Tag Archives: air
Spread the Word, Come on Out and Raise your Voice: Koppers Consent Decree Added to March 7th City Commission Meeting Agenda
6 MarResidents have been notified that the City of Gainesville is adding EPA’s Proposed Consent Decree/”Cleanup Plan” for Koppers to the agenda for tomorrow evening’s Commission meeting (Thursday, March 7th). The modified agenda with this addition will be posted on the city website this afternoon. This meeting presents a new chance to urge city commissioners to reject US EPA’s coverup plan that is non-protective of our drinking water and our families!
No Arsenic- No Dioxin- No PAHs!
Dig it up- Clean it up- and Take it away!!!
Our children need a Real Cleanup- not a Coverup!!!
Aside
4
Mar
A Koppers Superfund class action meeting is in the works for March 2013. Watch for details for the rescheduled meeting on this website; they will be posted here as more information becomes available.
Unpublished Response to Inaccuracies in 02/06/13 Alligator Article
4 MarBecause the Koppers article printed in the Florida Independent Alligator on 02/06/13 contained several inaccurate statements, Sandra Watts Kennedy submitted a letter addressing these inaccuracies to the Alligator on 02/18/13. As of 03/04/13, the Alligator has not printed her letter, so koppersgainesville is posting it here:
Hundreds of afflicted residents are taking Koppers and Beazer East to court with scientific proof that levels of arsenic, dioxins and PAHs inside our homes are drastically higher than ACEPD and GRU staff asserted at Santa Fe College’s recent panel discussion on the Cabot-Koppers Superfund Site.
Dr. Mousa’s memory is creative concerning local government involvement in closing Koppers. He should review videos from numerous commission meetings showing citizens testifying to illnesses and deaths from Koppers toxic exposure and begging our elected officials to close down the site. It was only after residents produced documents proving that the City and GRU were among Koppers best customers and therefore abetting Koppers’ ongoing contamination, that we convinced the City to stop doing business with the polluter. Public outcry ultimately closed the plant.
If water contamination is the primary concern, why does our local government support EPA’s “cleanup plan” that contains no remedial action to stop the downward migration of contamination into the aquifer and continues to compromise our drinking water?
Stephen Foster Elementary School is not “several miles north” of the toxic site: it is only 1/3 mile away from the Site, and yes, our children there are at risk.
Regarding the related art show, families of Koppers victims are offended by the lavishing of grants for greenwashing projects when there is so much pain and suffering in our community. A better use of these funds would be to move the most severely afflicted residents out of harm’s way.
Rally for a Real Cleanup of Koppers Superfund Contamination 02/27/13!
19 FebDemand a real cleanup to save the Floridan Aquifer, our drinking water!
Help end long-term toxic exposure in Gainesville!
US EPA will hold a public meeting to accept comments about the Consent Decree/Cleanup Plan for the Cabot/Koppers Superfund Site on Wednesday, February 27th from 6:00 to 8:00PM at the Stephen Foster Elementary School at 3800 NW 6th Street, Gainesville.
Your voice and your presence are needed!
The Rally for a Real Cleanup of Koppers Superfund Contamination!
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Wednesday, February 27th 5:00 to 6:00PM
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In front of Stephen Foster Elementary School at NW 6th St & 39th Ave
This is our last chance to let the EPA hear your voice before an inadequate cleanup plan receives federal approval. Our aquifer and city residents deserve a cleanup, not a coverup! Signs will be available, or create and bring your own- the more the merrier- come to the Rally and stay to participate in the Meeting!
Final Cleanup Plan?
After spending 30 years and millions of dollars on research while residents continued to suffer from toxic exposure and Koppers chemicals continued to migrate deeper into the Floridan Aquifer, why are government officials now expediting the same cleanup plan that their predecessors rejected for sheer inadequacy twenty years ago, a plan that benefits nobody except the polluters?
This coverup plan calls for excavation of 6 to 12 inches of contaminated offsite soil for permanent storage on the Koppers Site, creating a massive toxic waste dump, and places a park with deed restricted businesses and residences directly on top of Super Mount Dioxin. The scheme also features slurry walls that will not prevent downward migration of contamination into the aquifer and injections of heavy metal laden, unproven, ineffective Remox solution directly into the groundwater. Residents living in contaminated offsite properties will be left in their toxic homes and subjected to deed restrictions.
Show US EPA officials that the Koppers Coverup is unacceptable- “moving a little dirt around” will not protect our drinking water or our children!
No Arsenic- No Dioxin- No PAHs!
Dig it up- Clean it up- and Take it away!
Koppers/Beazer East Superfund Gainesville Florida Citizen Comment October 20, 2011 Gainesville City Commission Meeting
2 NovI want to thank Commissioner Chase for his emailed clarification regarding the inclusion of Koppers on this year’s legislative priority list. This inclusion is long overdue. Sadly, in the nearly 30 years since Koppers was declared a Superfund Site, despite many requests from diverse citizens, it has never been included on the list of the most critical issues faced by our City and its denizens.
Commissioner Chase, you are right in noting that during the legislative forum of 2009, Senator Oelrich stated that the City of Gainesville had never placed Koppers on the legislative priority list and that this was surprising to him because the Koppers contamination was just as bad or worse than New York State’s infamous Love Canal where the affected residents had to be permanently relocated.
Representatives for the immediately affected residents informed Senator Oelrich at the time that we were shocked that Koppers was not on the 2009 priority list- especially since we had asked our mayor, Pegeen Hanrahan, to please include Koppers on this list. Mayor Hanrahan promised residents that she would do this, but to our great disappointment she never did.
For decades, Koppers has been polluting our city, the source of our drinking water, the Floridan Aquifer, while the multitude of testimonials from affected residents about their illnesses and deaths of their family members have fallen on deaf ears.
This is the first time in the sorry history of our local Superfund Site that our City has actually considered the ongoing contamination important enough to be placed on the State’s legislative priority list. So we thank you Commissioner Chase for being the first City Commissioner to expedite this issue on behalf of our sick and dying residents.
Corruption and corporate greed have been killing families here in Gainesville and in countless other communities across the nation for far too long.
Sandra Watts Kennedy
President, Stephen Foster Neighborhood Association, Incorporated
EPA: More tests planned near Koppers Supersund site Gainesville, Florida
20 OctEPA: More tests planned near Koppers Supersund site Gainesville, Florida
The Environmental Protection Agency will require additional environmental tests in the area around the Cabot Koppers Superfund site, including further sampling of soil and indoor dust.
Scott Miller, the regional remediation manager for the EPA, said Wednesday that the federal agency would, to the “greatest extent” possible, implement the testing plan that a committee assembled by the Florida Department of Health released in July.
On Tuesday, county commissioners sent the EPA a letter pushing for the agency to require indoor dust testing at homes in the Stephen Foster neighborhood adjacent to the polluted former wood treatment plant property to measure levels of the carcinogen dioxin.
Miller said the EPA, which requested that the FDOH assemble a working group to prepare a testing plan, was attempting to secure permission from property owners to enter homes and conduct tests.
“There’s always the theoretical and the real world,” he said. “Sometimes it’s as simple as I can’t get access to a house.”
Miller said the tests would be funded by Beazer East, the company legally responsible for the cleanup of Koppers. Talks were ongoing with Beazer East to determine whether the EPA or the company would be in charge of conducting the tests, Miller said.
“One would look over the other’s shoulder,” he added.
The ongoing negotiation between the EPA and Beazer East was one reason the county’s Environmental Protection Advisory Committee (EPAC) asked the County Commission to push for further tests.
“The concern I expressed is EPA is in a room somewhere with Beazer discussing what they’re going to fund and how much they’re going to fund, and that’s a closed process,” said Bob Palmer, the chairman of EPAC and a member of the FDOH working group.
No timetable was given for when the tests of indoor dust would commence. But Miller said additional soil sampling at residential and commercial properties should start in December.
The end result of the dust testing remains uncertain. There are no state or federal standards for regulating dioxin levels in dust, according to the FDOH report. Meanwhile, the EPA has been working since 1991 on a reassessment of the health risks associated with exposure to the various sources of dioxin exposure. Steve Roberts, the director of the University of Florida Center for Environmental & Human Toxicology, said that has been a “very controversial subject.”
“How you calculate that for dioxin has been the subject of lots and lots of discussion,” said Roberts, who also served on the FDOH working group.
Dioxin refers to about 30 similar chemical compounds, including toxic substances that are released on combustion and in chemical processes such as the wood treatment process used for decades at the Koppers plant. The property has been listed as a polluted federal Superfund site for more than 25 years.
Contact Christopher Curry at 374-5088 or chris.curry@gvillesun.com
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20111019/ARTICLES/111019459
Follow-up letter to President Obama RE: Koppers/Beazer East Superfund, Gainesville, Florida
10 OctFollow-up letter to President Obama from Alachua County Board of County Commissioners E: Koppers Superfund, Gainesville, Florida
This is the 2nd letter sent out to the President from the BoCC
Link to 1st letter: http://koppersgainesville.com/2011/07/04/alachua-county-commission-sends-sos-letter-to-president-obama-regarding-koppers-superfund-in-gainesville-florida/
Click on the image to view larger.
Solidarity with “Occupy Wall St.”
7 OctDear Friends and community members of Gainesville, Florida and surrounding areas. Be a part of this historical Event~~”The Revolution” ~~Stand in Solidarity with “Occupy Wall St.” WE will be occupying Gainesville @ the Bo Diddley plaza On Oct. 12th.. starting at 8am. Please bring signs or whatever you have to express your solidarity. With Taking back our government from the corporation.
If you are not aware of what is going on then please go to http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution And educate yourself! Together we stand!
We are the 99%!
First OFFICIAL Release from OCCUPY WALL STREET
This was unanimously voted on by all members of Occupy Wall Street last night, around 8pm, Sept 29. It is our first official document for release. We have three more underway, that will likely be released in the upcoming days: 1) A declaration of demands. 2) Principles of Solidarity 3) Documentation on how to form your own Direct Democracy Occupation Group.
This is a living document. you can receive an official press copy of the latest version by emailing c2anycga@gmail.com.
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
Share Us, Buzz US, Tweet US! What ever your Fancy. Please help spread the word!
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