I just read Julie Castle’s eloquent commentary opposing the Southern Red Sands mining project in Kanab. I was struck by the similarity between that project and what we are facing here in Salt Lake City with the proposed inland port.
In both cases, low-paying jobs are being offered in exchange for significant impacts on the health of the local population and the beauty of our surroundings.
Utah's leaders rightly focus on jobs as an important goal. However, they fail to grasp that a balance is required in order to ensure that the job providers they support actually provide jobs with decent, livable wages.
Moreover, they are too willing to sacrifice the natural beauty of this state in the service of industry which is much more profitable to remote interests than it is to Utahns.
We saw the same thing in my hometown of Provo recently when a California company was given permission by the city to operate a gravel pit near the mouth of Provo Canyon, creating an eyesore which appears more and more now to be a permanent blight on the landscape. No permanent jobs were gained from that sacrifice.
David Harris, Salt Lake City