reactors and the ocean to stop this contamination.
 The concern is that this barrier will cause a buildup of groundwater under the stricken plants. Already building 4 is sinking unevenly into the waterlogged earth. Like the leaning Tower of Pisa, this “learning tower” is precariously off-center, slanted at a dizzying 30 inches passed vertical.

Removal of the perilous cargo began October 8. Two assemblies were successfully taken out. Only 1,533 to go.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA