Archive: Opinions

Imagine a three-story building covering an entire block. Now imagine that building is solid rock, layer upon layer. The top has a shallow groove, about two feet long and two or three inches deep.Imagine a three-story building covering an entire block. Now imagine that building is solid rock, layer upon layer. The top has a shallow groove, about two feet long and two or three inches deep.

Suppose somebody tries drilling horizontal, pencil thin, holes through the bottom of the rock. Is this mass of rock going to cave in? Even under that little groove 30 feet up?

This is the scale you have to think in. I used to wonder why the mine ceiling under Cayuga Lake didn't drip. Ain't gonna happen, and neither will the lake drain into the mine, or salt leach upward into the lake water. Vertically speaking, the lake and the mine might as well be in different counties. 

It's hard to picture just how far removed from the lake the mine tunnels are. Cargill likes to work under the lake, because not only is it safe, but the company is also saved the headache of dealing with hundreds of cantankerous property owners who picture the mine about 50 feet down. The lake is state property, giving Cargill just a single entity to get mineral rights from.

Unnecessarily, this has become a political issue, when it's really an environmental one. I'm a strong environmentalist, proud that my dad supported the first Earth Day, and he was a Republican. After all, there's nothing more conservative than conservation.

I applaud those who worry. There's already too much environmental degradation. But the fearful voices opposing the mine's expansion need to visualize the scale we're arguing about. When I do that, I find myself on Cargill's side.

Jim Evans
Ithaca NY

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