The NIMBY crowd has resorted to imagined health hazards as a scare tactic against Mat-Valley coal production. Beginning in WWI, local coal mines have often been the economic backbone of this area. Until the mid-1960s, the Palmer school, hospital, co-op and most homes were heated by local coal, as were Anchorage power plants and businesses. I and others were able to work our way through college because of the mines. Many of us still remember long train loads of uncovered coal cars going through Palmer to Anchorage.

Guess what? The snow was white, the sky was blue, there were salmon in the streams, the air was clear, and we were and are healthy.

Those who are opposed to local redevelopment of a coal industry do not know of what they speak or have ulterior motives.

-- Bob Harris

Palmer