Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:
To the residents and ag producers of Hamilton County, it has come to my attention that there is a prospective company interested in buying land south of the Iams/Mars plant. This company would be producing anhydrous ammonia. On the surface, this looks like a great opportunity for more jobs and tax revenue. But when you dig deeper (no pun intended), this company will be using OVER THREE MILLION GALLONS OF WATER EVERY SINGLE DAY! That is a tremendous amount of water!
Do you want an industrial plant next to you on your acreage? Ag producers, I think you have a pretty good idea about what this is going to do to your wells if you farm in the area south or southeast of the Mars plant. And not only should ag producers be concerned, the residents that have acreages/farms in that area should also be concerned! How is this large usage of water going to affect your wells? Are you going to have to dig deeper wells because now you don’t have water? And who’s going to pay that expense of digging a deeper well?   
As I understand it, when the “impact study” was done, residential wells were not even considered as to how this usage would affect them. Can you live without water? Can you afford to dig a deeper well? Will you even be able to get a permit to dig that well?
Has anyone asked about how the wastewater will be handled?
And lastly, one of my biggest concerns is that up until the last two blizzards we’ve had we have been in a severe drought for the last three years. Is it a good idea to be pumping all this water to make anhydrous? Are you going to be able to irrigate your crops if there’s an allocation? Is the allocation going to be enough to sustain your crops? What good is anhydrous if you can’t grow your crops?  These questions need to be asked.
The monthly NRD board meeting will be held in York this Thursday, 1/18/2024, at 1:30 p.m. During this meeting, there will be time for public comments. If you want to follow the NRD meeting agenda, it can be found at www.upperbigblue.org, scroll down to Upcoming Events/January Board of Director’s Meeting. Watch for any agenda changes as late as Wednesday morning, 1/17/2024. 
If you think it is a good idea to have this plant built, no problem. But if you see a HUGE problem down the road for your irrigation, or living purposes, I would highly recommend that you be there at that meeting to voice your opposition. (Just an FYI: the NRD board had already approved the permit in December, but because of some procedural rules that weren’t followed they were required to “take back” the permit. So, this permit has passed once already! This board needs to hear from you, the people! 
If you don’t know who your local directors are, they are Mr. John Miller of Aurora and Mr. Bill Kuehner of Phillips. If you are not able to attend the meeting on 1/18/24, maybe you want to give them a call and express your concerns. Thank you.
Ruth Peters,
Hampton 

Letter to editor policy
The Aurora News-Register welcomes readers’ comments on any issue. Your letter to the editor must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number and must be signed in order to be published. Deadline to submit letters is noon Friday. Letters can be mailed to P.O. Box 70, e-mailed to newsregister@ hamilton.net or hand-delivered. Signatures will be verified.