"In Mo., worry over lead waste" by ASSOCIATED PRESS | July 18, 2009
LEADWOOD, Mo. - For generations, people in Leadwood have lived near huge piles of dangerous, lead-contaminated mining waste. Now the Environmental Protection Agency has decided the answer to the problem is to pile on more lead-tainted earth.
To many, that makes no sense at all. “They’re going to bring in more dirt that’s poisoned and bring it down here, and we don’t want it,’’ said Dan Rohrbach, 55, who lives near one of the piles in this town of 1,200 people. “Why are we being treated like second-class citizens?’’
Who would want it? You guys must be Americans, right?
That's why you get the second-class status in your own country.
Under the plan, which is still being aired in public hearings and has no fixed starting date, 300,000 tons of lead-laced soil from neighboring Jefferson County will be trucked in and spread over some of Leadwood’s tailings, the sandy material left over from a century of mining.
The EPA, struggling with the longstanding problem of lead contamination in the slice of southeastern Missouri known as the Old Lead Belt, said that will accomplish two things: remove lead contamination from Jefferson County, and help grass grow over the tailings in Leadwood. That will fix the waste in place and keep the lead from blowing around or from washing into streams when it rains.
“What we’re trying to do is consolidate the waste,’’ said EPA Superfund project manager Jim Silver. “Right now, this lead is all over everywhere.’’
I'd be worried anyway, no matter where they put the stuff.
Residents in Leadwood, though, see the solution as worse than the original problem.
“They don’t want it, and we don’t want it, either,’’ said resident Lee Butcher, 50. “The idea that you’re moving it out of Jefferson County and bringing it here doesn’t make sense.’’
It does if you live there, right?
--more--"
At least they know where their poison site is:
WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday released a list of 26 communities in 10 states where residents are potentially threatened by coal ash storage ponds similar to one that flooded a neighborhood in Tennessee last year.
Until now, the national coal ash site list has not been provided to the public. Earlier this month, the Army Corps of Engineers said it didn’t want the locations disclosed because of national security. Hale said that issue has been resolved....
--more--"FLASHBACK:
"Locations of coal ash sites kept secret" by Associated Press | June 13, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has decided to keep secret the locations of nearly four dozen coal ash storage sites that pose a threat to people living nearby.
The Environmental Protection Agency classified the 44 sites as potential hazards to communities while investigating storage of coal ash waste after a spill at a Tennessee power plant in December. The classification means the waste sites could cause death and significant property damage if an event such as a storm, a terrorist attack, or a structural failure caused them to spill. The sites have existed for years with little or no federal regulation.
The Army Corps of Engineers in a letter dated June 4 told the EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the public should not be alerted to the whereabouts of the sites because it would compromise national security....
What, the PEOPLE might KNOW the GOVERNMENT is PUTTING THEM at RISK of being POISONED?!!!!
Yeah, same old, same old, just in a slicker package, 'murka!
Related: Tennessee Geiger Counter Clicking Over Coal Spill
"Terrorist" Threat to Keep Toxic Coal Ash Sites Secret?
Yeah, this "change" -- for the worse? -- government really cares about US!!!
