It appears to be going the way of all Superfund cleanup sites, which means it just won’t get cleaned up. I gather the program has been defunded.
It’s hard to find pictures of Mount Dioxin in Pensacola. I did find this aerial view. Looks like the EPA in its infinite wisdom has decided to just cover it and not decontaminate. Even those in the city who had been going along with not doing much about it are now irate.
ETC was a former wood-treating company. The facility occupies 26 acres in an industrial area, but three African-American residential neighborhoods are in the immediate vicinity of ETC. The site was first developed for creosote wood preserving in 1941. Penta-chlorophenol (PCP) has been used as a preservative at the site since 1963 and was the only preservative used after 1970. Manufacturing activities have not taken place at the facility since October 1982, and the site was officially abandoned through bankruptcy proceedings in February 1991.
Reaching beyond Mt. Dioxin
CURWOOD: This is Living on Earth. I’m Steve Curwood. In Pensacola, Florida, 426 families are anxiously waiting to hear from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Their community sits in the middle of an abandoned industrial area heavily contaminated by toxic chemicals. The families, all of whom are African American, want the EPA to relocate them as part of an effort to clean up what’s being called Mount Dioxin. But it’s rare for the US government to move communities threatened by toxics. It’s done so only in 14 cases, including the infamous sites at Times Beach, Missouri, and Love Canal, New York State. The EPA has promised a decision on the Florida relocation by the end of April. As John Rudolph reports, the situation in Pensacola could be an important milestone in the government’s efforts to deal with toxic pollution in minority communities.
(Dogs bark on the street, followed by people milling indoors; a door opens and shuts)
RUDOLPH: It’s a warm spring evening in Pensacola, Florida, but most people who live on East Pearl Street have already gone indoors. This is a community of modest one-story homes with tidy front yards. In her living room, Lisa Wiggins sits down to tell the story of her neighborhood. She’s lived on this street for most of her life. Wiggins is 27, married, with 3 sons. She has fond memories of growing up here. But lately, she’s seen many of her neighbors die.
WIGGINS: The lady across the street, her mama died of cancer. The man up the street, him and his brother died of cancer. The lady on the corner, she died of cancer. Most of the people — I don’t want to grow up going through life knowing where, when I get about that age, I’m going to get cancer. I’m going to die. I’ll say that I’m going to live long enough to see my children grow and see my grandchildren grow, deal with that aspect of life and then, later on, I’ll think about that. (Laughs. A child babbles and plays in the background.) You know? And it’s just like, I know if we stay here, exposed to those kinds of chemicals, I mean we are not going to have a chance.
RUDOLPH: The chemicals Lisa Wiggins talks about were left behind by 2 factories that for decades flanked her neighborhood like bookends. One factory made chemical fertilizers. The other manufactured telephone poles and railroad ties. The factories provided jobs to local residents, but many in the community blame the factories for causing a wide range of illnesses, including cancer, birth defects, sores, rashes, even mental illness.
(A railway horn blares)
Mount Dioxin to be buried by EPA without treatment.
Pensacola Opposes Plan to Bury Toxic Dirt
EPA’s proposal involves leaving contaminated soil untreated.
The Associated Press
PENSACOLA — The City Council has voted unanimously to oppose the federal government’s plan to leave more than 560,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil untreated at a toxic waste site known as “Mount Dioxin.”
The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to bury the toxic dirt in a clay-lined landfill on site without any decontamination effort will cost $25 million, but that is the cheapest of seven options the agency considered except for doing nothing at the former Escambia Wood Treating Co. plant..
This has been going on for so very long. I found this article from CNN in 1996. There are a lot of toxic sites in that area. I hear they are talking of closing down the naval base there because of so much damage. I also hear there are many rumors of toxicity there. Wonder if they will just ignore that as well.
Residents of this working-class Pensacola neighborhood blame many of their problems on their next-door neighbor, which they’ve dubbed “Mount Dioxin.” The sprawling mound of dirt, contaminated with dioxin, arsenic and other chemicals, was started in 1991 when the Environmental Protection Agency began excavating a wood treatment plant in the area.
The EPA called the excavation an emergency action, but then left the mountain of dirt there for three years, assuring residents it was harmless.
And couple more tiny little pictures. They are hard to come by. As Katrina hit, I wonder just how harmful this site was to the area. They had huge damage in that area.
This is a sad one. The crosses representing those who died because of Mt. Dioxin.
