Land better used to feed the world

By Dianne Glenney

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Saving America's Farmland and Environment (SAFE) is celebrating MidAmerican Energy's recent decision not to build a nuclear power plant or a natural gas power plant in Muscatine County and would return $8.8 million of the $14.2 million it collected from ratepayers over several years.

In September, MidAmerican Energy proposed building a nuclear or natural gas power plant on prime farmland in rural Muscatine County. A group of area families founded SAFE in December to oppose these plans. These 11 families have learned so much about the past and present dangers of nuclear energy, including the facts that 75 percent of nuclear plants in the United States have had leaks of radioactive materials and that people downwind of a nuclear plant are more likely to develop cancer. We learned the process of the Iowa Legislature, the Iowa Utilities Board and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in regard to building a nuclear power plant in Iowa.

We scoured the NRC guidelines for site selection for nuclear plants and found information that could help our cause. We learned how to submit comments to the EPA, and we provided crucial information to our local elected officials, our governor and our area and national legislators. We hope that the members of SAFE and the public are much better informed now, and an informed citizenry is primed to be a watchdog and to take action quickly.

So, SAFE's job is not finished. We have two main purposes:

1) Millions of ratepayer dollars were spent in the process of the feasibility study and in selecting Muscatine County as a prime site for a nuclear power plant in Iowa. So, we will be proactive in protecting our county from similar attempts in the future.

2) We will work with our area state legislators to introduce and enact legislation to:

l Prevent any future nuclear power plants being built in Iowa because of safety, environmental and cost concerns.

l Prevent future power plants from being built on prime farmland.

l Promote tax incentives for retrofitting older plants or building power plants on existing or decommissioned plant sites in order to save ag land for its intended purpose: feeding America and the world.

No one should have to live in the shadow of a nuclear power plant and its inherent health and environmental consequences. And, prime farmland should not be destroyed for future power plants when there are industrial and/or decommissioned sites that can be put to use instead. Iowa is in the “breadbasket of America” and our land is Iowa's greatest natural resource.

Dianne Glenney of Muscatine is communications contact, SAFE Comments or more information: diglenney@live.com