[CPEO-BIF] Koppers neighbors, northwest Gainesville, Florida

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

A Haunting Past for Northwest Gainesville

By Henry Taksier
Campus Progress
February 8, 2011

When Mary Ann Jones bought her house in northwest Gainesville, the real 
estate agent said there might be noise every now and then due to the 
nearby industrial facility. She was okay with that. She was not warned 
that her grandchildren could be exposed to a dangerous concentration of 
dioxins, which are known to cause cancer and a wide range of health 
problems, especially in small children.

"I felt like this man signed me a death sentence," she said.

For slightly over a year, Jones has lived at 3118 NW 4th St. with her 
extended family, which includes three grandchildren. The top of her 
fence is wrapped in barbed wire, which separates her backyard from the 
90-acre Superfund site previously owned by Koppers, Inc. She wants to 
move away but doesn't have the financial means.

For 93 years, Koppers, Inc. operated a wood-treatment facility at 200 NW 
23rd Ave, releasing industrial toxins - including arsenic, hexavalent 
chromium, creosote, and dioxins—into Gainesville's air, water, and soil. 
The area is now ranked as one of the nation's top-100 polluted sites. It 
has been designated a Superfund site - a place so heavily polluted with 
toxic waste that it poses a threat to human health and the environment - 
for 27 years.

...

For the entire article, see
http://campusprogress.org/articles/a_haunting_past_for_northwest_gainesville/#

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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