Letters to the Editor 04/03/2013

To the Editor:

On Easter Sunday, we had finished our early morning Easter festivities and decided to start working on our property for spring. We have always been aware of fire danger and feel that we keep our five acres very fire-safe, probably more than most folks in our area.

We have a pit we do our annual burn pile in. We were burning pine needles in the pit late morning, with a five-gallon bucket of water near, a hose hooked up to our well and a couple shovels.

The fire was left for approximately three minutes (or less!) to go and bring the already filled second wheel burrow of pine needles to the pile. That was all it took. Fire is scary. We are fortunate that our fire stayed at much less than one-quarter of an acre.

We are writing this to warn everyone how quickly this happens. We would like to thank our 911 operators, the Cloverdale Fire Department and our Panoramic neighbors for their quick response!

Keep a list of your neighbor's numbers handy! Jerry, Tom and Kirsten, Ed and also Steve Rollins and his entire family left their Easter table and were here with shovels in hand. Thank you to all!

This was very scary and a lesson well-learned. Follow guidelines! Our trees (for the most part) have their branches cut at six feet up from the ground, we did not lose a single tree. We have cleared all of our sagebrush and stay up on that yearly. We regularly rake pine needles...

BUT we left the fire unattended. It will not happen again. We cannot impress on folks how awful this could have been and how appreciative we are! Thank you again. We are glad that we were not the first Sisters big fire of the year.

Gratefully,

Henry & Kerry Zenich

•••

To the Editor:

Why on earth do we let this keep happening?

First we had the EXXON Valdez, going aground in Alaska, spilling millions of barrels of crude oil (all crude is highly toxic!), which destroyed our Alaskan waters and shore, while also killing thousands of fish, birds, mammals and our jobs.

Then, in 2011, the EXXON folks spilled a few thousand barrels of crude oil into our Yellowstone River, killing more fish and ruining a beautiful waterway into our Yellowstone Park.

Then there was the huge EXXON Gulf of Mexico waters explosion disaster, destroying many thousands of our citizens' livelihood for years, ruining the beaches, and killed birds, mammals, and fish.

Now there is a major EXXON spill in Mayflower, Arkansas after their Pegasus pipeline sprung a leak while bringing crude from Canada to Texas. This pipeline carries 90,000 barrels a day.

This week, a train carrying EXXON crude oil derailed in Mayflower, Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of crude oil. This spill caused the EPA to categorize the spill as a "major spill" and 22 families had to evacuate!

EXXON is now working hard to get our U.S. State Department, EPA, Congress, and President to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring Canada's crude oil sands all the way down to our Gulf Coast for processing. This pipeline will carry 800,000 barrels per day!

Several months ago, an environmental group went down to view the Keystone XL pipe sections which are sitting along the roads awaiting government approval.

The group walked through many of the huge sections (remember 800,000 barrels a day!) and were shocked by what they saw as they walked through the sections. They saw daylight coming through many holes along the seams of each section!

If daylight can come in, can't oil leak out those same holes?

Virginia Lindsey