What does God expect from his people when they are faced with the question of whether or not to fight an industry that pollutes the air and water and has a direct effect on the health and well-being of its neighbors?

Psalms 115:15-16 tells us, "We are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth he hath given to the children of men."

Well, why did God give the earth to us? God was very specific when He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 1:28 God tells us, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, subdue it: and have dominion over the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Replenish means to put back what you take out, to keep in balance that which God made for us to enjoy. We are stewards of this planet and God expects us to take care of it in such a way that our children and our childrens' children can enjoy its blessings.

So, when we are faced with this question of what we are to do, the answer is simple. We are to preserve what God has entrusted in our care and it is not the responsibility of one person, one group of people, one government, or one nation. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us. We are all environmentalists.

An industry that will do its part in destroying the air we breathe and the health we enjoy must be stopped.

It is our duty to preserve that which God has placed in our care. We owe it to our families, to our neighbors, and to God.

- Dennis Dodson, Citizens Against Pollution

In our eucharistic prayer C, we Episcopalians pray, "From the primal elements you brought forth the human race and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill. You made us rulers of creation. But we turned against You, and against one another."

Those of us who come to God's table must come for renewal as well as for forgiveness, and for strength as well as for solace.

We have a duty to serve God and to serve one another. Those of us who love God and our neighbors must join together
and use our collective memory, reason, and skill. One person speaking alone may not be heard, but many people speaking with one voice cannot be ignored.

- Janet Marsh Zeller, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

June, 1998

THE ETHICS OF POLLUTION

Last year, the NC Division of Air Quality denied the permit for Maymead Materials to operate a 150 ton per hour asphalt plant on Roby Green Road east of Boone.  This year under a previously granted state permit, Maymead opened a similar plant on NC 105 west of Boone. 

BREDL, Citizens Against Pollution and other people who care about environmental protection, neighborhood quality of life, and caretaking of God's creation, oppose the permits because:

1) Each permit is a license to kill. Even if Maymead meets all state requirements for air pollution, people can die legally from exposure to arsenic, benzene, cadmium, and formaldehyde. This so-called "acceptable risk" depends on state enforcement of the rules, the asphalt plant facility operating perfectly, and Maymead being trustworthy. This risk addresses 160 pound men only and does not account for the effects on women, the elderly, children, and the unborn.

2) North Carolina air quality regulations do not even meet the above standards for protecting public health. According to Dr. Luanne Williams, state toxicologist, only 40% of the poisons which would be allowed to come from the Maymead's smokestack meet the standard. Sixty percent of these emissions have insufficient data to determine these safety levels. Also, the state does not adequately consider fugitive emissions which exceed the smokestack pollution.

3) There is a contradiction in punishing a person who kills with a gun and permitting an industry that kills with pollution. A full public debate must happen now about whether we can allow industry to kill one person in a million, one in a hundred thousand, or one in ten thousand for the benefit of the production of asphalt or any other product.

Asphalt Plants