[HN Gopher] Citizen sleuths exposed pollution from a century-old...
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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!
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