LIVING GREEN: SUPERFUND SITES - BY BLAZE MCROB

 

 Painting by Vi Huntley-Franck

I was digging up material for another article I was going to post today, but I stumbled across some troubling facts about another issue. A very serious one that needs to be addressed. That happens to be Superfund sites. These are, quite simply, any lands within the USA that are contaminated by various hazardous wastes. In 1980, the 96th Congress established the Superfund program to clean them up.

Many of you are aware that these sites exist. Probably, some of you thought the necessary cleaning of these sites was either already completed or was being worked on. New Jersey, a state I called home for many years has more of these sites than any other state in the nation. It has 114 sites.

The owners of the worst of the worse sources of pollution commonly had practices of dumping toxic chemicals on the ground, in rivers, in the ocean, out in the open. And more. Much more. Abandoned warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and processing plants utilized landfills and barrels left in the woods. I've run across many of them. Too many of them. They polluted the air, ground, and water.

I lived, for a while in Sussex County, New Jersey, which was one of the more pristine counties in the state. Or so I thought. The water supply of my hometown was half a mile away from one of these sites and was four miles away from another one. There were others within a short radius of my house. I believe you can see a pattern now. Add in other places, the smaller ones where barrels were hidden, and there is a very disturbing picture. Pristine, it was not.

The cleanup program for these sites appears to be running out of money to do the necessary work.  Trump wanted to cut even more funding for the program. Hopefully, that won't happen now that he's out of office, but I wouldn't bet my money on it. We need to be vigilant. Always. Especially in matters of life and death.

So, what happens if these sites are not cleaned up? Chemicals of every kind will attack, and, in many cases, kill humans and other animals.

1. PCBs can cause cancer and impaired fetal brain development.

2. Pesticides are carcinogenic. They are also associated with Parkinson's disease, miscarriage, nerve damage, and birth defects.

3. Dioxins can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, chloracne, skin rashes, and liver damage.

4. Chloroform is carcinogenic, has potential reproductive damage, can cause birth defects, dizziness, fatigue, and kidney damage.

5. Heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, aluminum, and cadmium can cause cancer, neurological disorders, Alzheimer's disease, foggy head, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, abnormal heart rhythm, and damage to blood vessels.

This is scary enough, but I have found many documents related to many of these sites around the state. For the most part, much has been hidden about past work and treatment of a lot of the chemical toxins. They are a matter of public record. Some of the records try to show that much has been accomplished. Reading the reports with a scientific and objective mind tells me otherwise. For example, one of the sites which could never get some 26,000 gallons of toxic waste completely removed is now a children's park. Agent Orange in the Passaic River endangers the lives of many thousands of people. Paint sludge and other toxic chemicals were dumped into abandoned mines. These files are just sitting around, waiting to be read. They're in official PDF form. All one has to do is read them with a discerning eye and know the bullshit they're trying to shoo away.

In many cases, the studies were conducted using skewed statistics that did not use objective logic. Ask the wrong questions, and the statistics will be skewed. It will take time for me to do this, but I aim to dig deep and get the right answers. This needs an investigative approach.

Some things are important and need to be brought to light. This is one of them. 

Blaze McRob