The Truth of the Mathematical

Dear voters

Bar Harbor’s fate is in our hands.

Ignorance is death. Stupidity is murder. Chapter 50 is suicide.

Best be educated.

I am trying to show the negative consequences to our communities health by quantifying the amount of carcinogens involved in burning shipping diesel.  Those consequences, Asthma, Heart Disease, Lung Cancer, etc,  are the reason there are 5 minute idling rules for trucks and buses in populated areas all over the US and around the world.

It is the reason why no diesel was allowed to be used in the Big Dig to tunnel the SE expressway under Boston.  It is the reason why the Paul Revere Bus Company was fined $675,000 for 242 5 minute idling violations causing a cluster of asthma in Roxbury.   

 A verified scientific EU study found that, of the 60,000 deaths in Europe’s ports from Shipping diesel emissions,  20,000 of which were attributed to the SO2.  

A study by the EPA found 12,500 deaths in US ports are due to shipping diesel.  The Friends of the 

Earth have estimated ½ million deaths per year in ports worldwide.  

The major problem with being a Port of Call for cruise ships is they must be powered up in port to run their 3200 passenger hotel.  This makes Bar Harbor one of the dirtiest ports on the East Coast.

The fact is when SO2 is breathed in and meets the H2O on the mucus membranes of your airway it turns into sulfuric acid. H2SO4.  The same very strong acid as found in your cars battery.

 Diesel engines are the most efficient in the world for powering ships. A diesel engine however is still only   50% efficient at using the energy contained in one gallon of diesel which contains 40 Kwh of power.  So you only get 20 Kwh of usable energy. 

It takes 50 gallons to produce 1000Kw for 1 hour which is 1 MWh

It takes 11 MWh to run a 3200 passenger ship while it sits ½ mile out in the Bay.

50 gallons x 11= 550 gallons per hour.  5,500 gallons during the 10 hour visit

 Shipping fuel contains 66 times more sulfur than dirty restricted 15ppm highway diesel which is limited to be only idled near population centers for 5 minutes.  

It is the difference in 1000ppm shipping diesel and 15ppm highway diesel that gives you the outrageous equivalency of 550 gallons x 66 = 36,300 semi trucks idling, burning 1 gallon each, per hour.  A semi truck using one gallon per hour at idle speed is a known fact. 

Cars do not put out any SO2 when driving slowly through town because of their catalytic converter.

To know how many gallons each cruise passenger is responsible for over the course of ten hours, divide 36,300 gallons/hour by 3200 passengers and you get 11.3 gallons per hour.     

That means EACH passenger is emitting the same amount of SO2 as if burning 113 gallons of 15ppm highway diesel during their 10 hour visit.

That works out to more than 95% more SO2 than a tourist who comes by car.  Who, by the way, is now stuffing 3.8 million dollars of tax reducing parking fees into the town coffers every year.  Compare that with 0 tax reduction on our urgent  necessary needs from cruise fees with strings.

Under Chapter 50, 200,000 passengers burning 113 gallons each would spew as much SO2 as 20,000,000 gallons of 15ppm on road diesel in one summer tourist season.  That is 20 times the SO2 as the yearly 1,190,000 gallons of 15ppm heating oil used per year in Bar Harbor.  So every summer we are breathing  20 times the SO2 as we do in the winter.

It is pathetic,  It is inevitable that deaths in Bar Harbor are being caused by cruise ships.

We should not be signing contracts with these purveyors of death.

  Voting yes for 4 is suicide.

I say, hit the road Jack. And don’t come back no more.

  Vote no on 4.

George Orwell wrote an essay titled ,”Inside the Whale”.  It reminds me of our Town Council refusing to address the Group 1 Carcinogenic  diesel fumes.  Not one peep about air pollution over the years.  

Orwell was criticizing Henry Miller for not speaking out against the impending World War when he said avoiding the issue is “The acceptance of guilt for the necessary murder.” 

There is good reason why the US Constitution gives us the right for citizen petitioning.  Logically 5000 heads are better than 7. 

Do not take a bite of that APPL. Do not swallow the Town Councils Chapter 50.

  Vote no on 4 and rejoice!

This is our Garden of Eden.

This is Democracy in action

Eat a Peach

Much more info can be found by searching vote no on article 4 bar harbor.

Jim O’Connell

Studied Mechanical Power Engineering, Wentworth Institute of Engineering Technology, Boston.

46 year resident of downtown Bar Harbor.