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If you use well water, scrupulously test for nitrates and e-coli.
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Install an in-home nitrate-elimination system. The Penn Township factory farms that have created the problem can be made to pay for the solution. But only if the citizens stand up and demand it through pressure on elected officials.
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If you purchase local produce, ask the vegetable/fruit farmer if his/her farmland is located near Lexington Acres or Kreider Farms, is downstream from these farms, or if they fertilize with manure from these or any other CAFO.
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Understand who all the players are. It's important to realize that while most of the press coverage has rightly pertained to Dale Rohrer's Lexington Acres hog farm, Kreider Farms has contributed a significant amount of pollution to the area, as is documented in this analysis (see page 2 of the linked pdf file for the consultant's analysis of relevant DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) and other official documents).
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Determine your exposure risk. Not sure if you're near this site? Click here to view a map.
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Do not use high-nitrate water to make baby formula or baby food. If you're pregnant, do not drink high-nitrate water, ever.
WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR LITITZ and YOURSELF …
- Ask
Council members to create a water safety tradition in
Lititz by determining what it would take to keep our water safe,
even as it is impacted by these two factory farms.
- Tell
your local Lititz Borough Council member to arrange
for random monthly testing of Lititz drinking water. Insist
that the results of these tests be made public.
- Ask
the Lititz Boro Council to insist that Lexington Acres
and Kreider Farms fund the needed water treatment to insure
safe water in Lititz. Lititz taxpayers should not pay the bill
for water treatment necessary to remove dangerous pollutants
from these two factory farms. Call Council President, Karen Weibel
at: 626-5028 or email at: kweibel@ptd.net
- Call
on your elected representative on the Lititz Borough
Council to insist that the two Penn Twp Factory Farms upstream
from Lititz pay for installation of home water treatment
systems that eliminate nitrate from your drinking water at home.
This is not too much to ask. In environmental lawsuits in other
parts of the country, citizens have received
comparable compensation for the health hazards posed by factory farms in their area.
- Tell
your Borough
Council officials to appoint a designated
individual who: (1) monitors announcements of new
applications for CAFO (Factory Farm) permits or permits allowing
expansion of existing CAFOs within a 10 mile radius of Lititz,
and (2) publishes
prominent public community warning notices of CAFO
applications for Factory Farms in the surrounding area.
- Ask your local council members to go on public record opposing any new factory farms in our community. Encourage your local council members to fight these community health hazards.
SPEAK UP and MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!
- Exercise your right to comment on the Rohrer Farm’s August, 2008 request for a renewal permit to continue operations. Ask that they be required to significantly reduce the number of animals permanently confined in cages in this nearby factory farm. Ask that in light of the history of problems at the Rohrer farm, it should be monitored more closely by the PA Dept of Environmental Protection in the future. PLEASE carbon the new head of the DEP, John Hanger, in all correspondence -- this will make sure that the issue gets the attention it deserves. You should also contact the US EPA Region 3 official, Donald Welsh. All the addresses you need appear below. Thank you!!
| Send your letters to: | ||
| South
Central Region Water Treatment Program Manager 909 Elmerton Avenue Harrisburg, PA 17110 Attention: DEP Permit #PA0247324 |
John Hanger |
Donald
Welsh USEPA REGION 3 1650 Arch Street Mail Code: 3RA00 Philadelphia, PA 19103-2029 |
(please also use this permit number reference in your letters) |
||