When Nature and
Humans Collide
Times Beach,
Missouri
Times Beach, Missouri
• Times Beach was founded in 1925 along the
Meramec river - summer resort town (st. Louis)
• 1925 - purchase of a 20 x 100 ft (6 by 30 m) lot
for $67.50 included a six-month newspaper
subscription.In its early years
Times Beach, Missouri
• the Great Depression and WWII --> town
became a community of mostly low-income
housing although (a few families spent winters
in the city and summers in Times Beach as late
as 1970)
• one small grocery store and one gas station on
old Highway 66 to serve the residents
Times Beach, Missouri
• Prone to flooding throughout its history
• 1st buildings were built on stilts
• town experienced a devastating flood three
weeks before an announcement by the EPA
which led to the town's evacuation by 1985 and
complete demolition by 1992.
Times Beach, Missouri
• The site of Times Beach now houses a 419
acre state park commemorating Route 66
• In the early 1970s the town could not afford to
pave its dirt roads & had dust problem
Times Beach, Missouri
• city hired Russell Bliss to oil the roads in the town
• between 1972 & 1976 Roads sprayed with waste oil
• Bliss subcontracted to haul waste for the Northeastern
Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO During the Vietnam War producer of Agent Orange)
•
Times Beach, Missouri
•
waste clay & water removed from plant
contained levels of dioxin some 2,000 time
higher than the dioxin content in Agent Orange
• dirt roads of Times Beach were sprayed with
the lethal material
Times Beach, Missouri
• The EPA began to visit Times Beach in 1982,
taking samples and tests that identified
dangerous levels of dioxin in Times Beach soil.
• In December, 1982, the Meramec River
flooded, further spreading the contamination of
the town and other areas.
•
Times Beach, Missouri
• panic spread through the town and every
illness and animal death was attributed to
dioxin
• President Ronald Reagan formed a dioxin task
force to study the effects of the chemical and in
early 1983; the EPA announced the town
buyout for $32 million dollars.
Times Beach, Missouri
• 1985, the entire population of +2,000 had been
evacuated (except 1 elderly couple who
refused to leave)
• town was dis-incorporated
• entire site was quarantined as residents moved
on to other areas
Times Beach, Missouri
• site sat silent behind barricades protecting public from
the toxic threat
• 1996 and 1997 the government removed 265,000
tons of contaminated soil and debris from Times
Beach and 28 other sites in eastern Misouri at a cost
of $110 million dollars
• After the soil was incinerated, the incinerator was
dismantled and the site was turned over to the State
Times Beach, Missouri
Times Beach, Missouri
Times Beach, Missouri
Times Beach, Missouri
Hinkley, California
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Hinkley, California
• Unincorporated settlement in Mojave Desert
• Pop 3,500
• 120 miles
northeast of LA
Hinkley, California
• Residents surrounded by methamphetamine
labs, two Marine bases, downstream from a
huge naval weapons center, and 20 miles
east of Edwards Air Force Base
Hinkley, California
• 1952, PG&E built a pumping station on 20
acres near town as part of its enormous gastransmission system
• The station pumped natural gas through an
artery of pipes stretching from the Texas
Panhandle to the San Francisco Bay Area;
the system served PG&E customers in much
of the state’s Central Valley.
Hinkley, California
• location of a compressor station for PG&E's
massive natural gas transmission pipelines
• natural gas has to be re-compressed
approximately every three-hundred and fifty
miles
Hinkley, California
• station uses large cooling towers to cool the
compressors
• The water used in these cooling towers contained
Hexavalent Chromium to prevent rust in the machinery
• Since the water was stored between uses in unlined
ponds, it ultimately severely contaminated the
groundwater in the town
Hinkley, California
• 1987 during routine check, PG&E found chromium
had leaked into the water supply
• December 1987 findings reported to California
Regional Water Quality Control Board (required by
law)
• The board ordered the utility to clean up the
pollution.
• .
Hinkley, California
• In the early 1990s PG&E undertook a $12.5 million
cleanup effort, approaching the owners of three
farms and 10 houses in the area and offering to buy
their properties
• People suffer many physical ailments  bloody
noses, various intestinal ailments, bad backs, rotten
teeth and tumors
Hinkley, California
• PG&E knew water contaminated but tried to cover
it up - tried to buy property, tell people the
chemical was safe found in vitamins
• 1996 class action law suit --> $330 million to 648
plaintiffs
Hinkley, California
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Hinkley, California
Cameron, Missouri
Cameron, Missouri
• Border Clinton & Dekalb counties
Cameron, Missouri
• Original function was --> house of
entertainment
• 1830 --> Isaac Baldwin opened a
Post office
• Sold whiskey for $0.25 a gallon &
$.10 for a jug of H20
• For $20 would take people to St.
Joseph’s 48 hour trip
Cameron, Missouri
• Part of hound dog trail (now US route 36 &
interstate 72)
• Connected St. Joseph’s Hannibal (Missouri’s
2nd and 3rd largest cities prior to civil war
1861-65)
Cameron, Missouri
• Became railway town pop from 100
in 1859 to 3,000 in 1881
• 1883-1930 - College town Wesleyan
College run by Methodist Church
Cameron, Missouri
• Now most people employed in health
care & Education
• Pop in 2000 --> 8, 312
• Pop in 2010 --> 9, 279
Cameron, Missouri
• Pharmacist Steve Erickson 1st to notice
something wrong
• Large # of tumors - many benign not reported to
health department
• Citizens concerned about large # of brain tumors
and cancers in the town
• Since 1996 - 70 cases
• june 2008 - town meeting to discuss concerns
•
history
Cameron, Missouri
• EPA involved in testing to determine the cause
• October 2008 - test on old landfill
• Found formaldehyde, metals, dioxins & furans,
pesticides, semi-volatile organic compounds &
volatile organic compounds
• All except one soil sample (lead) all levels below
screening levels
• Erin Brockovich
Cameron, Missouri
• Aug. 2008 EPA soil test on former Rockwood
industries plant (insulation company)
• Found high levels of lead and arsenic but not life
threatening
• Feb. 2009 EPA - test on drinking water near
quarry no problems
• April 22, 2009 - Cameron Brain tumor lawsuit
(William Kemper (wife Karen) & Janet Lasher
(lung cancer) filed by Erin Brockovich
Cameron, Missouri
• Prime Tanning Corp - use of Hexavlaent chromium to
remove hair from hides
Cameron, Missouri
• 1983-2009 - waste sludge given to farms in Buchanan, Dekalb,
Andrew & Clinton as free fertilizer
lawsuit
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• City began in 1193 as a
hunting lodge
• Politically changed hands
many times --> Lithuania,
Poland and Russia
• Part of U.S.S.R from 1921
until 1991 (independent)
• 1964 site chosen for 1st
nuclear power plant on
Ukrainian soil
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• April 26, 1986 (midnight)reactor #4 exploded
(near town of Pripyat)
• 4 workers killed instantly
• 4 days later residents of
Prypyat ordered to evacuate
• Worst nuclear disaster in the
world
• Chernobyl
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• Further explosions & fire sent a plume of
highly radioactive Fallout into the
atmosphere & over an extensive
geographical area
• 400 times more fallout was released than
had been by the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima
•
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• plume drifted over extensive parts of the western
USSR, Eastern, western and Northern Europe, & as
far away as Eastern North American
• Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus & Russia were
badly contaminated--> evacuation and resettlement
of over 336,000 people
• According to official post-Soviet data~ 60% of the
radioactive fallout landed in Belarus
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• The countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have
been burdened with the continuing and substantial
decontamination & health care costs of the
Chernobyl accident
• difficult to accurately quantify the number of deaths
caused by the events at as the Soviet-era cover-up
made it difficult to track down victims
•
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• Lists incomplete, and Soviet authorities later
forbade doctors to cite "radiation" on death
certificates
• The overall cost of the disaster is estimated at
US$200 billion
Chernobyl, Ukraine
• World Health Organization (WHO), attributed 56
direct deaths (47 accident workers, and nine
children with Thyroid Cancer
• ~ 4,000 extra cancer deaths among the
approximately 600,000 most highly exposed
people
• Chernobyl Exclusion Zone & certain limited
areas remain off limits, the majority of affected
areas are now considered safe for settlement
and economic activity
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Chernobyl, Ukraine
tourism
23 years
later
20 years later