[HN Gopher] Citizen sleuths exposed pollution from a century-old... ___________________________________________________________________ Citizen sleuths exposed pollution from a century-old Michigan factory (2019) Author : hammock Score : 61 points Date : 2022-02-15 20:26 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.science.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org) | titzer wrote: | I used to be a libertarian. I used to think that private | ownership of property, coupled with a free market (and something | vague about an informed citizenship and consumers voting with | their dollars) was the solution to most of modern society's ills. | | It's articles like this that absolutely refute the idea that | private ownership of property leads to good environmental | outcomes (it doesn't; it leads to exploitative, destructive | extraction of value from land, leaving behind carnage whose | damage was estimated at below the bottom line, leaving a | comfortable margin for profit) and that citizens would be | proactive and well-informed (they aren't; they are constantly | stonewalled, lied to, and officials stupid or paid off). | | Now, ironically, in this advanced state of tech today, we have | finally got the tools that citizens _can_ be informed about the | environmental impacts...of decades dead corporations and | gluttonous barons that have long since moved on from the smoking, | toxic craters they knowingly created. What an exciting future we | have now, mining the graveyard of a century of bad policy, | dealing with the lies and denial of others, and a complete lack | of accountability. Meanwhile, these toxins, here a trace, there a | torrent, sit as mute reminder of the horrible cost we 've exacted | on this planet (so far). | vkou wrote: | Fortunately, Snowcrash's libertarian utopia has a solution to | this exact problem, in the form of a little placard. | SACRIFICE ZONE WARNING The National Parks Service | has declared this area to be a National Sacrifice Zone. | The Sacrifice Zone Program was developed to manage parcels of | land whose clean-up cost exceeds their total future | economic value. | woodruffw wrote: | I thought this part was worth highlighting: | | > The group, which ultimately named itself Concerned Citizens for | Responsible Remediation (CCRR), collected maps, dug into | newspaper archives, and filed requests for public records. | Members spoke with scientists knowledgeable about tannery | chemicals and hired an environmental attorney with a background | in geology to help them strategize. | | This is a great example of civic action leading to results. But | it's an even better reminder that you need nontrivial resources, | in the form of time and money, to get companies to admit | wrongdoing and to nudge the government (at any level) to do | anything about it. For every ex-company town that succeeds in | this kind of recognition, there are ten others (usually, but not | always, poorer and not as white) that are quietly suffering from | externalized pollution. | throwaway0a5e wrote: | People don't really care about 100yo pollution that makes them | and their neighbors marginally more cancerous when $3+ gas | actually hurts them today and the wastewater plant is a museum | of obsolete equipment. There's a fine line between "poorer | towns suffering an externalized problem" and "poorer towns have | other bigger problems that are more deserving of resources" and | "poorer towns that don't really GAF because the industry in | question is still economically important". | mikeyouse wrote: | Which is a perfect role for a strong regulator -- towns | shouldn't have to weigh the tradeoffs of being poisoned. | FWIW, Rockford isn't a poor town in any case, median income | is like $70k/year which is very comfortable in the Midwest. | mikeyouse wrote: | The fracking disposal industry will likely be one of the next | big dominoes to fall. It's awash in lowest-bidder LLCs dumping | all sorts of horrifying chemicals wherever they can get away | with it. | | A few have been busted so far but with the explosion of | fracking / waste in the past 15 years - there's no way for | regulators to stay on top of it. | | https://www.opb.org/news/article/radioactive-fracking-waste-... | | > The agency found that Chemical Waste Management dumped nearly | 1,284 tons of radioactive waste it received from Goodnight | Midstream over a period of three years, totaling over 2.5 | million pounds. | | .. | | > Initially, Chemical Waste Management had no records of a | relationship with Goodnight Midstream. But it was later | confirmed that the North Dakota company contracted a third | party, Oilfield Waste Logistics, to dispose of its solid waste. | Shipping manifests showed that OWL was sending Goodnight | Midstream's waste to Arlington. | | https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2014/03/fracking_com... | | > The owner of a Youngstown oil- and gas-drilling company | pleaded guilty today to ordering an employee to dump tens of | thousands of gallons of fracking waste into a tributary of the | Mahoning River. | mikeyouse wrote: | I had an idea when I was younger to use this type of | investigative activism as a way to short publicly traded | companies and fund an ever-increasing amount of pollution | investigation. Unfortunately massive pollution scandals barely | dent share prices since enforcement is so lax and slow, and many | of the worst offenders have closed shop after pillaging the land. | A shame since it's not in the 'public' interest to bring this | stuff to light since governments have to pay to clean it up. | kingsloi wrote: | What an interesting idea! Seems like the only way to have any | impact is to upset shareholders. | | I've been working on trying to highlight the issue in | Gary/Northwest Indiana by trying to be a "citizen sleuth" by | tracking air pollution and open sourcing the data. Still a WIP, | but recently added gas tracking to the data too | https://millerbeach.community | | You're right about worst offenders closing shop after | pillaging, or they just sell and move on to the next location. | | In 2019 ArcelorMittal spilled cyanide and ammonia into a Lake | Michigan tributary, closing the National Park, local water | intake, killing 3000 fish, etc. | | In December 2020, ArcelorMittal was bought by Cleveland-Cliffs | for $1.4 billion. | | Cleveland-Cliffs made record $20 billion in revenue in 2021. | https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/cleveland-cliffs-mad... | | A local news article from today: | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/consen... | | > The proposed consent decree requires Cleveland-Cliffs to | complete "comprehensive operational upgrades to the steel mill | to prevent future cyanide and ammonia violations," the | environmental groups said." | | > The steelmaker agreed to improve its notification procedures | and pay $3 million in civil penalties, which are to be split | between Indiana and the U.S. Treasury. | | $3 million, and to prevent future cyanide/ammonia violations... | but still dump into Lake Michigan. Aren't we lucky! ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-02-15 23:00 UTC)