Dear Mr. Avallone, Hooray for you. Your article in the Jan. 21 issue really hit the nail on the head – as they say! I have wondered so often when someone was going to see Al Sharpton for the manipulator he really is. Thank you, thank you for your outstanding and honest article.

– Dolores Sherrer

An Open Letter Regarding the Proposed Open Burn at Camp Minden In October, your agencies collectively signed an agreement to conduct an open burn of over 15 million pounds of M6 propellant at Camp Minden along with the disposal of three million pounds of additional chemical explosives and propellants. We understand that representatives from each agency are meeting this week to “allow the federal government to demonstrate why it chose the open burn tray method for disposal of munitions at Camp Minden.”

Since the EPA has not followed its own guidelines that mandate community involvement at each step in the decision process, the people who will be the most affected by your decisions have not been a part of the remedy selection process, nor were we invited to participate in this meeting. However, we refuse to be excluded from these key decisions that will affect us so profoundly.

We are the ones whose health and safety will be affected and whose community could suffer economic consequences from an unsafe disposal method. We refuse to be left out of the process. The EPA, the Army and the state of Louisiana will not treat the citizens of North Louisiana any differently than any other community in any other state would be treated. We request that a Dialogue Committee be formed, as has been done in other communities, that would give citizens a seat at the table. Furthermore, the EPA, the Army, and the state of Louisiana must agree to the following:

1) Hold the meeting referred to in the Jan. 22 letter and any other meetings where decisions are being made about Camp Minden in North Louisiana 2) Such meetings must be open to the public 3) Subject matter experts from the EPA who disagree with the open burn must be present as well 4) Local elected officials must be allowed to attend these meetings 5) The media must be allowed to attend these meetings to ensure complete transparency …

Editor’s Note: Read the full letter online at theforumnews.com