To the Editor:
One person who reads my letters to the editor told me that while she enjoys reading them, sometimes she Googles a bit or looks up a word to more fully understand what I’m saying. This letter is dedicated to her because I’m confessing up front that I’ll be using some words I had to look up first before I could use them. When I use them here though, I’ll try to spare her or anyone else the need to look them up all over again. As an aside, I’m dedicating this letter to transparency in government, whether that be at the state, the county, or the local level, although transparency seems often noteworthy in its absence.
Let’s start with SETI, which actually isn’t a word, but an acronym. An acronym is a series of letters which stands for several words, a form of abbreviation. One of my hobbies is cosmology (the study of the universe), and to those with that interest SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence, a hobby for those who despair perhaps at finding intelligent terrestrial life forms, that is here on Earth. A June 16 Star-Herald article local though introduced citizens to a new meaning for SETI, not that many perhaps knew the other meaning, but that’s beside the point. SETI was said to stand for “Sustainable Energey Technologies.” Energey with that extra e threw me off a bit, but after doing a bit of checking I concluded that Energey probably meant Energy and was just a typo.
In newspaper articles, a deadly sin exists called “burying the lead.” This occurs when the writer in the first few sentences leads with details and facts that are not really as important as details or facts which come later in buried sentences. Given the often short attention span of readers, avoiding this sin is important because if a reader doesn’t make it through the entire article the main news will still be communicated, Typically though a reader’s attention is first grabbed by the headline of an article anyway, usually in big print, but secondly by the “deck,” a short enticing statement of what the article is about. Thus the June 16th article introduced SETI to the reader under a large banner headline on the front page, “OLD BUILDING, NEW DEVELOPMENT.” The deck below stated “Phased project could grow into $100 million investment; 300+ new jobs.”
Now, that’s good journalism, because who in the barren job desert of Kosciusko and surrounding area, wouldn’t leap out of their McDonald’s and Burger King attire to read about 300+ new jobs coming. Thus, under a reader grabbing banner and deck, SETI (Sustainable Energy Technologies) is introduced to the reader as the business magi (or perhaps moguls) making possible good job tidings for the “old Jack Post Building.”
What exactly are the good job tidings? To me as a reader, that was probably my first question. In fairness to the Star Herald, a multi-colored graphic diagram did accompany the article, but it looked complex, and in the online article, nothing explained the diagram, so I chose to read first and study the graphic later. So I read on and saw there was a “tenant’s plan” (SETI being the tenant). Next I read they were “moving in equipment.” Then I read that this was “the first phase.” Then I read that this was a “venture.” Then I read that KAP (Kosciusko Attala Partnership) had been in planning and negotiations for “this” for several months along with the County. Then I read that it was necessary to “move equipment in ahead of the original schedule” Then I read about “preliminary equipment” and then about getting “the first phase online in August.” Meanwhile with all this reading I’m still wondering “what about those jobs?”
Finally out of the journalism blue comes a sentence which made me even more appreciative of Dr. Larry Routt's mission to provide school kids in the area with dictionaries, but maybe Star Herald readers should be included. The article stated “In the first phase, the company intends to get a thermal pyrolytic converter up and running, the parts for which were moved in Tuesday.” Well, o.k. I thought. As could be searched in a dictionary, “thermal” means heat as in thermal underwear. Learning that fireworks are called “pyrotechnics” leads to an understanding that “pyro” means some sort of explosive fire perhaps. “Lysis” has a meaning to tear apart, which is what Covid-19 does to lung cells, lysing them and making it hard to breathe. A “converter” is something that changes one thing to another. After this dictionary workout though, I’m still wondering what the 300+ jobs will be, so that all those fast food uniforms can be cast aside. Are the jobs somehow going to involve heat to blow things up and tear them apart with an explosive fire and convert something into something else, and if so what into what? Will this beat burger flipping and dealing with yokels who don’t know how to navigate a two lane fast food drive through?
Ah! Reader satisfaction emerges when the news article finally states that SETI plans to create jobs that involve--drum roll--”disposing of waste--in this case old tires.” Career aspirations now being dashed a bit for some, perhaps a look at the complex colored graphic is warranted. Yes, indeed, a line under the graphic (in the print or e-version of the paper) says that it explains the process by which a thermal pyrolytic converter turns “waste into energy.” It says nothing about tires though, just things like sewage sludge. Eventually the article reveals though that old tires will be “shredded” in McAdams first and then transported to the old Jack Post Building outside Kosciusko, tossed into the thermal pyrolytic converter, for a bit of heat, fire, explosion, and conversion (sounds like a good Sunday sermon!) and mirabile dictu (wonderful to relate or say) a variety of highly marketable and profitable products will emerge! Right here in little ole Kosciusko! Whew on the sewage sludge!
Good job tidings, right! To the satisfaction of all, right! Should hallelujahs then be sung to the KAP magi and moguls for their months of work. Should thanks be sung as well to the County Board of Supervisors for the joyful surprise of revealing to the public that a thermal pyrolytic converter was moving into town to make all sorts of tech savvy products from shredded tires. Possibly so, and possibly not. The job of a marketer is to market or in plain language "to sell," often like the stereotypical used car salesman who never sells a lemon. The informative news article in the Star Herald was full of good community marketing info, provided no doubt by our newly learned acronym SETI and our old acronym KAP. I'd say let's not rip off those fast food uniforms yet!
Reading on in the Star Herald article, it is revealed that one product to be manufactured in the neighborhood from shredded tires will be “Carbon Black" about which much positive info is supplied in terms of its potential uses. Dictionary please though! Let’s go online for ease, but also let’s not get bogged down by the 73,814 online entries and articles the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has on carbon black. The Jack Post Building is after all in Trump country. Since Trump has gutted the EPA as “useless” let's ignore it and go instead to the fount of all knowledge Wikipedia, which is usually easy to read. Uhmm well, is this easy to read under the entry for “Carbon Black.” Quote: “The current International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluation is that, "Carbon black is possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B). Short-term exposure to high concentrations of carbon black dust may produce discomfort to the upper respiratory tract, through mechanical irritation.”
Carcinogenic of course means having the potential to cause cancer. Now Googling can be tricky because while the International Carbon Black Association (ICBA) says “no problem here,” (of course they have an ax to market), it does seem that although research is mixed, some carbon black production workers have shown an elevated risk of lung cancer. Other research shows it may be a “late stage carcinogen.” Perhaps that is why the useless EPA thought it had a few things to say about carbon black. Maybe inhaling Burger King grease isn’t sounding so bad after all.
Has anyone actually burned a tire or smelled one burning? While repugnant to think about, smell occurs when particles (molecular of course and very tiny) actually enter the nose. (Don’t think Kosciusko’s Lagoon anyone!). A TPC (the new acronym we now have learned) will basically be burning tires, admittedly in a very techno-savvy way. The solid, sooty stuff collected is apparently carbon black and up in the air or down the pipes goes everything else, gas and liquids (albeit other profitable things than carbon black will or may be retrieved from these such as oil for energy.) It does appear possible though that in this time of PPE shortage due to the virus, the Jack Post Building workers may need their own personal protective equipment. The EPA has oodles of techy requirements for carbon black production, for example chimney “flues” which MUST collect the bad stuff from releasing into the air and “dischargers” which MUST keep the bad stuff out of local sewage pipes and groundwater, all to protect the local environment. Again though in Trump country these might be readily ignorable fake facts.
Of interest though is a 2013 statement made by UNEP (the environmental wing of the United Nations), although another source of fake news, is that, quote, “In the United States, pyrolysis has not yet been proven to be an economically viable operation. It has been attempted over 30 times and has always failed as a full-scale operation; investors have lost millions and states have had to incur costly clean-up activities. The pyrolysis process is capable of creating hazardous waste pyrolytic oils that need to be managed accordingly.” Of course, the key word is “full scale” and Attala may be small scale, but if I were the lawyer writing the rent or lease contract, I’d certainly have a clause about “clean up costs if the enterprise were abandoned.” Along these lines, in Harford County Maryland in 2018 a successful effort was led by a local activist and technology expert and consultant, complete with "NO PYROLYSIS" T-shirts, to “Save the County from the Pyrolysis Plant.” Of course with a transparent county government, citizens knew ahead of time the plant was planned for and not already a fait accompli (done deed!) as in Kosciusko and Attala. One noteworthy un-selling point was the creation of excess truck traffic. Indeed, a look at the Star Herald colored graphic shows quite a convoy of big trucks heavily loaded with waste trekking into the TPC. With that I get to refer to Mayor Cockroft’s favorite subject, more potholes anyone? Additionally, in 2015 a similar and grander TPC facility in Natchez promised 91 jobs in its first year, but actually operated for some time with 10, and several years later only had around 37. Perhaps young people seeking jobs in Attala should start practicing, "Do you want ketchup with those fries?
Beverly E. Johnson
Kosciusko, MS
