Living in the Shadow: The Power Plant from a Kid's Perspective

In Girl Scouts, girls earn awards through community service. As they get older, the awards get larger as do their contributions to their communities. For her silver project, my daughter wanted to bring a greater awareness about the Towantic Power/CPV to her community. She did research, talked to people, went to meetings, distributed flyers and plans on attending the referendum on February 11th. Still, she felt like she wasn’t being heard. She decided to write a letter which I post here. Please take a moment to read her letter about what it is like to live in the shadow of the Towantic Power. The following are her words:

I live on Towantic Hill Road. Not just the road, but on the actual hill! The same one they are building the power plant on. My family has owned this property in Oxford for almost 100 years. My Dad likes to talk about how his grandparents bought the property with stamps and remembers having summer vacations up here. He even makes us watch old movies about it. The property is beautiful, trees, a stream and lots of clean air. We hike the property and my parents talk about building houses. Not neighborhoods, but houses for my brother and me. Up on top, the top of the hill, we overlook Oxford and Naugatuck. The view is farmland, a few houses and trees. Now my parents talk about pollution. I don’t understand it all, I am only 12. But I do understand enough. I understand that my brother and I have Reactive Airway Disease. That air pollution causes flair ups. I can see it worries my mom.

I understand that some people believe that natural gas is a “clean fuel”. I want to say “seriously?” A clean fuel is the sun, the wind, water. Just because it may burn a little cleaner, does not make it “clean.” Even I know that at 12. Gee, even I understand that natural gas is a fossil fuel and will run out. Aren’t we supposed to be conserving it? What I don’t understand is why we are still investing in it when so many renewable sources are out there. I worry about the environment. My mom showed us a study from NASA that tracked the air pollution from satellites. The Connecticut, New York and New Jersey area were the highest areas of pollution in the northeast. I don’t think adding another fossil fuel plant will help that in the long run. We may see a small decrease if an older power plant is closed, but do we really think that will happen. I saw on the news that Connecticut’s population is getting smaller because people are moving out. So do we need more electricity, can’t we just be more do what’s right and conserve more.

I ride the bus to school and look at the kids that ride with me. We are the ones growing up in the shadow of the power plant. I think, “Wow, we are worth $112 million.” Because if Oxford votes to approve the tax plan, it is me and my friends on the bus who will pay the greatest price. WE have no choice and no voice. So I am asking you to speak up for us. Please vote NO on February 11th.