I would like to weigh in on the subject of air monitors in Freestone county.

I am calling on the three commissioners who have knuckled down to Charles Morgan to reconsider spending taxpayer money on an air monitor. This is totally unnecessary. If monitors were needed, the TCEQ or EPA would have them, or require us to have them.

For years Texas Utilities had 12 instantaneous and 30 averaging monitors, as well as about 50 static sample monitors. These never showed any SO2 except when a gas well was blown down nearby.

The stacks at Big Brown are designed to send the gases into the atmosphere to be dispersed for many miles. In extreme conditions, such as a strong norther, effluent could fall within three miles of the plant. Normally, they never fall within eight miles. If these emissions were as deadly as presented, there would be a dead zone north and south of Big Brown and Limestone generating plants.

The monitor in Navarro county would read more from Big Brown than any in Freestone county would. That one has never shown an elevated reading of harmful gases.

You have let yourselves be bullied by one person to spend this money on a monitor that will tell you nothing that is not well known by the agencies that have jurisdiction.

What will one monitor tell you, anyway? That is like having one rain gauge in the county and calling it the official rain gauge for Freestone county. I ask you, as a county taxpayer, not to spend my money on this senseless and useless endeavor.

I also ask you who live in precincts two, three and four to ask your commissioners to stop this before the money is spent.
Respecfully,
Willie F. Ward
Fairfield