MILFORD CITIZENS LOST THE BATTLE, SUPERVISORS LOST OUR RESPECT
The Free Press October 30, 2003

From the beginning, they really had about as much chance as a snowball in an irradiator. You can’t fight the federal government without tons of evidence and slews of laws. Despite the protests, packed meetings, and press releases, the Concerned Citizens of Milford were outmanned, outgunned, and out of touch with reality. Emotion can be blinding, and they felt they were protecting their families. Facts be damned, they were afraid. Perhaps we don’t blame them. But we CAN blame the Milford supervisors. They recognized the truth, and still knowingly did the wrong thing. It’s going to cost them, and you, big time.

This battle was fought as bitterly in the court of public opinion as it was in the courts of law. But in either arena, the deck was stacked against the protesters. The law just wasn’t what they hoped it would be. In the end, it didn’t matter what the citizens thought, or feared, or what roadblocks the supervisors dreamed up for CFC Logistics. The law is the law, and emotional speeches without facts usually make justice deaf as well as blind.

Emotional is the key word here. When people hear radiation, cobalt, and nuclear they immediately think Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and every science fiction movie mutant. The Hulk. Giant ants and radioactive spiders. Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. No family wants to be the first on their block to have a child with three eyes. So they close their own eyes to the realities of the situation.

The CFC irradiator was licensed because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission studied the plans, and the plant, and deemed it all to be safe. There are those who would take issue with ANY declaration of safety for nuclear facilities, but that is an emotional argument. Through the months of protest, the Concerned Citizens, and Milford Township, produced precious little evidence that there was a scientific problem with the irradiator. Fears, yes. Facts, no.

So without facts, all that was left to argue was fear. Emotion. What if....??? Maybe Saddam or Osama would discover Milford, and send a wave of terrorists up the Northeast Extension. Maybe someone would find a way to sneak the cobalt out of the concrete tank and actually live to use it. Maybe we would have the first local earthquake in recorded history, which would split open the building and shatter the rods to the point where they would become a hazard. Maybe Chicken Little was right, and the sky IS falling.

No matter the scenario, some people feared for their lives and families, and said so. But who were these emotional arguments made to? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This was a loser before the first word was spoken. After all, the forerunner of the NRC was the Atomic Energy Commission. And the AEC was created in response to the apocalypse of August 6, 1945, when the city of Hiroshima was wiped out by man’s first demonstration of the power of the atom. A few cobalt rods in the styx are hardly going to jolt an agency whose birth stems from the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Milford didn’t even beep on their Geiger counter.

Emotion didn’t cut it, so on to the court system. And while the irradiator tank holds water, the legal arguments against it didn’t. The NRC, a federal agency, issued the license, meaning that a state or local judge could not overrule it, nor could a township circumvent it, as Milford tried to do. Any first-year law student could tell you that. Appeals failed. That should have been the end. But the supervisors caved in to the pressures of the moment and the mob. In trying to haphazardly create a new use permit, and then change the zoning rules, they spent the township money and time, and their own reputations, foolishly. Their own township manager and solicitor said publicly that these shenanigans would not hold up.

Perhaps the supes forgot why they were elected. Sometimes they must do the right thing rather than the seemingly-popular thing. It does not serve the public interests to allow a protester group, no matter how well intentioned, to totally reverse a township’s thinking. That is just plain cowardice.

And what message does it send? Bucks County Judge Kenneth Biehn found that the supervisors changed the rules on CFC after the public outcry. Pay attention, anyone thinking about living or working in Milford. Beware, this board makes it up as they go. Protesters rule. If this can happen to CFC, it can happen to you, and you probably don’t have the resources to fight it like they did.

But wait, isn’t the “popular” thing always the “right” thing? For sure, no. The supervisors have enacted a clearly illegal zoning ordinance. Against the advice of their staff. Too broad, too restrictive, interfering with federal law. But they went ahead anyway. And now, you Milford taxpayers are being sued by CFC. You will lose. Again. Lose the legal battle. Lose the money. Federal court is expensive. You can only hope that the judge does not slap you with huge punitive damages for the reckless actions of your supervisors.

It is a little late to follow the advice of township solicitor Terry Clemons to “proceed carefully” and consider “the effects our actions might have”. So if the supes are wondering what to do next, perhaps they can reveal to the residents the size of the legal bills, and how high they are projected to go.

Beyond the costs here, the supervisors have lost the respect of the people who see them backing off the law to please the protesters. Yeah, some of those protesters are their neighbors, family, and friends, who they have to live with. But hard decisions - doing the right thing - comes with the territory. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the irradiator.