The
third organizational and information sharing meeting of the citizen coalition
group
Tar Sands Oil Mobile was held at the
Five Rivers complex on the Causeway
at 7 PM on Tuesday September 3, 2013. Mobile County Health Officer
Dr. Bert Eichold, University of South Alabama Surgeon
Dr. Charles B. Rodning, MD and
Vascular Specialist
Dr. Ralph Pfeiffer, MD were three doctors recruited by the
group to give a presentation on the risks of petroleum chemicals in an urban
area as well as health risks and side effects of being exposed to the
substances commonly carried on the streets, railroads and pipelines of
MobileCounty.
“This is a real threat, it’s a real
possibility to have harm and are there options to be able to connect fuel to
Chevron, and I think the answer is yes. We just need to make sure that we don’t
do more unintended harm by continuing to have the
oil come on the railroad line
and then ultimately we have a
disaster of 130 cars with the toxic stuff in the
lake and on fire… So the challenges we have, like Dr. Pfeiffer said, there is a
tremendous amount of money in this particular experience and we just need to,
everybody, make sure that that science, knowledge and at least common sense, I’ll
repeat, science, knowledge and at least common sense prevail in what is adopted
in our county,” stated Dr. Eichold during his speech at the meeting.
“It’s going to affect every person
in this area because of what, I believe, big business is trying to do with this
area, almost try to turn Mobile into a just a sea of storage tanks for this Tar
Sands and maybe other crude oil. Unfortunately, seem like they have need to
locate near the waterway and that is our playground here in Mobile county area,
Baldwin County waterway. I hate to see that the city has given away so much of
this water access to businesses, State Docks is right there on the city, they
want to put these Tar Sands and storage tanks within a mile of the city… all around
Africatown which has just been
designated a National Historical treasure and
can be developed into something for tourists to come and bring money into the
city,” Joe Womack, Africatown resident, commented after the meeting. “I just
can’t imagine how it got all the way from Canada down here to Mobile before
somebody even raised a hand and said, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’… Put it on the
shores of the Tennessee Tom Bigbee waterway somewhere in north Alabama or north
Mississippi then float it down on a barge from there over the channel to
wherever you want to send it but you don’t have to bring it through Mobile,” he
continued.
“I am not affiliated with anyone I
am just a concerned citizen and I lived on Dauphin Island during the BP oil
spill and I believe that our community is being threatened in an even greater
way and I think it’s critical that our citizens speak about our visionary
future that we have and it does not include Tar Sands… I know that there are
examples around the world of renewable energy and the success of renewable
energy. Even right now on
Alabama Public Television there is an episode being
aired called,
‘How to Make Things Cleaner’ and the first is about sustainable
and renewable energy sources… There are examples worldwide of success with
renewable energy and we need to be pushing for a visionary future and not one
that is making desperate attempts to cling to oil and gas,” opined concerned
Mobile resident Mallory Vonga.
The Tar Sands Oil Mobile Coalition
is open to everyone. Visit their website at TarSandsOilMobile.com.
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