Thursday, July 12, 2007

A1: "EPA official asks governor to consider Iron King Mine, smelter as a Superfund site"

Anyone else remember the president of Ironite publicly drinking his own fertilizer product to demonstrate its safety? Now he's gone (elsewhere, not dead, as far as I know) and the EPA is finally getting to work on what to do about the mountain of orange arsenic-laced tailings overshadowing D-H, as well as the mess left by Kuhl's, I gather. Maybe the new town can pump it all up as job opportunities.

Here's what you get when you don't think about the future. The future eventually shows up and we all get stuck with the check. Does this teach us a lesson that might filter through into an editorial?

2 comments:

leftturnclyde said...

I love how this is being put forth as a good thing..the headline ought to read something like
"HOLY SHIT ! THERES A SUPERFUND SITE IN THE AREA !
which would put it into proper perspective for all those folks planning on movin into dewey.
sigh....

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of pros & cons to superfunds. One pro is that it's the only feasible way to get a full analysis of the extent of the contamination (which might be a big deal since there's dust full of arsenic & lead from there blowing around town). Another good thing is that businesses still operate, people still live their daily lives, etc while cleanup happens. The biggest cons seem to be stigma and the fact that it's the government stepping in to lend a hand....

I think the big "HOLY SHIT" headline should be the RUMOR that the present owner of the mine site might cover the contaminated tailings with biosolids (the hazardous waste that sewage plants have to pay someone to take away). If it's true, that scares me more than having the feds clean it up!