Tags: 6th Street, agent orange, air pollution, Alachua County, Alachua County Health Department, arsenic, associated press, asthma, Beazer East, benzene, biomass, birth defects, bosshardt, brain, Cabot Koppers Superfund Site, Cancer, cancer cluster, carcinogenic, Carol Estates, catastrophic illnesses, center for public integrity, chemical contamination, children, chromated copper arsenate, City of Gainesville, COCEJ, colbert report, college results online, collusion, community, consent decree, creosote, creosote lagoons, danger, daycare, Debra Heights, diabetes, diluted soil samples, dioxins, Dioxinville, drinking water, Duck Pond, dust, emergency, environmental justice, ep, epa, epa corruption, es, escambia superfund site, evacuation, falsified test results, families, Family, FL DOH, Florida, Florida friendly landscaping, Florida Gators, for rent, foreclosures, Freddie Mac, Gainesville, Gainesville High School, gainesville realtors association, Gainesville Regional Airport, gainesville regional utilities, gainesville sun, Gators, Genesis Preparatory School, GREC, greed, Green Peace, GRU, harassment, health warning, heart disease, hexavalent chromium, homeless, Homes, hoodwinked, houses gainesville, immune system disorders, indoor dust, investors daily, keller williams, killing fields, Koppers, koppers class action, koppers gainesville, Koppers Victims, long-term toxic exposure, Main Street, miscarriage, missing limbs, Mitchell Brourman, mossville louisiana, ms, mutagenic, napthalene, NE 23rd Ave, neurological disorders, nondisclosure, nosebleeds, Oak View, PAH, PAHs, pancreas, PCPs, pentachlorophenol, prejudice, rash, real estate, relocation, remax, renal failure, Sacrifice Zones, schoolguides, Scott Miller, SFNA, SFNA Inc, skin lesions, slurry walls, soil, soil replacement, step, stephen colbert, Stephen Foster, Stephen Foster Neighborhood Association, Stephen Foster Neighborhood Protection Group, suicide, superfund, superfund communities, threat, thyroid, Times Beach, tittabawassee river, toxic city, toxic Gainesville, toxic legacy, toxic timebomb, toxic trespass, Treece, UF, veterans, Wards, water, watson, watson realty, Wells Fargo, whistleblowers, wildlaw, zucchini
New Public Health Failure at Love Canal Decades after EPA Remediation
13 JanAfter 35 years, a new generation of Love Canal residents claims illnesses from buried chemicals
Current residents of the redeveloped Love Canal neighborhood say that capping, an impermeable layer and clean topsoil failed to protect their families from toxic exposure and resulting catastrophic illnesses, prompting a new lawsuit against Occidental Chemical, its remediation contractors, the City of Niagara Falls, and the Niagara Falls Water Board:
http://www.lovecanaltoxicexposure.com/files/WPost-AP_11-3-13.pdf
Boycott Wells Fargo’s Criminal Activities in Gainesville and Across USA
22 JulWhen you bank with Wells Fargo your money supports:
* Wells Fargo’s ongoing sales of uninhabitable dioxin-contaminated homes to unsuspecting low-income and minority families in neighborhoods surrounding Koppers Superfund Site in violation of Florida Statutes requiring full disclosure of the superfund hazard.
* Dead Peasant Policies: Wells Fargo executives benefit financially from the deaths of their employees through insurance policies called “Dead Peasant Policies” that pay bonuses to key executives when employees and former employees die. WF’s Dead Peasant Policies have yielded $17.8 billion so far.
* Wells Fargo systematic discrimination: The U.S. Dept. of Justice has come to a $175 million settlement with WF for pushing minority loan applicants into risky, high-cost subprime loans regardless of qualifications.
*Wells Fargo for-profit prisons: WF-funded private prison companies cut rehab programs, limit staffing, deny adequate medical care, and distribute cheap food to increase revenue. WF also lobbies federal and state governments to enact harsher criminal and immigration laws to ensure a steady flow of prisoners and profits.
* Wells Fargo debit card and payday lending scandals.*Wells Fargo predatory practices that kill homeowners like the typo victim, who died in court after WF wrongfully continued foreclosure proceedings after acknowledging that the homeowner had mistakenly received foreclosure papers due to a WF typo, had never missed a payment, and was not the intended party.
*Wells Fargo bailout funds and programs that put taxpayers on the hook for up to $36.9 billion plus an unknown amount from the Federal Reserve’s $8 trillion in emergency programs.*Wells Fargo discriminatory neglect: WF has been ordered to pay $38.5 million to advocacy groups and regulators due to the bank’s neglect of foreclosure properties in minority areas.* Wells Fargo ongoing illegal foreclosures on US service members.
* Wells Fargo violations: WF reneged on NY/NJ homeowners’ loan modifications after Hurricane Sandy, violating a $25 billion settlement for the same misbehavior prior to the super storm.
* Wells Fargo thuggery: A breast cancer patient who never even had a WF mortgage was evicted at gunpoint by WF employees and the sheriff, despite the fact that a California court had placed a stay on the eviction which was posted on her front door.
The best way to end this predatory practice is to walk away from WF and conduct our business through local credit unions.
Let’s Send Wells Fargo a Clear Message:
Greed and Prejudice are Unacceptable- Especially at the Cost of Our Families’ Health and Safety!!!
Boycott Wells Fargo!
Another Family Rejects Beazer East/EPA’s Dangerous and Disingenuous “off-site soil remedial action”
4 JunScott Miller, Remedial Project Manager Superfund Remedial Branch USEPA Region 4 Atlanta Federal Center 61 Forsyth Street Atlanta, GA 30303
May 15, 2013
Mr. Miller et al,
We still do not grant access to our property, parcel 08409-000-000, to Beazer East, Inc./Koppers Inc., Tetra Tech, MACTEC (AMEC), Kestrel Ecological Services, or any other entities or individuals working on behalf of Beazer East, Inc., US EPA, FL DOH or FL DEP for soil sampling or any other activity related to the dangerous and disingenuous “off-site soil remedial action”.
Let us again plainly state that we are not participating in any phase of EPA’s and Beazer East’s “off-site soil remediation”. As you well know, in our neighborhood it has been repeatedly illustrated that clean replacement soils quickly become as contaminated as the replaced soils, sometimes even more contaminated. Further, your “remediation” fails to address the greater, more immediate danger posed to our families by the dioxin-saturated interiors of our homes.
We refuse to participate in your purely cosmetic psychological exercise designed to deceive residents into the false belief that our homes and gardens will no longer be a serious toxic threat to our families. This includes any and all phases of the soil scraping and cover-up that you are trying to force on innocent residents in lieu of providing the real protective action that our suffering community needs and deserves.
Please inform your contractors: NO employee of Tetra Tech, MACTEC (AMEC), Kestrel Ecological Services, Beazer East, Inc./Koppers Inc., US EPA, FL DOH or FL DEP may trespass our property at any time without both our explicit permission and our actual physical presence while you are there. This prohibition also applies to any employees of Alachua County or the City of Gainesville intending to trespass our property for any activities connected to the “off-site soil remediation” in Stephen Foster Neighborhood.
Please contact attorney Stephen Murakami, as instructed in this email which you received on July 6, 2012:
Dear Mr. Miller: I believe my client has made it abundantly clear by her unequivocal instructions and notice set forth in her message, that she does not wish to participate in any additional soil or dust sampling conducted by you or any of your agents or contractors. In the future, should you require any information pertaining to the Kennedy’s property, kindly contact me in advance of any attempt to secure the Kennedy’s permission or authorization to enter upon their property for any purpose. Sincerely, Stephen David Murakami, Esq. Attorney at Law
Please reply to our email so that we know that you understand its contents.
Sincerely,
Sandra Watts Kennedy and Kevin Kennedy
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.