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Together We Stand

Kim Allen

HUM/111

Sarah Finnegan

Several years ago my family moved into a new suburban community with the promise of excellent schools, and parks for our children in addition to security for peace of mind, now it seems to have turned into a nightmare which for some of us is only beginning. Last year I noticed what appears to be a cluster of illnesses in our subdivision while appearing to be unrelated could be tied together as the result of information uncovered while researching the history of this area. This search came about after we held our annual block party and finding that our neighborhood was experiencing a higher rate than usual for miscarriages, cancer, and asthma, and other conditions. Our community borders a neighborhood park, which we use all the time, when it rains we had noticed a smell emanating from the grass and if our children came in contact with the wet grass they developed rashes. All these health problems led to examining public records, what I discovered is disturbing; our community was built next door to a landfill which is now the park. It seems that the land was owned by a chemical company called Chemfalls, and they were in business from 1953 to 1960 where they produced agricultural insecticides and pesticides the list of chemicals is disturbing and includes known carcinogens including DDT. (eoearth.org, 2007, pg. 2). They were allowed by the city to dump toxic chemicals into a pond with little oversight. According to the records they drained the pond then sealed and covered it with soil and the land remained vacant for 40 years, and then was sold for a housing development.

From what I have been able to ascertain the city knew about the property and possibly the Real Estate Company and financial backers. I have tried getting in touch with the developer to see if they knew and if so why this information was never disclosed to us the homebuyer, I never received any callbacks, next I called our local representative and they responded that this was between us and the developer. Next was the Mayor we are still waiting to hear from his office. The issue as it stands is who is responsible and how can we get the help that we need to address the situation. We have retained an attorney for possible action after we do a soil and water analysis to see just exactly what we are dealing with. I have contacted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a course of action, who in turn referred us to their regional office and the division Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), they are recommending we start with chemical testing and data collection (epa.gov, 2011, pg. 4), as this will most likely go to court. This is not what we want, but we are not making any progress working through other channels. We are already stressed dealing with the health ramifications of non-disclosed information that should have been released.

References

About the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). (2011). Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/ocspp.html

Olurominiyi, Ibitayo. (2007). Agricultural Pesticide contamination. Retrieved from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Agricultural_pesticide_contaminination