when nature and humans collide. times beach, missouri
TRANSCRIPT
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When Nature and Humans Collide
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Times Beach, Missouri
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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)
•
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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
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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.
•
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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.
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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
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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
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Times Beach, Missouri
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Times Beach, Missouri
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Times Beach, Missouri
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Times Beach, Missouri
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Hinkley, California
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Hinkley, California
• Unincorporated settlement in Mojave Desert
• 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
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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
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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
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Hinkley, California
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Cameron, Missouri
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Cameron, Missouri
• Border Clinton & Dekalb counties
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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
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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)
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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
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Cameron, Missouri
• Now most people employed in health care & Education
• Pop in 2000 --> 8, 312• Pop in 2010 --> 9, 279
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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
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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
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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
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Cameron, Missouri
• Prime Tanning Corp - use of Hexavlaent chromium to remove hair from hides
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Cameron, Missouri
• 1983-2009 - waste sludge given to farms in Buchanan, Dekalb, Andrew & Clinton as free fertilizer
lawsuit cameron
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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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
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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
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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
•
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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
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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
•
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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
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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
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
20 years later
tourism
23 years later