Mr. Obama has killed the Bill of Rights
I was an Obama man. I voted for him in the last election, and intended to vote for him in this one, until his recent signing of the Defense Authorization Act, which effectively kills the Bill of Rights.
Writing this bill was a treasonous act. For Mr. Obama to sign it was a treasonous act. Because I can't warm up to any of the Lilliputian candidates put forward by the Republicans in their own monkey show, I'll probably sit on the sidelines for this one, and take my antacids.
John Randolph Jones
Delhi
Must we use our roads as waste dumps?
On Feb. 9, when I was driving through Hartford, Conn., I passed a brine-spraying truck.
I wondered about this since the temperature was in the 50-degree range and there was no forecast for ice or snow.
I wondered about the effect on the aquatic environment of the Connecticut River nearby.
Your paper answered our first question by reports of brine spraying in our area to get rid of the chemicals used in gas drilling.
In the 1970s, several studies were conducted that showed the adverse effect on pine and maple trees from salt on the roads. Google Scholar contains some of these studies.
Since then, people have tried to reduce to amounts of salt used on the roads.
In the 1980s, studies done in New York state (Adirondack Life, November/December 1988) showed that the salt spread in the winter was found in streams throughout the summer months. Salt residue was found 100 yards from roadsides.
Local people living on dirt roads in the New York City watershed cannot have the roads salted for either icy conditions or to keep down dust to prevent water contamination.
Must we use our roads as waste dumps? Do we want our cars and steel bridges to rust faster; our gardens, farmlands and forests to be contaminated?
New York state water is one of our best resources and will become more so in future years.
Fishermen, farmers, gardeners, maple syrup producers, foresters and those people drinking water (all of us) need to stop this additional use of salt on the roads.
There is a solution for the used chemical waste -- desalination plants that are widely available.
Pamela Fitch Tausta
Oneonta
