When I was in Knoxville, Tennessee last night, I saw a story on the local news about plans to burn millions of pounds of power plant toxic waste in an incinerator there. I missed the beginning of the story, where they spoke about the type of facility in Knoxville where they plan to burn all of this waste, but it is apparently the only one like it in the country. The remainder of the waste (i.e. any that remains in a solid form after the other waste is burned) will be landfilled in Utah. The news had about a two minute story on the matter--in which one local official wanted to assure the public that this is all totally safe--before the newscasters went on to discuss other matters, including weather and sports.

What bothered me most about this story was the rather knee-jerk reaction that we often have to take one spokesperson's word as absolute fact and be reassured by a small soundbite before we move on to the other news segments. Doesn't burning millions of pounds of toxic waste deserve more news coverage and more concern from the public than this? Where are the stories showing thousands of city residents asking hard-hitting questions as to exactly what the air emissions will be, how the air pollution will be contained, what the health risks are to the public, etc.? It didn't seem like this was the approach that would be taken or that the public was even that concerned about this issue. It also bothered me that we are supposed to be okay with toxic waste landfilling, even in huge amounts, so long as it is done in Utah. Since when did Utah's residents volunteer their state to be the toxic waste dumping ground?

Perhaps the incineration will be so contained that the risks to the people in the area are not that great. Yet, without a lot of public debate and pointed questions to those doing this burning, how can the people of Knoxville be so sure this is true? Since I was only there for one night, I am not sure how this issue will be settled or whether there will be more public interest in the matter. Hopefully, with the burning of millions of pounds of toxic waste on the local agenda, the public will speak out before it is too late to do so.