Coalition for a Healthy Environment
2106 Holderwood Lane, Knoxville, TN 37922
June 29, 1999


To The Attendees of the June 29, 1999 meeting on a public health agenda for
the Oak Ridge area:

The following is the position of the Coalition for a Healthy Environment.

We are very disturbed that most of our suggestions and concerns have been
ignored. We are very disturbed that our motivation and integrity have been
questioned. We are very disturbed that everything is a fight and we are the
least able to fight in terms of resources, energy, and health.

We will not allow the federal agencies to bully the most directly affected
citizens into accepting this current forum and process.

We would like the federal government to provide funding for the University
of Tennessee Community Partnership Center to assist with a community
empowering and development process.  The least powerful participants, who
do not recognize the federal agencies' present forum as legitimate, must be
given time and the resources to develop a forum they trust. This process
will involve ALL of the community, and it will be driven from the bottom
up.  This process does NOT compete with the agencies' options, e.g. FACA,
etc.  The process' goal is a body of citizens who have ownership of the
group and who trust the group to develop a public health agenda that is in
the best interests of those citizens most directly affected. We want our
questions answered in a public forum. We want all participants to publicly
state what their stake is in the process.  We will document the entire
process.

Sincerely,
The members of the Coalition for a Healthy Environment