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GFPN Headlines - Toxic Dumping
GFPN Headlines
PROBE OF DUMPING IN BOLTON VALLEY BEGINS
Jan. 07, 2027: Montpelier, VT. (S. Rysemus)
The state Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation into the dumping of toxic chemicals in the
Bolton Valley Ski area near Mt. Mansfield.
On Feb. 3, two cross-country skiers found a spot near the east base of Mt. Mansfield where 96 unmarked and
leaking barrels of a toxic, mercury-laced chemical had been dumped. Some of the 50-gallon drums were on
their sides and leaking into the ground. The drums were strewn about haphazardly, some had even rolled down
hill.
Initial tests on the waste have begun, and show extremely high levels of toxic mercury, but environmentalists
complained that tests for other life-threatening materials such as dioxin, have not been done.
The barrels were found early Tuesday morning, at what is the busiest time of the year for Bolton Valley.
Since nothing was found over the weekend, officials believe that the drums were dumped late Monday night.
The case has caught the attention of the state attorney general's office, which confirmed Friday that it
has opened an investigation. Deputy Attorney General Bruce LeGrande said the office is working on several
leads.
CHEMICAL CLOUD ENVELOPES TOWN
Sept. 28, 2029: Buffalo, NY. (S. Rysemus)
It was about 6 o'clock on Friday morning when a dense gray cloud descended over Orchard Park, a sleepy
suburb of Buffalo. Visibility was reduced to zero when Ross Jurek opened his front door to retrieve his
morning paper. When Jurek stepped outside of his house, he suddenly got hit by the heavy smell of ammonia.
After Jurek returned inside, his "throat was really starting to clench, my eyes were starting to burn,
and my skin was really starting to itch." Jurek later learned that the cloud was a witches' brew of toxic
chemicals: ethylene dichloride, vinyl-chloride monomer, and hydrogen chloride.
It had been just another day at the Boss Chemicals and Plastics plant, just outside of Buffalo. A month
earlier, half a dozen similarly hazardous chemicals were released, but remained on plant grounds. The
previous year in July of 2028, vinyl-chloride monomer and ammonia escaped from the plant and forced the
closing of Interstate 90. In October of 2028, a cloud of hydrochloric acid spewed out, shutting down roads
in the area for over 30 minutes.
Back in 2026, at the request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Justice Department
filed a lawsuit against Boss Chemicals, accusing the company of a series of environmental-law violations.
Among the charges: the company stored hazardous waste, sludge, and solid wastes illegally; failed to install
containment systems; burned hazardous waste without a permit; neglected to report the release of hazardous
chemicals into the air; contaminated groundwater beneath the plant site (thereby threatening an aquifer
that provides water for residents); and shipped toxic waste laced with mercury to South Africa without
notifying the EPA, as required by law. In March of 2027, on the third day of what was expected to be a
three-week trial, the company signed a consent agreement to settle the case. Without admitting any
wrongdoing, Boss Chemicals agreed to pay a fine of $3.6 million--the largest in New York history. The
company also consented to spend $3 million to clean up groundwater contamination and stop injecting waste
into underground storage wells, and to donate $400,000 for equipment for local emergency response units.
Don't weep for Boss Chemicals. It was able to pay the fine with just a couple of years' savings from
abated taxes. For over the past decade, while the plant has been fouling the land, water, and air in New
York and Canada, the state has excused the company from paying $19 million in property taxes as part of
just one of its corporate-welfare programs.
And who are the real beneficiaries of this welfare? One is the Wall Street buyout firm of Overton
Shlasinger Jackson & Co., one of whose affiliates "manages and controls the activities of the company,"
according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Boss Chemicals, which many years ago purchased Borden Inc., the milk-and-dairy-products company, is typical
of scores of companies that receive tax abatements at the same time they contribute to the polluted
environment. That pollution, represents corporate welfare's greatest hidden cost. Chemicals, mining
wastes and a broad range of other hazardous materials have fouled water, land and air across America.
Billions have already been spent undoing environmental damage. Many more millions will be spent in coming
years. Industry itself is footing part of the bill. But the largest chunk will come from taxpayers--a
massive corporate-welfare program.
The Federal Government for example, has spent $150 million so far to clean up Lake Champlain, Vermont,
contaminated with cyanide and mercury from a processing plant abandoned in 2025. The final tab is expected
to reach at least $210 million. The government will eventually spend more than $130 million to clean up a
site in Wayne N.J., contaminated with radioactive waste. The company has agreed to chip in $32 million.
The government estimates it will cost as much as $200 million to scrub up a smelter site in Palmerton, Pa.
The tab for cleaning up radioactive waste, at a site in Van Buren M.E., is put at $900 million.
As is so often the case with environmental pollution, practices once deemed safe turn out years later to be
hazardous. So it was with the PCBs used by P.U.B.L.I.C. and other manufacturers of transformers. Now cost
estimates for cleaning up P.U.B.L.I.C.'s pcb contamination in the Hudson River alone range as high as
$2 billion.
Add to these cleanup bills yet another cost from pollution: the billions spent on health care to treat
conditions ranging from black-lung disease to asbestosis. These costs are yet to be counted, because it
often takes years, even decades, to document the links between the chemicals and the diseases.
To better understand the links between corporate welfare and pollution, let's take a closer look at the
state of New York. a state that hands out tax breaks to companies that have been repeatedly fined or cited
for the discharge of hazardous chemicals or for generating large amounts of toxic waste. New York has been
canceling taxes owed by these corporations ever since the turn of the century. And why you may ask,
because the federal government almost makes it compulsory for the state to do so. Money for education,
transportation, and welfare programs are held back if the state does not concede certain advantages for
large corporations. They make these tax breaks mandatory if the state wants to continue to get grants of
Federal money.
Thus far in the 2020s, a GFPN analysis shows that New York has wiped off the books $4.6 billion in property
taxes alone. That doesn't even include all other types of tax breaks granted to corporations. Some of New
York's beneficiaries include Boss Foods, NuWaste, Number One Health, RetroCorpFive, and HydroVaporseal.
But then, plenty of states pass out tax breaks, of course, even to polluters, not just New York. But in
the east it seems, that most of the states, specifically ones in the New England area, are providing the
best breaks to these pollution generating corporations.
BAKER POND UNDER QUARANTINE
March 16, 2027: Presque Isle, ME. (S. Rysemus)
After finding dozens of dead fish floating in Baker Pond in Somerset County, officials began an
investigation. What was found has begun something of a local panic, in fifteen feet of water, 27 barrels
of mercury tainted waste.
Officials have cordoned off the pond as the investigation continues. The barrels were unmarked and
leaking. The big concern here is that Baker Pond feeds Spencer Creek, which in turn feeds Dead Creek and
ultimately Flagstaff Lake. Preliminary tests on Spencer Creek show alarmingly high levels of mercury.
These tests were conducted at the point where Spencer Creek flows into Dead Creek. Tests will continue
tomorrow, concentrating on Dead Creek and Flagstaff Lake.
Removal of the barrels began today, with no significant leads as to who dumped the waste into the creek,
or when the dumping actually took place.
