by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
My friend Dave received his degree in
petroleum geology and went to work for oil companies even before
graduation. His career took him to positions on seven continents,
the last in South East Asia in 1996, working for Enron. That year
Dave quit. The straw that broke the camel's back was the company's
donation of a school built on land polluted by previous drilling.
Enron took a tax deduction. Dave knew children would be dying.
Dave left his highly compensated job
and retirement, returning to the US to work, unpaid, for Green Peace,
who, at first, were very suspicious. Today Dave is an expert
witness, recognized by the courts, for litigation on toxic waste.
Dave is obsessively fact oriented, compiling data bases which include
the entire US and much of the rest of the world.
It was Dave who told me Ashtabula
ranked number one in 2010 (the most recent data available) in the US
for pollutants in two categories. The companies involved, Dave said,
have paid EPA fines, always exceeding the EPA limits for emissions
into the air breathed by residents. One specific instance, on the
part of one offending company included a fine, exacted by the EPA
for carbon monoxide in 38
malfunction incidents in a five year period and their total fine paid
was $100,000. The money was paid to the Ohio EPA, none going to
anyone locally. The fine was specifically for,
“Exceeding emission limits as the result of the use of a safety
valve to bypass the units air pollution control equipment.”
Continuous
exposure to 15 – 50 parts per million of these chemicals may cause
head aches, dizziness, nausea, central nervous system effects,
vertigo, amnesia, weakness and muscle cramps. People impacted may
also begin to exhibit symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.
Two
of the offending plants are only .18 miles apart, located on Middle
Road in Ashtabula.
“How
long are you staying in the area?”
Dave asked. Living with Superfund sites, especially these, may be
hazardous to your health, he told me.
For
several years now Dave has been working on a website, Were You
Poisoned? Helping folks over come the effects is one of his
passions. On his site he points to ways people can remove toxic
waste from their systems. He also strongly recommends suing
offending companies where companies have admitted their
transgressions by, for instance, paying EPA fines.
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