On December 28 a land trust announced it had saved 50 acres of land in Harrisville, New Hampshire. Harrisville is about two miles from Keene. The land trust has a web site at www.HarrisCenter.org.
On December 18, a land trust that has a web site at www.MonadnockConservancy.org announced it had saved 300 acres of land in Dublin, New Hampshire. Dublin is also about two miles from Keene.
The USA is losing about 6,000 acres of open space every day.
The below photo shows the Harrisville land that was saved. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." photo by Brett Amy Thelen
In other news from the Valley, on January 3 in Springfield there will be a rally to call on the federal government to release from prison Eduardo Samaniego, a local activist. The rally starts at 8 a.m. outside 1550 Main Street. Samaniego moved to Amherst in 2014. He lived there until he was arrested this fall for being an undocumented immigrant. In February and March 2018, he was one of 10 people who marched from New York City to Washington, DC. “We are fighting for permanent protection for undocumented youth,” Samaniego told the Valley Post in March. The organizers of the upcoming rally have a web site at www.pvWorkersCenter.org. A petition is at:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/freeeduardo-samaniego
In other news from the Valley, a nuclear waste dump in Vermont that's three miles from Massacusetts and a stone's throw from New Hampshire may be leaking more than expected. The dump is in Vernon, which borders Brattleboro.
The federal government said on December 27 it was taking “enforcement action” against the maker of the steel and concrete casks used at the dump. Paul Gunter works for a group that has a web site at www.BeyondNuclear.org. On December 28, he told the Valley Post, “Holtec International demonstrates a pattern for playing fast and loose with nuclear waste handling. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found more violations at the San Onofre (California) reactor site where Holtec failed to provide backup safety features for drop protection while moving nuclear waste loaded storage casks into their below-grades silos. The NRC inspection reports show Holtec operators even removed important safety equipment for lowering the casks into the silos. On top of all that, Holtec then failed to timely report an incident involving the accidental misalignment of a nuclear waste cask during the lowering operation.”
The Hobbits won.
The hobbits won. (According to Wikipedia, "In his writings, Tolkien depicted hobbits as fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life of farming, eating, and socializing, although capable of defending their homes courageously if the need arises.")
The Valley Post received this
The Valley Post received this e-mail from Deb Katz after this article was published. Katz lives near Greenfield and runs a group that has a web site at www.NukeBusters.org:
"holtec acting unilaterally to change its cask design without seeking nrc approval is disturbing. this is the corporation that guaranteed at a citizens advisory panel meeting that its casks would last for 300 years! holtec made this commitment while it was already tinkering to fix flaws in its design. the industry and federal government assured communities that a final disposition for high level nuclear waste would be established before the reactor shuttered. there is no solution. the industry want to create temporary parking lots in hispanic communities in the southwest. this would make its waste problem disappear. but this is not solution. meanwhile reactor communities are stuck with the toxic waste in questionable casks."
"the feds could provide some relief to these communities by hardening the waste on site until a scientifically sound and environmentally just solution is created. but the feds care more about the industry's bottom line than the commitments it made to impacted communities."
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