What started off with a Cheers and Jeers yesterday ended with a tale of toxic dumping, corporate irresponsibility, the mob, and a corrupt or inept EPA. I clicked on BiPM's jeers link to
the 10 Worst Corporations of 2005 and although all of the companies on the list are on there for good reason, the entry for Ford shocked and appalled me, and struck really close to home.
Keep reading for this incredible story of environmental devastation.
Ford: Ford Motor Company's factory in Mahwah, New Jersey once the largest auto assembly plant in the nation, dumped millions of gallons of paint sludge -- enough to fill two of the three tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel -- into a now-residential area, revealed a series published in the Bergen Record (see www.toxiclegacy.com). Tests commissioned by the Record found lead, arsenic and xylenes in the sludge -- some at 100 times the levels the government considers safe. Reporters with the Record dug up documents showing that Ford executives knew as early as 34 years ago that its waste had contaminated a stream that feeds the Wanaque Reservoir.
You may not be surprised if you have heard this story and I did know about some dumping by Ford, but I had not realized the total extent of the damage until I read the incredible story by The Record newspaper and on the site toxiclegacy.com. This story is compelling for me because I know this area and know many people currently living in Northern New Jersey. It took me hours to read the whole story and watch the videos, and I was overwhelmed with emotion because of the devastation to the people in this area.
A slab of bright blue lies beside a mountain stream above the Wanaque Reservoir. It's a sporty color, maybe the "Diamond Blue" that Ford sprayed on Galaxies in the late 1960s. It hardened like lava where it was dumped more than a generation ago. When running high, the stream rinses over the slab and down the mountain, through marshes and past beaver dams, toward the reservoir. It's everywhere, this paint.
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Chunks of it jut from the driveway of a house in Ringwood where a child got lead poisoning. It is so toxic he and his mom have moved out.
I think I was most shocked that this report on Ford's dumping of toxic paint sludge is still so devastating, and this is after the previous four government-supervised cleanups. And once again, there is no accountability for this.
The Record found that Ford repeatedly dumped in poor communities and failed to clean up its mess. Documents reveal that Ford executives knew as early as 34 years ago that its waste had contaminated a stream that feeds the Wanaque Reservoir. They show that the company tried to evade responsibility by presenting tainted land as a "gift" to the state.
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More recently, federal officials let Ford walk away from tons of industrial waste in Ringwood. The Environmental Protection Agency ignored many reports of widespread contamination when it assured residents that Ford had cleaned up their neighborhood.
As mentioned above, the key here is that Ford repeatedly dumped in poor communities. These were mostly areas where the Ramapoughs lived.
Few if any residents complained. Most were Ramapoughs. The Ramapoughs claim to be descendants of American Indians, Dutch settlers and freed slaves. Most are poor, clan-oriented and wary of outsiders. Those in the Meadows kept quiet for fear of being evicted.
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. . . the poor families queued up inside the dump, waiting for the trucks. The residents were eager to scavenge for copper and car parts to sell as scrap. Their children helped sort through the muck.
And those poor families suffer now. Government scientists recently confirmed in that area that some cancer rates are elevated.
For years, nobody had believed them. Not when thyroid cancer struck Bob DeGroat's boy or when Fayelynn Van Dunk's little girl nearly bled to death from a rare platelet disorder. And not when young Collin Milligan died of a tumor.
Oh yeah, and this being New Jersey, lets not forget the mob connection to this devastation.
Organized crime played a key role in a vast assault on the environment. An analysis of public records and interviews with truckers who hauled Ford's waste shows mob-controlled contractors dumped anywhere they could get away with it. They bribed, threatened, even murdered to maintain control of Ford's trash.
The fifth cleanup continues.
Some cleanup work in Ringwood has been temporarily halted. The sludge is just too contaminated to be accepted by the toxic landfill in Michigan where it was being carted, EPA officials say [emphasis mine].
Too contaminated - that's how serious this is. The EPA and state environmental officials bear some blame in why this cleanup has taken so long. How did the EPA botch the cleanup so many times? Is the EPA really keeping us safe?
I cannot possibly do justice to the entire story by The Record with just the few quotes here. I really hope people read the whole story and watch the videos especially - the stories of the people who live there are what this story is about. It is just so horrible how some in this country treat the poor. It's like I can hear the Ford executives say "who cares if those poor, weird people in the mountains get sick and die - no great loss."
The Record's editorial said it better "If this had happened in ritzy Ridgewood, not rural Ringwood, the residents would have received help years and years ago."
And the environmental damage in that area has to be massive, especially to various water supplies - a concern much on my mind, as I have driven by the Wanaque Reservoir many times to visit friends, wondering if their water is safe.
It was once such a beautiful area, as were many parts of the country devastated by corporate greed.