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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Kansas, corporate America and their poisons in the NY Times today

Yes sir, the little town of Treece, Kansas--or what and who is left of it--is in The New York Times today:

Last Ones Left in a Toxic Kansas Town

It seems this little town on the edge of Oklahoma was a zinc and lead area for decades and many big profits were made by companies.

Trouble is, no one held those companies responsible for the clean up:

"Then there’s the water. The local Tar Creek is the color of orange juice, and it smells like vinegar. This is because when the mining companies left, they shut off the pumps that kept abandoned shafts from filling with groundwater. Once water flooded the tunnels, it picked up all the trace minerals underground — iron, lead and zinc — and flushed them into rivers and streams. Fish and fowl fled or went belly-up. 'The only thing polluted in Treece,' says Rex Buchanan, interim director at the Kansas Geological Survey, 'is the earth, air and water.'”

And the thing is, there are lots of corporate-made Treeces all over the US.

Do you suppose America and Americans will ever learn?

If we do, do you suppose it won't be too late?

Here's hoping.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/magazine/last-ones-left-in-treece-kan-a-toxic-town.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120520

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