Local resistance to US terror training continues

By Brendan Conley

Asheville, North Carolina, July 18— Local activists are continuing their participation in the growing national movement against US-sponsored terrorism in Latin America. An Asheville activist entered prison on Tuesday, and another was arrested today during a demonstration.

Clare Hanrahan (pictured above with supporters on Monday, July 16) began a six-month prison sentence in Alderson, West Virginia, on Tuesday, July 17. She was convicted of trespassing on Fort Benning, the US military base in Columbus, Georgia. The base is home to the School of the Americas (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), a US army training camp for Latin American soldiers whose graduates have committed massacres, torture, and other atrocities. About 75 citizens gathered in Pritchard Park on Monday morning to pledge their support for Hanrahan.

Hanrahan is one of 26 activists who were convicted of trespassing on the base, most of whom began serving six-month prison sentences on Tuesday.

Melissa Fridlin, also an Asheville resident, was arrested on the grounds of Fort Benning today, along with ten others. She had returned the day before from Colombia, where she participated in a human rights delegation sponsored jointly by Witness for Peace and School of the Americas Watch.

“After meeting Colombians who have been tortured for their political beliefs, it is shocking to see US citizens jailed for speaking out about human rights,” said Ken Crowley of Houston, one of the activists arrested today.

Blue Ridge Paper faces pollution challenges

By Mollie Rose

Asheville, North Carolina, July 17— The wastewater discharge permit for Blue Ridge Paper Products (formerly Champion) issued in 1997, is now up for renewal. Four years ago, the permit was granted following lengthy legal battles and huge public pressure. It resulted in significant pollution reductions in the Pigeon River.

Yet, Blue Ridge remains the largest single polluter in the Asheville region, surpassing CP&L’s plant in Arden for total toxic discharges. In 1999, according to EPA figures, Blue Ridge released over 91,000 pounds of chemicals into the Pigeon River, and almost 3,000,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air.

As a part of a courageous owner buy out in 1999, led by Local 507 of the Paperworker’s Union (PACE), Blue Ridge made commitments to environmental groups to continue improvements and to include environmentalists in environmental decision making. Living up to that promise, in an unprecendented collaboration between a coalition of environmental groups and industry, a joint study was just completed looking at the advantages of chlorine-free bleaching technologies, especially for reducing color. (Color from the pulping and bleaching process has for most of the last century, symbolized damage to life in the Pigeon River, and catalyzed intense opposition to the mill from downstream communities.) The confidential report was sent to Blue Ridge Paper and the Clean Water Fund of North Carolina, representing the coalition.

Although the study’s consultants did not recommend converting the mill to totally chlorine-free production for now due to the cost and possible reduction in pulp strength, Bob Seay of the Dead Pigeon River Council says, “This is all very encouraging. Blue Ridge seems much more committed to cleaning up the river than its predecessor was. Of course the proof will be in the permit. And, eventually, the river needs to run as clean below the mill as above it.”

Without pressure from environmentalists and the State of Tennessee, the improvements already made would never have been implemented. North Carolina state regulators have consistently, in all previous permit renewals, avoided reducing limits for pollution, as required by the Clean Water Act. A recent EPA audit revealed that the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NC-DENR) not only sets low expectations for its polluters, but consistently fails to enforce permits or levy sufficient penalties.

According to Blue Ridge officials, the worker-owned company remains committed to “achieving our way out of the color variance.” Hope Taylor-Guevara, Director of the Clean Water Fund of NC, commented: “Blue Ridge impressed us when they said they wanted to reduce their effluent color enough to lift the controversial color variance by 2006.” However, she warned: “If North Carolina issues another ‘low-expectations’ draft permit it will only cause more controversy, more wasted taxpayer dollars, more delays, and potential lost trust for NC regulators. All parties need to stand firmly together to call for a schedule of stepped down and enforceable limits during the coming permit cycle.”

A public hearing for the new permit will take place in late August.

CP&L opens third pool at Harris Nuclear Plant

Statement of NC WARN

Durham, North Carolina, July 12— Carolina Power & Light has begun using one of two new cooling pools for irradiated nuclear fuel rods at its Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant, but its nearly three-year battle with Orange County and environmentalists continues. The expansion at the Wake County plant, which creates the nation’s largest storage capacity for commercial high-level waste, comes just as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has submitted to nuclear industry pressure by weakening a program that assesses security at over 100 U.S. power plants.

The Apex Herald reported today that CP&L has opened the hotly contested pool, one of two the NRC approved for use, which will store nuclear rods from four CP&L reactors in the Carolinas. Orange County has asked the US Court of Appeals to overturn the NRC’s approval of the expansion, saying the agency did not conduct an environmental impact study (EIS) – or even allow a hearing to argue for the study – as required by federal law.

“How terribly disappointing that the federal government and CP&L would go forward without fully resolving the regional safety implications,” Orange County Commissioner Margaret Brown said today. “For twenty years, the NRC has avoided dealing with the risk of catastrophic fires at nuclear waste pools, but maybe the court will order them to finally address this avoidable risk.”

Source: NC WARN (North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network) http://www.ncwarn.org/

NC bans execution of mentally retarded people

By Lynn Bonner

Raleigh, North Carolina, July 17— The House gave its final approval Monday to a bill that would prohibit the execution of mentally retarded murderers.

Passed by a vote of 64-44, the House version of the bill is significantly different from the version the Senate passed in April. The two chambers will probably have to compromise on legislation before North Carolina becomes the 17th state to outlaw such executions.

In a debate that lasted more than an hour, the bill’s opponents presented it as an erosion of death penalty enforcement and another way for the guilty to try to avoid execution.

Several members argued that the legislation is not needed because there is no proof that the state has executed a mentally retarded person.

“No one who is mentally retarded will be convicted of first-degree murder,” said Mark Crawford, a Black Mountain Republican. “This is an attempt to overturn the death penalty slowly but surely.”

Supporters presented the bill as a safety net to ensure that the state does not put to death someone with an IQ of 70 or below.

Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Pembroke Democrat who was the bill’s lead supporter in the House, tried to deflect arguments that it was a back-door way of passing a death penalty moratorium.

Sutton said he would not object if the Supreme Court ordered every death row inmate executed within the next 90 days. But, “I don’t want any of them who are mentally retarded executed,” he said.

Rep. Wilma Sherrill, an Asheville Republican whose father was slain in 1981, said she talked with relatives about the bill over the weekend.

She supports the death penalty, but thinks the bill is a safety net. ”The person who murdered my father is still out there,” she said.

“If I could speak to my daddy tonight he’d say ‘Wilma, if the person who murdered me was mentally incompetent, don’t kill him.’”

Source: Raleigh News & Observer