I believe the Times's recent coverage of PFOA contamination in Parkersburg, W.Va. should also be included in the "Related Coverage" column: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts...
5
To Residents of Hoosick -
Posting the January 10, 2016, NY Times report on the Dupont coverup about their use of PFOA, again; not sure if previous post made it.
Please take the time to read the report in detail, and contact the attorney on the case, Mr. Bilott.
He is one of a kind.
Every resident needs to be aware that the EPA, the local EPA representative in the Tennants case was corrupt, and tried to prevent a full investigation, so everything your local government, and especially the State government does and says, should be suspect.
This PFOA contamination story is going national, and international, as its residue can be found in plants and animals all over the world, causing all manner of environmental, and serious health problems everywhere.
There is nothing good about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts...
Posting the January 10, 2016, NY Times report on the Dupont coverup about their use of PFOA, again; not sure if previous post made it.
Please take the time to read the report in detail, and contact the attorney on the case, Mr. Bilott.
He is one of a kind.
Every resident needs to be aware that the EPA, the local EPA representative in the Tennants case was corrupt, and tried to prevent a full investigation, so everything your local government, and especially the State government does and says, should be suspect.
This PFOA contamination story is going national, and international, as its residue can be found in plants and animals all over the world, causing all manner of environmental, and serious health problems everywhere.
There is nothing good about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts...
7
Please, residents of Hoosick, contact the attorney, Mr. Bilott, in this Times report of January 10, 2016.
‘‘I started seeing a story,’’ Bilott said. It became apparent what was going on: They had known for a long time that this stuff was bad.’’
"The story that Bilott began to see, was astounding in its breadth, specificity and sheer brazenness. ‘‘I was shocked,’’ he said. That was another understatement. Bilott could not believe the scale of incriminating material that DuPont had sent him. The company appeared not to realize what it had handed over. ‘‘It was one of those things where you can’t believe you’re reading what you’re reading,’’ he said. ‘‘That it’s actually been put in writing. It was the kind of stuff you always heard about happening but you never thought you’d see written down.’’
"Over the decades that followed, DuPont pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA powder through the outfall pipes of the Parkersburg facility into the Ohio River. The company dumped 7,100 tons of PFOA-laced sludge into ‘‘digestion ponds’’: open, unlined pits on the Washington Works property, from which the chemical could seep straight into the ground. PFOA entered the local water table, which supplied drinking water to the communities of Parkersburg, Vienna, Little Hocking and Lubeck — more than 100,000 people in all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts...
‘‘I started seeing a story,’’ Bilott said. It became apparent what was going on: They had known for a long time that this stuff was bad.’’
"The story that Bilott began to see, was astounding in its breadth, specificity and sheer brazenness. ‘‘I was shocked,’’ he said. That was another understatement. Bilott could not believe the scale of incriminating material that DuPont had sent him. The company appeared not to realize what it had handed over. ‘‘It was one of those things where you can’t believe you’re reading what you’re reading,’’ he said. ‘‘That it’s actually been put in writing. It was the kind of stuff you always heard about happening but you never thought you’d see written down.’’
"Over the decades that followed, DuPont pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA powder through the outfall pipes of the Parkersburg facility into the Ohio River. The company dumped 7,100 tons of PFOA-laced sludge into ‘‘digestion ponds’’: open, unlined pits on the Washington Works property, from which the chemical could seep straight into the ground. PFOA entered the local water table, which supplied drinking water to the communities of Parkersburg, Vienna, Little Hocking and Lubeck — more than 100,000 people in all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts...
2
I grew up in Hoosick Falls and the blame game -- particularly the blame of government officials who work for very little or nothing and have nothing to gain from hiding these water woes -- is running rampant. Very few people are blaming the companies who caused the problems. Most likely because some of those companies pulled out town long ago (after exacting tax breaks from the town and state, of course) or because those businesses are currently some of the few employers left in town. I know this from experience because my father worked for one of the factories who contaminated the water. He died from respiratory issues relating to his work, but he never wanted to talk about it -- it was the price of being employed. When I visited him the day he retired and saw the room where he worked -- filled with neon green particles floating through the air -- I cried. Every teenage complaint or tirade I'd thrown his way suddenly seemed ridiculous. No one should have give up their health to provide for his or her family. And no company should put short-term profits above the health of the communities they're doing business in. It's a great town, full of wonderful people who are now tearing each other apart.
11
Please remember that congress has cut funding to every thing including the EPA, military, CDC, you name it due the budget deal worked out several years ago. Seems like everything other than congress has taken a hit.
2
NYT, please do more like this very fine article:
http://tinyurl.com/jsqju47
(refused link was from NYT magazine)
"expose a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution."
It takes an unusual hero like Rob Billott or Erin Brockovich to address even a small piece of the monstrous proliferation of toxic chemicals and waste. Meanwhile, Republicans want to muzzle all but the wealthy via the Supreme Court, if anyone like Obama does what they can to push back.
I was fascinated, if appalled, by this - 35-40 thousand Superfund sites!:
"Brockovich: And whether they are absent because they have no funding, let's be honest about that, or they're overburdened, which they are, and they're understaffed. They can't possibly get to all of these locations. So if I look at my map of 4,000 people reporting, and that number grows every day, we also have to look at we have some 35 to 40,000 superfund sites that we still need to address. And we're still adding to that list every day. So there is a problem that is affecting the entire nation and we need to begin to sooner than later start finding some solutions and/or the funds or process how we can begin a cleanup process because...
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-03-20/science-sinkholes
("show more")
Do read Jane Mayer's fine "Dark Money". More here:
http://desmogblog.com/2016/01/21/beyond-koch-brothers-scaife-olin-bradle...
Note: Scaife, Olin, Bradley ... and on and on
http://tinyurl.com/jsqju47
(refused link was from NYT magazine)
"expose a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution."
It takes an unusual hero like Rob Billott or Erin Brockovich to address even a small piece of the monstrous proliferation of toxic chemicals and waste. Meanwhile, Republicans want to muzzle all but the wealthy via the Supreme Court, if anyone like Obama does what they can to push back.
I was fascinated, if appalled, by this - 35-40 thousand Superfund sites!:
"Brockovich: And whether they are absent because they have no funding, let's be honest about that, or they're overburdened, which they are, and they're understaffed. They can't possibly get to all of these locations. So if I look at my map of 4,000 people reporting, and that number grows every day, we also have to look at we have some 35 to 40,000 superfund sites that we still need to address. And we're still adding to that list every day. So there is a problem that is affecting the entire nation and we need to begin to sooner than later start finding some solutions and/or the funds or process how we can begin a cleanup process because...
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-03-20/science-sinkholes
("show more")
Do read Jane Mayer's fine "Dark Money". More here:
http://desmogblog.com/2016/01/21/beyond-koch-brothers-scaife-olin-bradle...
Note: Scaife, Olin, Bradley ... and on and on
5
Kait below linked to the article and related editorial which I had trouble getting through. Truly great reporting!
off topic: if you take a lot of trouble to write something that includes links, try saving in a text file (Notepad on PC, Textedit on Mac) and using bit.ly or tinyurl if you get that dread submit freeze. NYT is fussy about link inclusion in comments.
off topic: if you take a lot of trouble to write something that includes links, try saving in a text file (Notepad on PC, Textedit on Mac) and using bit.ly or tinyurl if you get that dread submit freeze. NYT is fussy about link inclusion in comments.
1
And when the EPA or other agencies are. involved, they, not the polluters, are blamed. (Note that gold mine that was leaked; the EPA did not produce the toxic waste, and it was one of many, the rest being potential rather than actual.)
No one cared because they were employed....
2
They cared, but they needed employment.
2
Isn't this the same chemical from the article about the Lawyer vs. Dupont? http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts...
Chemical regulations and testing for the chemicals really, desperately, needs to be reworked as your editorial board suggested here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/opinion/despite-clear-dangers-dupont-k...
What is the holdup?!
Chemical regulations and testing for the chemicals really, desperately, needs to be reworked as your editorial board suggested here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/opinion/despite-clear-dangers-dupont-k...
What is the holdup?!
6
You know the holdup; when corporate wrongdoing is discovered, you can bet that local, state, and federal officials are involved, and many benefit financially, from helping these corporations cover up their crimes.
Our government, nearly every agency, and branch, is corporate owned, and working exclusively for corporate America, protecting corporate America from we the very foolish people.
Take a gander at our crop of corrupt Presidential candidates, (except Mr. Sanders); its obvious that becoming President is a job that gives them the key to the goldmine that is our nation, so they can continue to lay waste to our resources, our environment, and our lives, as they seek to satisfy their all-consuming avarice.
Our government, nearly every agency, and branch, is corporate owned, and working exclusively for corporate America, protecting corporate America from we the very foolish people.
Take a gander at our crop of corrupt Presidential candidates, (except Mr. Sanders); its obvious that becoming President is a job that gives them the key to the goldmine that is our nation, so they can continue to lay waste to our resources, our environment, and our lives, as they seek to satisfy their all-consuming avarice.
1
Here's one for you. Wisconsin has a woman, appointed by Governor Scott Walker, (a former presidential candidate before he "suspended" last September) as the Director of our Department of Natural Resources, for our entire state. She has no college degree and no previous environmental experience. Her husband is a businessman involved in contracting and construction. Get it?
Our state is now on the verge of allowing "businesses" write up their own environmental polices, and then being approved by the state's Department of Natural Resources.
Wisconsin is sick about what has happened here, to our environment, to our schools, to our health care - all of it. Please do not ask me how Walker got elected....obviously, people were uneducated, gullible, and naive. His appointees are puppets of his and his like.
We are a state in which our environment has always been pristine, held to the highest standards, and has been a great source of income to tourists and to the constituents of the state.
Walker's appointment of Cathy Stepp, who oversees our state resources, and supervises and oversees staff, is way out of line and leaves our state in danger. In addition, they let go 50 people in the department, including a great number of scientists in the last Republican run legislative budget.
Please folks, wake up. Learn about your candidates, who funds them, what they stand for, and vote as an educated voter. Not like here in Wisconsin.
Our state is now on the verge of allowing "businesses" write up their own environmental polices, and then being approved by the state's Department of Natural Resources.
Wisconsin is sick about what has happened here, to our environment, to our schools, to our health care - all of it. Please do not ask me how Walker got elected....obviously, people were uneducated, gullible, and naive. His appointees are puppets of his and his like.
We are a state in which our environment has always been pristine, held to the highest standards, and has been a great source of income to tourists and to the constituents of the state.
Walker's appointment of Cathy Stepp, who oversees our state resources, and supervises and oversees staff, is way out of line and leaves our state in danger. In addition, they let go 50 people in the department, including a great number of scientists in the last Republican run legislative budget.
Please folks, wake up. Learn about your candidates, who funds them, what they stand for, and vote as an educated voter. Not like here in Wisconsin.
27
Mima,
It may be too late, for the United States.
Look at the Republican candidates, and Hillary Clinton, the republican wolf, hiding in democrat clothing.
Any one of the current corporate owned candidates, or Trump, in the White House spells the end of our Democracy, as we used to know it.
Our only hope is Bernie Sanders.
It may be too late, for the United States.
Look at the Republican candidates, and Hillary Clinton, the republican wolf, hiding in democrat clothing.
Any one of the current corporate owned candidates, or Trump, in the White House spells the end of our Democracy, as we used to know it.
Our only hope is Bernie Sanders.
2
Mel Farrell - Funny - I saw Hillary front and center bringing the EPA down hard in Flint while Bernie was busy trying to learn 'fist-bumps' to boost his hip-hop cred. Please spare us from the same old, same old Bernie rant. He's not the only liberal Democrat in America. In fact he's only lately a 'democrat.'
2
This story helps explain why chemical companies locate in small villages and near small towns. It's harder for small towns to afford to do the tests, and small towns don't want to drive off the "job creators."
I live in a small town that was once "host" to a nearby steel mill. When the mill started operating, in World War II, many of the local farmers -- mostly growing fruit like peaches like peaches, apples, pears and plums -- took jobs at the mill to allow them to continue farming. After the war, when the town started growing and the orchards and pastures started disappearing, the steel mill became even more important in the local economy.
U.S. Steel owned it and shut it down. Local doctors noted a decreased incidence of respiratory illnesses, especially in winter. A former E.P.A. lawyer and his brother bought it, brought in furnaces being surplussed in Japan as obsolete, and started it up again. Respiratory problems increased. The plant shut down about 10 years later, but by then a large number of locals worked in Salt Lake City and started commuting. The winter air pollution switched composition; our valley became a non-attainment area, along with Salt Lake Valley, for its PM-10 air pollution.
Geneva Steel never admitted that it had polluted the air and water; its site is now being cleaned up and built out, but no-one is happy to have to clean up after industries that never clean up after themselves.
The laws need to change.
I live in a small town that was once "host" to a nearby steel mill. When the mill started operating, in World War II, many of the local farmers -- mostly growing fruit like peaches like peaches, apples, pears and plums -- took jobs at the mill to allow them to continue farming. After the war, when the town started growing and the orchards and pastures started disappearing, the steel mill became even more important in the local economy.
U.S. Steel owned it and shut it down. Local doctors noted a decreased incidence of respiratory illnesses, especially in winter. A former E.P.A. lawyer and his brother bought it, brought in furnaces being surplussed in Japan as obsolete, and started it up again. Respiratory problems increased. The plant shut down about 10 years later, but by then a large number of locals worked in Salt Lake City and started commuting. The winter air pollution switched composition; our valley became a non-attainment area, along with Salt Lake Valley, for its PM-10 air pollution.
Geneva Steel never admitted that it had polluted the air and water; its site is now being cleaned up and built out, but no-one is happy to have to clean up after industries that never clean up after themselves.
The laws need to change.
14
Heres another example of why us Republicans feel its necessary to get rid of that there EPA. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International could be doing real well and hiring many more minimum wage workers if these dag gone regulations were removed. Has anyone proven that these here chemicals will harm you................. every time? Sure there may be a risk and some people will die but theres no guarantee that everyone will die. Maybe only certain levels of exposure will kill with the rest only being genetically damaged. Yes, ya'll need to start thinking more like us Republicans. Since theres no confirmed proof that factory owners and their families, living far away in gated communities, will be negatively affected, then we should ignore these here warnins. Think of the economic opportunities we're losing by worrying about such nonsense. Kill the EPA, we need jobs.
8
Good GOD I hope this post is a joke.
5
Christina, there is a good bit of irony and a mite of exaggeration, but not much. Please start paying attention. We are all humans, and we belong together in working against looting and shortsighted monofocus on the profit line for shareholders. These guys may not see what they are doing, and an awful lot go along to get along but the net result is disastrous. While you're at it, climate science denial is funded by the same strategic forces.
1
I am puzzled by how there could be a water quality problem (with teflon contamination) in North Bennington, Vermont. The Woolamansic River is a tributary of the Hudson River flowing from the East in Vermont to the Hudson River to the West above Hoosick Falls.
In summary, how could the contamination of the Hudson at Hoosick Falls make its way upriver against the flow of the water?
In summary, how could the contamination of the Hudson at Hoosick Falls make its way upriver against the flow of the water?
1
Different source of contamination.
2
Local news reports say that there was a sister plant in North Bennington that closed a while back. They think this might be the cause of the well contamination in VT. (Good question, btw, it made me curious enough to look....)
4
It's from a third chemical plant located in VT, just like the second chemical plant found in Petersburg NY and the first found in Hoosick Falls.
2
What about the DuPont executives who new for decades that PFOA was toxic? Why aren't they going to jail? Sure, let companies self regulate, that will work out great.
15
Another example of the damage done to America and Americans by the ALEC/Koch brothers/Wall Street/u s chamber of commerce/radical religious right/nra/major media Corporate Conglomerate who have deeply wounded America with their greed and lust for power. They want to destroy the EPA and republicans are right now trying to further weaken Clean Water Acts. They are a pox on America. Every person of voting age MUST register and vote only for socially conscious democrats and independents in every election for the foreseeable future.
10
Why is a toxic chemical like PFOA as of yet unregulated?
Local and state officials are responsible for an inconsistent response, but they have an easy scapegoat. Congress need to get serious about regulating toxic chemicals; this is not the first time nor will it be the last instance of toxic contamination in water supplies. This is an incredibly costly, and often tragic, oversight on the part of our nation's leaders.
Local and state officials are responsible for an inconsistent response, but they have an easy scapegoat. Congress need to get serious about regulating toxic chemicals; this is not the first time nor will it be the last instance of toxic contamination in water supplies. This is an incredibly costly, and often tragic, oversight on the part of our nation's leaders.
23
A couple of thoughts:
First, why is it that the focus tends to be on Government as a culprit when the corporate execs who did this hide behind legal protections? Everyone is quick to call for the heads of government officials, but the Capitalists behind the death dealing practices get off with fines -- at best.
When government officials are culpable, it is often because they and their communities have been bought off or scared off. Campaign contributions, bribes or other perks to government officials or the company threat of leaving and destroying the economic base of the community if things are made too difficult for it. Blackmail, in other words.
People talk about Government being corrupt. Yet, who does the corrupting? Business. 9/10 of the time.
I am sick and tired of it. Government officials who betray the public trust and corporate execs who blackmail communities with economic disaster or who knowingly undemine the public health and welfare should be put in jail for the rest of their lives... or better yet, executed. Maybe that will put an end to some of the abuses of this corrupt economic system.
First, why is it that the focus tends to be on Government as a culprit when the corporate execs who did this hide behind legal protections? Everyone is quick to call for the heads of government officials, but the Capitalists behind the death dealing practices get off with fines -- at best.
When government officials are culpable, it is often because they and their communities have been bought off or scared off. Campaign contributions, bribes or other perks to government officials or the company threat of leaving and destroying the economic base of the community if things are made too difficult for it. Blackmail, in other words.
People talk about Government being corrupt. Yet, who does the corrupting? Business. 9/10 of the time.
I am sick and tired of it. Government officials who betray the public trust and corporate execs who blackmail communities with economic disaster or who knowingly undemine the public health and welfare should be put in jail for the rest of their lives... or better yet, executed. Maybe that will put an end to some of the abuses of this corrupt economic system.
27
Can EPA please check water in my town and every other as well ? Who do you trust ?
Or just buy a bottled water ?
Or just buy a bottled water ?
6
"Or just buy a bottled water ?"
Bottled water may be more dangerous. Bottled water has fewer regulations than tap water.
Legislators, almost all Republicans, have made sure the EPA is grossly underfunded and understaffed and then they blame them for problems. It's what the puppet masters pay them to do.
Bottled water may be more dangerous. Bottled water has fewer regulations than tap water.
Legislators, almost all Republicans, have made sure the EPA is grossly underfunded and understaffed and then they blame them for problems. It's what the puppet masters pay them to do.
6
You trust bottled water?
2
Are you going to have the bottled water tested?
2
Is this what we get for putting trust into any of our public agencies and officials?
Something as innocent as water, yet so many ramifications when not tended to, when constituents are not listened to. How can we allow this to happen to our children? How can officials allow this to happen to our children?
Something as innocent as water, yet so many ramifications when not tended to, when constituents are not listened to. How can we allow this to happen to our children? How can officials allow this to happen to our children?
6
I fear this will be treated exactly the way gun violence, especially against children, is treated. Some lawmakers just look the other way.
3
As another commenter has noted, and to paraphrase, where is your anger at those who actually do the polluting?
Why are they given a pass here?
Why are they given a pass here?
5
The free market will surely solve this problem. Remember how clean the Hudson River is.
7
Mr. Bilott first filed suit about PFOA in 1999. Yep, decades ago. Corporations rely upon the public misperception that if a chemical is dangerous, it is regulated. Under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the E.P.A. can test chemicals only when it has been provided evidence of harm. In effect, this allows the chemical companies to regulate themselves. The E.P.A. has restricted only five chemicals, out of tens of thousands on the market, in the last 40 years. PFOA was only one of more than 60,000 synthetic chemicals that companies produced and released into the world without regulatory oversight.
This problem goes beyond Hoosick and PFOA.