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Why You Should Send A Contribution
To Support The Barton BillBarney Deden, One Hour Martinizing, Omaha, Nebraska
The following letter has been sent to drycleaners by the Neighborhood Cleaners Association-International
October 6, 1997
Dear Fellow Drycleaners:I wish I had the time to talk personally with every one of you to describe what I am convinced is the most serious problem ever faced by our industry. I strongly believe that the absence of a logical, health-based, scientifically sound cleanup standard for solvent contamination could eventually bankrupt every current American drycleaner. The absence of this cleanup standard means that regulators or landlords are requiring contaminated sites to be cleaned to meet drinking water standards which are understandably set at a very strict level of 5 parts of solvent per one billion parts of water. Unfortunately, this standard is seldom justified for contamination under drycleaning sites and can seldom be achieved without spending huge sums of money, frequently enough to bankrupt the drycleaner. The trade journals have described many of these cases over the past several years.
Fortunately, there is a possible solution to this problem. Through the expenditure of a very small amount of time and money by each American drycleaner we could encourage the United States Congress to establish the rational cleanup standard we need to save our industry. Switching to alternative solvents or selling our business will not solve our problem because the contamination, once created, can not usually be satisfactorily corrected without spending the huge sums mentioned. The only solution is to establish a reasonable cleanup standard, as provided in H.R. 1711, a legislative bill introduced in the U.S. Congress by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas on May 22, 1997. This bill has 46 cosponsors (as of 10/6/97) and with industry-wide support will almost certainly be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Unfortunately, a relatively small segment of our industry has been actively working for passage of this bill. The vast majority of Americašs drycleaners are all too willing to pay lip service to this legislative process without making a minimal commitment of time and money to help move the project along. Experience in several states has proved that a small group of committed drycleaners, spending 5 or 10 minutes per week and contributing a small amount to the legislative fund, can convince a U.S. Representative to cosponsor this bill. If you have not contacted your Congressperson or made a financial contribution to this project you are guilty of expecting a free solution to a problem you helped create and, even worse, expecting a small portion of your industry to provide that solution. If you don't think a solution is worth a small expenditure of time and money, ask one of the hundreds of drycleaners who have been forced out of business or are in the midst of emotionally draining and financially devastating cleanup projects. I'm sure each of them wish they would have had the chance to pay nearly any price for a logical cleanup standard to avoid their current cleanup dilemma.
What can you do? Please read nearly any recent trade journal for a sample letter to send your Congressperson about H.R. 1711. Call your association leaders for assistance and suggestions or call me at (402) 391-7373. Send $20.00 each month to your association and ask them to forward it to the national account established to finance this project. Your very small contribution of time and money is urgently needed to assure the success of this project. Wouldn't you like the satisfaction of knowing you had helped pass the legislation which could virtually save our industry? Or would you rather let others fulfill what should be your responsibility to your industry? Please make the right decision and help us with this very important project.
My sincere thanks,
Barney Deden
Date created: October 18, 1997 Maintained by: Hal Horning hhorning@pond.com