Since I am going to assume you already did your duty and voted, let’s talk about the next important issue in our community: foreign nuclear waste.

It seems that national and state leaders say foreign nuclear waste is bad and we don’t want it. But the majority of local leaders, including all the incumbents up for re-election, support allowing waste into Tooele County to be disposed of by EnergySolutions.

My position: Let’s bring in the waste, tax it to death and do good by our county with the money.

It turns out waste from Taiwan, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom has been making its way to our county for more than eight years. It is first transferred to a treatment facility in Tennessee and then shipped to Clive.

So why freak out now?

I can understand why people would be mad to find out just now that the waste has been coming to our area. But surely we all understand that the level of waste that makes it here is extremely processed and not very dangerous.

In fact, state Rep. Ronda Rudd Menlove, who represents District 1, which includes Clive, said you could get more radiation from a visit to your doctor’s office than from visiting Clive. We are getting only the lowest-level radioactive waste out there. By definition, low-level waste is any item with detectable radiation on it — which could include gloves, protection suits or waste products. Clive gets the ashes of this material.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission feels it is safe to ship the waste across state lines to Tennessee to process it, and then ship it another 1,500 miles or so to Utah — so surely this process is safe and reliable. And let’s remember that Clive is more than 80 miles from the population bases of our county. The site is built around a square-mile waste pile created by old mill tailings — not exactly something you would want to live near anyway.

EnergySolutions may have its share of supporters and detractors, but isn’t the company providing jobs and mitigation fees to our county? Let’s get on the bandwagon with our officials and say that we’ll accept the waste — for a price.

If you want to send it here, it will cost you. Maybe a new elementary school, or two. Or planned green space for the county. How about a quality transition shelter for the homeless?

Let’s encourage our officials, new and old, to work with higher-ups to continue to bring in this waste. For a price.

Ann Herron is a journalist and former associate professor at Utah State University who lives in Tooele. She can be reached at annherron@comcast.net.