Two Letters from Ohio

StopTMC sent a copy of the letter to the Green Environment Coalition in Ohio and recently received a reply.

First the letter Southdown circulated, then GEC's response:

August 28, 2000

To Whom It May Concern

We have recently learned of a published commentary in a Santa Clarita newspaper attempting to place Southdown, Inc. (parent of Transit Mixed Concrete) in the role of a villain for its past actions in Fairborn, Greene County, Ohio. We would like to set the record straight about Southdown's past and current status in our community. The Company, formerly known as Southwestern Portland Cement Company, was established here in the 1920's. Since that time it has been a responsible corporate citizen, environmentally and in other ways. Plus, it has been a major contributor to our economic well being. As factual testimony to its commitment to the environmental quality of life here, please take not of the following:

1. Since the early 1960's, young athletes of Fairborn have played baseball and football on playgrounds at Ernie App Field, a large youth sports complex donated by Southdown to the City of Fairborn.

2. In 1979, Southdown gave 73 acres of land to enhance the environment in Community Park East, one of our major parks.

3. In 1998, Southdown gave 20 acres of land to the Byron Cemetery for its expansion. It is located in Bath Township, part of the Greene County/Fairborn area.

4. Southdown and its employees have donated countless hours to the schools and communities of the area. This was exemplified in the spring of this year by the Pennies For Trees Project, when Southdown workers joined others recently in planting 1,084 trees in the area in a three day period.

5. In May, 2000 Southdown presented 164 acres of prime wetlands to J. Timothy Campbell, a commissioner of the Greene County Park District. This land is located inside the City of Fairborn and has an economic value of $500,000. It will be used as a nature sanctuary and an outdoors environmental studies classroom for students and nature lovers of the area. Leaders in the local, regional and state governments were present to acknowledge this generous and environmentally responsible act. These are some, but by no means all, of the examples of environmental awareness, generosity and concern for our area shown by Southdown over many decades.

We wanted the people of the Santa Clarita area to know from the people here that we think of Southdown as one of the most valued, responsible and benevolent members of our community.

Signed,

/s/ Larry Long, Mayor, City of Fairborn

/s/ James M Ernst, Director of Ohio Wetlands Association

/s/ James Saunders, Bath Township Trustee

/s/ T. Shawn Campbell, Greene County Commissioner

/s/ J. Timothy Campbell

And now GEC's letter:

From: Bruce Cornett

To: stoptmc@hotmail.com

Subject: Re: Fwd: Santa Clarita, CA and Southdown

Hello,

I thought I would take the time to run over Southdown's letter - point by point.

1) Ernie Apt Field, named after the president of Southwestern Portland Cement Co., in the 1950s, was donated by this company which was later bought by Southdown, Inc.. The topsoil and clay had been strip mined so it made good baseball fields. The company oiled the driveways to keep down the dust.

2) Community Park East is a nice park - the part that Southdown gave was some old strip mined land that was a haul road near the highway.

3) The Byron Cemetery is administered by the Bath Township Trustees. The donation of this land "cemented" their relationship in the township in which most of their land is located. Even though the 18.256-acre gift was made in September, 1998, the land cannot be used until the township finds a way to fill in a large gully which runs through it. The land cost the township $3,813.50 in recupment taxes, survey and title search. I say, God Bless them for donating the land to the cemetery. It somehow seems appropriate.

4) Southdown did not create Pennies For Trees - it was the idea of longtime friend of The Green Environmental Coalition, Dr. Michael Horton, who instilled enthusiasm and philanthropy in the school children of Fairborn. Over $10,000 was collected in the schools and community to buy trees for parks in Fairborn. Southdown workers and main office personnel helped other Fairborn volunteers plant the 1,084 trees.

5) The most ironic of all "good deeds" is the gift of the wetlands that drains their Landfill #6. This landfill discharges heavy metals and extremely high PH drainage into the headwaters of the Beavercreek Wetlands. Also, it has piles of the kiln's waste product, cement kiln dust, scattered throughout. Southdown gave it away because they couldn't sell it. Mr. James Ernst, Director of the Ohio Wetlands Association, is also a homebuilder who plans to build homes on the land Fairborn City accepted. There is a wetlands portion that has been set aside as "mitigation" for other wetlands, damaged and drained.

The Ohio Wetlands Foundation buys up undesirable and artificial wetlands, and then trades it to developers who have to offset the damage they do to native wetlands.

Before Southdown bought Southwestern Portland cement Company the latter was a good neighbor. The owners lived in Fairborn and had a sincere vested interest in the community. Years ago, they restored a small-gauge train and decorated it with Christmas gifts and lights. It was located on a track, which approached the plant office. On the other side of the office was a lighted nativity scene with live animals as an exhibit for the public to enjoy.

Southdown has taken that away - sort of the Grinch that stole Christmas. Now they have closed the town plant and moved the workers to the township. No one knows the impact to the tax base.

Southdown has left a legacy of contaminated and deep-quarried acreage that land locks the east and southeast sides of the city. Wells were contaminated in the 70's due to heavy metals in the ground water which some attribute to Southdown. Certainly the USEPA Preliminary Assessment indicated this was so. There are a total of ten (10) uncontrolled cement kiln dust dumps around Fairborn. Only one is under orders from the Ohio EPA at this time. Another is the subject of a lawsuit, which Southdown refuses to report to their shareholders.

This company's quarrying history dates back to 1924. They have yet to completely remediate any retired quarry. "Moonscapes" abound on their properties. They stay JUST within the law so government agencies haven't pressed them to remediate. Remediation is being done on the lands they have "given" away, but by the recipients of these lands.

Southdown became the first company in Ohio's history to have a hazardous waste permit denied for "sloppy science and sloppy engineering". The company proposed to store and subsequently burn 162 million pounds of hazardous waste every year. The report from the Ohio Hazardous Waste Facility Board goes on to charge that the company "may have attempted to deceive". This victory by The Green Environmental Coalition over Southdown was so complete that we bound their deed in perpetuity with a legal prohibition against storing and handling hazardous waste - the only one like it in the country.

There were numerous Ohio EPA fines levied during their hazardous waste burning years. Everything from illegal storage of contaminated waste kiln dust to serious reporting errors. In 1996, the Coalition stopped their tire burning when they did not disclose to the Ohio EPA that their Victorville, CA plant had miserably failed an attempt to pass tire burning tests. The good folks from the CBE in California forwarded the test results to us.

One of the Coalition's friends observed after reading the referenced letter, "they gave the sleeves out of their vests". Good neighbors, indeed.

Let me know if we can be of service - keep an eye on Greenlink.org for updates re: Southdown's dirty tricks.

Bruce Cornett - Director Green Environmental Coalition

Copyright © 2000 by Rick Lott All rights reserved.
Revised: 23 Feb 2004