Thursday, January 9, 2014

A healthy rural lifestyle

When you choose to live in a rural community you imagine clean air, peace and quiet and a generally healthy lifestyle. When a seed processing plant chooses to operate near your home (without any consultation!) all those reasons for living where you do are shot to hell.


On a good day you are looking at this.


On a not so good day you see this. It is the dust emitted when the plant is processing seed.


You go outside and find it hard to breathe, your eyes water and you wonder how much of that dust has settled on the creek from which you pump your drinking water. And if your an asthmatic don't bother coming to visit because you won't be able to stay for very long.


An obscured view and dust all over the inside and outside of the house is probably the least of the problems the dust causes. 
On top of all that we have the constant squeal of the conveyor belt, revving and reverse beep of the forklift and constant banging of the huge metal seed bins as they are moved around.
No quiet in this little rural spot. Did I mention that the seed plant runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for at least 6 to 8 months of the year, mainly over the warmer months when you would like to be outside doing stuff? You can forget having your windows open on a hot summer night to hopefully catch any breeze that might be around cause even if you manage to sleep through the noise you will eventually wake up coughing or not being able to breathe properly because your nose is blocked up. The factory has been operating for a lot of years now and complaints to the manager and the EPA have proven pointless.  I am having another go with the EPA and have submitted two complaints this afternoon, I will let you know how I go. 


6 comments:

Sharon said...

Thats terrible, I would certainly be annoyed with that.

Jody Pearl said...

In this day and age there must be some sort of air filtration system they should be using and noise restrictions that they need to adhere to - just because they've been doing it forever doesnt mean it has ever been right.

Jackie I hear your torment and feel your pain - take a deep breath and go get 'em!

Andrea said...

Oh Jackie that is so unfair!!!the owners are not related to someone in the council are they? ok when do we come up and help you protest? What about Today tonight?

The Moonlit Stitch said...

Jackie. I can't type the words I am thinking at the moment because they are very not nice words. My heart breaks for you because of how frustrating this must be. Every land owner has a right to healthy air and peace. There HAVE to be requirements re: filtration for the air. And noise...Don't give up the fight, you have a legitimate situation. Good luck ~*~Lisa

quilary said...

That's awful and not at all how I imagined your little neck of the woods...I hope you get some action by the EPA!

Enchanted Moments said...

Thats just wrong, wrong, wrong...whats with the 24/7 running of the machinery...and no respite after working hours...? or weekends...?