Making Nikiski a cleaner and safer community is an uphill battle. The effort to dump hydrocarbon contaminated drilling waste near town ought to make us all ready to take action, but it appears that only money prevents it from happening.

Who knows how much toxic waste was buried “at the end of the road” back in the boom years and how much remains hidden behind and beneath the empty buildings on the north road. You can bet that in the 60s and 70s there were assurances that toxic waste would be “monitored” and that storage containers would be sealed and repaired as necessary. The people believed the promises then, but the companies that made the promises are all gone and only their abandoned buildings and contaminated waste remain. Are we so stupid as to believe that toxic waste buried in Nikiski could ever be safely managed when we look at the industrial ghost town north of the refinery? Now the corporations want to flush their crap into our back yard again. It appears that the Department of Environmental Conservation can be bought, but at what cost to the people of Nikiski?

Not only should we repel new efforts to poison our land and water sources, but we should also demand the search for and removal of the poisonous waste left behind by companies decades ago. To the corporations: Take your crap somewhere else, we will not become your waste dump again!