By DUANE SCHRAG

Salina Journal

Kansas cannot afford to wait for the federal government to address the state's environmental problems, said Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby on Saturday during a visit to Salina.

"Washington never comes to the rescue in time," he said. "I'm not waiting for Washington."

Bremby was one of the featured speakers at the 99th annual Freedom Fund Banquet, sponsored by the Salina branch of the NAACP.

The keynote speaker reminded people that looking back is also vital. Tony Burroughs, a genealogist who taught at Chicago State University for 15 years, told the audience of several hundred that learning about ancestors not only honors them but gives a better understanding of who they are.

Burroughs' visit Saturday was especially poignant. When he first visited Salina last summer, it was to speak at the local Juneteenth celebration. His hosts for much of the visit were Mace and Shirley Braxton.

"I was looking forward to coming back and seeing them," Burroughs said. "As soon as I met them, I felt like family."

Instead, he arrived to learn that Braxton died Feb. 16. His funeral was held Saturday morning. Before proceeding with his talk, Burroughs asked for a few moments of silence in the late heart surgeon's memory.

Bremby opened the evening with a presentation that outlined the risks Kansans face, whether it is from poor health or the environment.

He shocked many observers last October when he decided not to issue a permit to Sunflower Electric for the construction of two coal-fired power plants in Holcomb. In announcing his decision, he cited concerns over the plants' carbon dioxide emissions -- 2.8 million pounds an hour -- and its role in accelerating global warming.

Many western Kansas legislators were outraged by his decision. The houses this past week passed bills that would have allowed the coal plants to be built, and would also strip Bremby of any authority to deny permits.

Legislators who voted in favor of the bills -- all the Salina area legislators except Rep. Josh Svaty, D-Ellsworth, did -- say the changes are necessary in order to address the "regulatory uncertainty" Bremby's decision introduced.

"That is a very artfully crafted phrase," Bremby said in an interview before his speech. He pointed out that since January 2003, his office has approved 2,900 air quality permits, including 179 since his decision involving the coal plants.

"There's never been any uncertainty," he said. "There's only been one denial."

While Bremby didn't expect his decision to be popular, he didn't realize how many legislative leaders say they don't believe in climate change.

"I've been stunned," he said. "I understand that people have their own individual beliefs, but what about the National Academy of Sciences?"

He listed some of the other organizations that agree humans are accelerating climate change -- the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute of Physics, the American Meteorological Society.

"These are the top scientists in the nation," he said.

Much of Bremby's presentation at the meeting focused on Americans' deteriorating health. Fully one-third of all deaths are attributed to modifiable behaviors, he said: tobacco use, lack of physical exercise and poor nutrition.

Fully two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Even so, the burden on the health care system is being placed by relatively few people -- 30 percent of the population incurs 90 per cent of the health care costs, he said.

Little is being done to change behaviors. He said that the federal government's spending on nutrition education is one-fifth the advertising budget for Altoids mints.

He showed a slide depicting a kitchen gone amok -- water is overflowing from the sink. What needs to be done, he asked. "Shut off the water," the crowd said.

Bremby put up another slide: 95 percent of our medical spending is for treatment, 5 percent is for prevention.

"You're just mopping up the floor," Bremby said.

n Reporter Duane Schrag can be reached at 822-1422 or by e-mail at dschrag@salina.com.

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