DDT-TAINTED BAY AREA DIRT SENT TO ARIZONA ASSOCIATED PRESS.Forty railroad cars of DDT-contaminated dirt from the San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay, 50 mi (80 km) long and from 3 to 13 mi (4.8–21 km) wide, W Calif.; entered through the Golden Gate, a strait between two peninsulas. arrived in Arizona on Thursday, the first shipment of 80,000 tons to be buried in a landfill outside of Phoenix. The arrival marks the end of a yearlong search to find a dump site. Earlier plans to ship the dirt to a Colorado Springs Colorado Springs, city (1990 pop. 281,140), seat of El Paso co., central Colo., on Monument and Fountain creeks, at the foot of Pikes Peak; inc. 1886. It is a year-round resort and a booming military, technological, and commercial city. , Colo., landfill were scrapped in response to public outcry there. About 10 people protested the dirt's arrival at the Butterfield Station landfill in Mobile, about 30 miles southwest of Phoenix. One woman was arrested after she stood on the highway in an effort to block a semi-trailer carrying dirt from the railroad to the landfill. Otherwise, there were no clashes, said Maricopa County sheriff's Detective Lewis Sorci. As a precaution, however, the sheriff's office sent 25 deputies, and Southern Pacific Railroad "Southern Pacific" redirects here. For the country-rock band, see Southern Pacific (band) The Southern Pacific Railroad (AAR reporting marks SP) was an American railroad. sent about 10 officers. ``Most of the (police) are just sitting in their cars,'' Sorci said. ``Everything's been peaceful.'' Environmental activists have fought the delivery of the contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. dirt, classified as hazardous waste Hazardous waste Any solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials that, if improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. Every industrial country in the world has had problems with managing hazardous wastes. in California but permissible in Arizona under less stringent state and federal standards. ``Arizona's weak environmental laws aren't protective of public health,'' Bradley Angel, head of the toxics campaign for the Greenpeace environmental group, said earlier this week. Angel said Mobile was picked because its residents were poor minorities and couldn't fight it. ``This is environmental racism,'' he said. The federal government banned DDT DDT or 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1,-trichloroethane, chlorinated hydrocarbon compound used as an insecticide. First introduced during the 1940s, it killed insects that spread disease and feed on crops. in 1973 but has set no toxicity standards for the chemical. DDT has been blamed for interfering with bird reproduction, thinning egg shells and causing defects in offspring. It could also be fatal to humans if ingested in·gest tr.v. in·gest·ed, in·gest·ing, in·gests 1. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption. See Synonyms at eat. 2. in sufficient quantities. Thursday's arrival marks the start of a moving process which will take weeks, said Jim West, a spokesman for Waste Management Inc., a waste disposal company that owns the landfill. On Thursday, the first of 1,100 cars arrived in Mobile via Southern Pacific. Covered with plastic tarp, the dirt was deliberately kept moist with San Francisco Bay water to keep it from blowing off during travel. It was not wet enough that spillage was a concern, he said. West said this load of dirt would not be completely transferred into the landfill until today. The next shipment will come next week. Arizona was one of three possible sites. Colorado environmental officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and approved a site there, but the county raised land-use issues and waste management withdrew. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion