Talk Dirt to Me: Chatting with Jay Falstad from the Queen Anne's Conservation Association

So can you tell us a little bit about the Conservation Association?

Yeah.

So Queen Anne's Conservation Association, also known as QACA, was founded in the 60s.

It was originally called the Kent Queen Anne's Conservation Association, and it was formed when there was a proposal to bring some nuclear development to Queen Anne's County along the shores of the Chester River.

And at the time, a number of neighbors expressed obvious concern about that.

Keep in mind this is the height of the Cold War.

You've got nuclear facilities going up basically all around us.

You had Salem in New Jersey, Calvert Cliffs over in Calvert County, Three Mile Island up in Limerick, Pennsylvania.

The only project that was ultimately stopped was the one in Queen Anne's County.

And so that's what ultimately got the organization moving.

Also at the same time, with the Nixon administration, there was the advent of the Clean Water Act, and there was a new movement aimed at helping to protect the environment.

So you had a bunch of people coming together, I won't call them hippies, but it was a new awakening of how we were treating the earth.

And all that kind of came together at the same time.

And so since then, we follow... land use and environmental issues in queen anne's county uh we have for now 60 years wow um we follow most of the development proposals uh in the county um we've challenged many of them some we've won some we've lost but we're always paying attention so in the end we are a public interest organization we look out for uh environmental impact in queen anne's county um and in the region but we we really do try and contain ourselves to just queen anne's county

so in the history of it maybe you don't know the answer but was it even close that maybe nuclear could have been built like how close did that come to happening

Yeah.

I mean, if you read some of the old articles, some of the issues that we are confronted with today are exactly the same as they were back in the 60s.

You've got a whole group of proponents on one side who see that this could bring economic development and new business and new housing, and you've got others on the other side that don't want to see that.

So...

Very, very similar circumstances to what you see now, where people were going to, back then they called it the zoning board, but they were going to planning commission meetings.

There were public meetings held at a high school, or the Liberty Building wasn't the center for county government at the time.

But yeah, the politics were still the same.

You had some people opposed and some people in favor of.

So yeah, it...

Depending on the politics of the day, it could have gone either direction.

So can you tell us a little bit about the Conservation Association?

Yeah.

So Queen Anne's Conservation Association, also known as QACA, was founded in the 60s.

It was originally called the Kent Queen Anne's Conservation Association, and it was formed when there was a proposal to bring some nuclear development to Queen Anne's County along the shores of the Chester River.

And at the time, a number of neighbors expressed obvious concern about that.

Keep in mind this is the height of the Cold War.

You've got nuclear facilities going up basically all around us.

You had Salem in New Jersey, Calvert Cliffs over in Calvert County, Three Mile Island up in Limerick, Pennsylvania.

The only project that was ultimately stopped was the one in Queen Anne's County.

And so that's what ultimately got the organization moving.

Also at the same time, with the Nixon administration, there was the advent of the Clean Water Act, and there was a new movement aimed at helping to protect the environment.

So you had a bunch of people coming together, I won't call them hippies, but it was a new awakening of how we were treating the earth.

And all that kind of came together at the same time.

And so since then, we follow... land use and environmental issues in queen anne's county uh we have for now 60 years wow um we follow most of the development proposals uh in the county um we've challenged many of them some we've won some we've lost but we're always paying attention so in the end we are a public interest organization we look out for uh environmental impact in queen anne's county um and in the region but we we really do try and contain ourselves to just queen anne's county

so in the history of it maybe you don't know the answer but was it even close that maybe nuclear could have been built like how close did that come to happening

Yeah.

I mean, if you read some of the old articles, some of the issues that we are confronted with today are exactly the same as they were back in the 60s.

You've got a whole group of proponents on one side who see that this could bring economic development and new business and new housing, and you've got others on the other side that don't want to see that.

So...

Very, very similar circumstances to what you see now, where people were going to, back then they called it the zoning board, but they were going to planning commission meetings.

There were public meetings held at a high school, or the Liberty Building wasn't the center for county government at the time.

But yeah, the politics were still the same.

You had some people opposed and some people in favor of.

So yeah, it...

Depending on the politics of the day, it could have gone either direction.