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<br />;! ~..,~..(:..i4~ <br /> <br />o <br /> <br />o <br /> <br />To the Honorable Mayor <br />and City Council Members <br />of the City of La Porte <br /> <br />My name is Jim Pendland, representing Houston Chemical Services, and I thank you <br /> <br />for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. <br /> <br />There is before you tonight a proposed resolution in which this body would <br /> <br />oppose the pending permit application submitted by HCS to operate a waste <br /> <br />incinerator in the Bayport Industrial Park. <br /> <br />Before you take 'action on the proposed resolution presented to you by the <br /> <br />Incinerator Study, Committee, we at Houston Chemical Services would like to make <br /> <br />several points that we consider pertinent. <br /> <br />First, during last Saturday's Town Meeting, we heard a number of comments that <br /> <br />led us to believe that some members of the audience did not fully understand the <br /> <br />permitting process for the proposed incinerators. They seemed to believe that <br /> <br />should a permit be granted by the regulatory authorities, the citizens of La Porte <br /> <br />will have no further recourse. The fact is that the 'permit we seek initially would <br /> <br />not give us the right to operate. It would only give us the right to construct and <br /> <br />test the facility in order to prove that we can operate without danger to our <br /> <br />employees and neighbors. Should any problem develop during this trial period, we <br /> <br />will not be permitted to operate and unless we correct any such problems to the <br /> <br />satisfaction of the regulatory bodies, we will never receive our final operating <br /> <br />permit. <br /> <br />Second, while we believe that the Town Meeting was a valuable exercise in free <br /> <br />speech and was conducted fairly and impartially, we question whether you can make an <br /> <br />informed decision on the proposed resolution based only on the attendance at the <br /> <br />Town Meeting and the results of the exit poll. We suggest that, in a city of 25,000 <br /> <br />residents, neither the exit poll numbers in favor of our permit nor the numbers <br /> <br />opposed to ,it are sufficiently representative of community sentiment to justify your <br /> <br />, <br />taking a position tonight on either side of the question. <br />