When Nature and Humans Collide

When Nature and Humans Collide

Times Beach, Missouri

Times Beach, Missouri• Times Beach was founded in 1925 along

the Meramec river - summer resort town (st. Louis)

• 1925 - purchase of a 20 x 100 ft (6 by 30 m) lot for $67.50 included a six-month newspaper subscription.In its early years

Times Beach, Missouri

• the Great Depression and WWII --> town became a community of mostly low-income housing although (a few families spent winters in the city and summers in Times Beach as late as 1970)

• one small grocery store and one gas station on old Highway 66 to serve the residents

Times Beach, Missouri• Prone to flooding throughout its history • 1st buildings were built on stilts • town experienced a devastating flood

three weeks before an announcement by the EPA which led to the town's evacuation by 1985 and complete demolition by 1992.

Times Beach, Missouri • The site of Times Beach now houses a

419 acre state park commemorating Route 66

• In the early 1970s the town could not afford to pave its dirt roads & had dust problem

Times Beach, Missouri• city hired Russell Bliss to oil the roads in the

town• between 1972 & 1976 Roads sprayed with

waste oil• Bliss subcontracted to haul waste for the

Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO - During the Vietnam War producer of Agent Orange)

•

Times Beach, Missouri

• waste clay & water removed from plant contained levels of dioxin some 2,000 time higher than the dioxin content in Agent Orange

• dirt roads of Times Beach were sprayed with the lethal material

Times Beach, Missouri• The EPA began to visit Times Beach in

1982, taking samples and tests that identified dangerous levels of dioxin in Times Beach soil.

• In December, 1982, the Meramec River flooded, further spreading the contamination of the town and other areas.

•

Times Beach, Missouri

• panic spread through the town and every illness and animal death was attributed to dioxin

• President Ronald Reagan formed a dioxin task force to study the effects of the chemical and in early 1983; the EPA announced the town buyout for $32 million dollars. 

Times Beach, Missouri• 1985, the entire population of +2,000

had been evacuated (except 1 elderly couple who refused to leave)

• town was dis-incorporated • entire site was quarantined as residents

moved on to other areas

Times Beach, Missouri• site sat silent behind barricades protecting

public from the toxic threat• 1996 and 1997 the government removed

265,000 tons of contaminated soil and debris from Times Beach and 28 other sites in eastern Misouri at a cost of $110 million dollars

• After the soil was incinerated, the incinerator was dismantled and the site was turned over to the State

Times Beach, Missouri

Times Beach, Missouri

Times Beach, Missouri

Times Beach, Missouri

Hinkley, CaliforniaEB

Hinkley, California

• Unincorporated settlement in Mojave Desert

• Pop 3,500• 120 miles northeast of LA

Hinkley, California

• Residents surrounded by methamphetamine labs, two Marine bases, downstream from a huge naval weapons center, and 20 miles east of Edwards Air Force Base

Hinkley, California• 1952, PG&E built a pumping station on

20 acres near town as part of its enormous gas-transmission system

• The station pumped natural gas through an artery of pipes stretching from the Texas Panhandle to the San Francisco Bay Area; the system served PG&E customers in much of the state’s Central Valley.

Hinkley, California

• location of a compressor station for PG&E's massive natural gas transmission pipelines

• natural gas has to be re-compressed approximately every three-hundred and fifty miles

Hinkley, California

• station uses large cooling towers to cool the compressors

• The water used in these cooling towers contained Hexavalent Chromium to prevent rust in the machinery

• Since the water was stored between uses in unlined ponds, it ultimately severely contaminated the groundwater in the town

Hinkley, California

• 1987 during routine check, PG&E found chromium had leaked into the water supply

• December 1987 findings reported to California Regional Water Quality Control Board (required by law)

• The board ordered the utility to clean up the pollution.

• .

Hinkley, California• In the early 1990s PG&E undertook a $12.5

million cleanup effort, approaching the owners of three farms and 10 houses in the area and offering to buy their properties

• People suffer many physical ailments bloody noses, various intestinal ailments, bad backs, rotten teeth and tumors

Hinkley, California

• PG&E knew water contaminated but tried to cover it up - tried to buy property, tell people the chemical was safe found in vitamins

• 1996 class action law suit --> $330 million to 648 plaintiffs

Hinkley, California

Hinkley, Californiaerin

EB

Cameron, Missouri

Cameron, Missouri• Border Clinton & Dekalb counties

Cameron, Missouri• Original function was --> house

of entertainment• 1830 --> Isaac Baldwin opened a

Post office• Sold whiskey for $0.25 a gallon

& $.10 for a jug of H20• For $20 would take people to St.

Joseph’s 48 hour trip

Cameron, Missouri

• Part of hound dog trail (now US route 36 & interstate 72)

• Connected St. Joseph’s Hannibal (Missouri’s 2nd and 3rd largest cities prior to civil war 1861-65)

Cameron, Missouri

• Became railway town pop from 100 in 1859 to 3,000 in 1881

• 1883-1930 - College town Wesleyan College run by Methodist Church

Cameron, Missouri

• Now most people employed in health care & Education

• Pop in 2000 --> 8, 312• Pop in 2010 --> 9, 279

Cameron, Missouri

• Pharmacist Steve Erickson 1st to notice something wrong

• Large # of tumors - many benign not reported to health department

• Citizens concerned about large # of brain tumors and cancers in the town

• Since 1996 - 70 cases• june 2008 - town meeting to discuss

concerns • history

Cameron, Missouri

• EPA involved in testing to determine the cause

• October 2008 - test on old landfill• Found formaldehyde, metals, dioxins &

furans, pesticides, semi-volatile organic compounds & volatile organic compounds

• All except one soil sample (lead) all levels below screening levels

• Erin Brockovich

Cameron, Missouri

• Aug. 2008 EPA soil test on former Rockwood industries plant (insulation company)

• Found high levels of lead and arsenic but not life threatening

• Feb. 2009 EPA - test on drinking water near quarry no problems

• April 22, 2009 - Cameron Brain tumor lawsuit (William Kemper (wife Karen) & Janet Lasher (lung cancer) filed by Erin Brockovich

Cameron, Missouri

• Prime Tanning Corp - use of Hexavlaent chromium to remove hair from hides

Cameron, Missouri

• 1983-2009 - waste sludge given to farms in Buchanan, Dekalb, Andrew & Clinton as free fertilizer

lawsuit cameron

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine• City began in 1193 as a

hunting lodge• Politically changed hands

many times --> Lithuania, Poland and Russia

• Part of U.S.S.R from 1921 until 1991 (independent)

• 1964 site chosen for 1st nuclear power plant on Ukrainian soil

Chernobyl, Ukraine

• April 26, 1986 (mid-night)reactor #4 exploded (near town of Pripyat)

• 4 workers killed instantly• 4 days later residents of

Prypyat ordered to evacuate

• Worst nuclear disaster in the world

• Chernobyl

Chernobyl, Ukraine

• Further explosions & fire sent a plume of highly radioactive Fallout into the atmosphere & over an extensive geographical area

• 400 times more fallout was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

•

Chernobyl, Ukraine

• plume drifted over extensive parts of the western USSR, Eastern, western and Northern Europe, & as far away as Eastern North American

• Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus & Russia were badly contaminated--> evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people

• According to official post-Soviet data~ 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus

Chernobyl, Ukraine

• The countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination & health care costs of the Chernobyl accident

• difficult to accurately quantify the number of deaths caused by the events at as the Soviet-era cover-up made it difficult to track down victims

•

Chernobyl, Ukraine

• Lists incomplete, and Soviet authorities later forbade doctors to cite "radiation" on death certificates

• The overall cost of the disaster is estimated at US$200 billion

Chernobyl, Ukraine

• World Health Organization (WHO), attributed 56 direct deaths (47 accident workers, and nine children with Thyroid Cancer

• ~ 4,000 extra cancer deaths among the approximately 600,000 most highly exposed people

• Chernobyl Exclusion Zone & certain limited areas remain off limits, the majority of affected areas are now considered safe for settlement and economic activity

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine

20 years later

tourism

23 years later