Demand Congress Change Superfund Laws that Let Companies Delay Toxic Cleanup!
- by: Susan V
- recipient: Member of U.S. Congress
A generation of children in DePue, Illinois have been exposed to some of the most toxic waste on earth. But this is not how it is supposed to be.
According to Nancy Loeb's Truthout op ed, the town of 1900 residents is literally covered in a blanket of slag comprised of heavy metals. These include mercury, lead, zinc, arsenic and cadmium, which are also polluting Lake DePue.
The contamination of DePue that began in 1903 remains today, even though, says Loeb, “twenty years ago the State of Illinois sued three companies responsible" for the cleanup. This is because two of the companies - Exxon Mobil and CBS/Viacom - are stalling, and the other company went bankrupt.
Companies that don’t go bankrupt get away with delays largely because of the way Superfund laws are written, requiring only planning and testing, adds Loeb. Even though EPA has DePue listed in the "National Priority" category, with Human Exposure and Groundwater Contamination noted as Not Under Control, the companies have been dragging their feet for 20 years, claiming there’s not enough evidence of harm or it costs too much to remove the source of the pollution.
As a result of these lax regulations, children exposed to contamination in towns all over America face “the very real possibility of irreversible damages to their health, including possible damages to their nervous systems, effects on brain development, kidney disease and other organ diseases,” says Loeb.
Instead of spending money to prevent these horrible health outcomes, the responsible companies “spend millions of dollars a year on 'experts' who slow down the process and minimize the risks," adds Loeb. As legal counsel to the Village of DePue, Loeb insists “This needs to change immediately; they must clean up the mess they made."
Sign this petition to demand Congress change Superfund laws that let companies delay cleaning up their toxic waste.
Dear Members of Congress;
Nancy Loeb reports not only on the serious pollution mostly low-income families face every day living in DePue, Illinois, but also that there are another “1,322 other places like DePue on the EPA's Superfund list, affecting roughly 11 million people in the United States, including 3 million to 4 million children, who live in close proximity to these sites….”
Most disturbing about DePue is that this toxic mess should have been cleaned up years ago, and whatever efforts are being put forth by the companies, who were told 20 years ago to begin the cleanup, have not solved the problem.
Evidence of this fact is provided through comments posted by DePue residents and is also found on EPA’s Superfund website, which states in answer to the question about current risks at the DePue site:
Several sources for the contaminants have been identified: a residue pile, a zinc slag pile, lithopone waste material ridges, a cinder fill area, contaminated soils, cooling ponds, a discharge ditch and the gypsum stack. All sources contain elevated levels of metals, including zinc, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and copper. Contamination of a fishery, state wildlife refuge and wetlands has been documented in Lake DePue.
Also, EPA data on the “Site Status” for DePue classifies its “Human Exposure Status” and “Contaminated Ground Water Status,” both, as “Not Under Control.”
If Loeb is correct, it would appear that Exxon and ABC have spent more money on stalling and accomplishing little more than stopping the pollution from getting worse than they have been willing to spend on actually cleaning up the toxic mess.
And who would argue that companies the size of Exxon and ABC, with their resources, could not have accomplished a complete and adequate cleanup of the DePue contamination had they been required to do so in the first place?
We ask Congress to consider the costs of not requiring companies like these to clean up their toxic messes as quickly and thoroughly as possible, and who, in the end, is paying for the high costs of poor health and disease? Should the American public bear the burden and the children suffer, or should companies who profit from creating the pollution be required to use part of those profits to clean it up and also prevent it in the future?
We, the undersigned, say the latter is what should be required. and we insist that Congress change any laws that allow companies to delay cleaning up their toxic wastes, especially those already on Superfund’s National Priority List. Practical deadlines must be set by EPA and strictly enforced.
Thanks for your time.
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