By Jamie Bachar
After reviewing “Toxic Legacy” in class and on my own, the part
that stuck out with me most was the complete lack of interest or care by the
Department of Environmental Protection and the state of New Jersey.
In one of the articles it was reported that Wayne Mann, the
president of his neighborhood association, and Jeff Tittel, the executive
director of the Sierra Club in New
Jersey, both showed the DEP sites where the paint
sludge was prominent but was ignored on many occasions throughout numerous
decades.
There were public records that showed that federal officials at
the EPA repeatedly let Ford walk away from thousands of tons of industrial
waste dumped in Ringwood. They let this happen while officials and private
reports told them of widespread contamination in specific locations.
The government failed New
Jersey and the Ringwood residents so many times for
so many years. They let Ford do what ever they wanted and didn’t hold them
accountable for anything that they did and more importantly what they did not
do. For example Ford never had to submit shipping documents to the EPA
detailing how much waste was dumped. Nor did they leave maps showing where the
dumping occurred yet they allowed Ford to restrict its initial cleanup efforts
in Ringwood to four small areas, dismissing almost a decade of state and
private reports of sludge dumped all over the woods. The EPA didn’t even care
that Ford was planning such a minimal cleanup. The EPA even had the gall to
report to the citizens of Ringwood that site was completely cleared in 1988.
What is worse is that the government knew what implications were
had by not cleaning up the dump sites. It was well-known that the sludge posed a
long-term threat to the nearby Wanaque Reservoir, an important source of
drinking water. Not only that but the effects the paint sludge have had on the
Ramapough people. They have been the
most affected by the dumped paint sludge. They are living among the waste and
have been exposed to so many toxins there is no telling what health effects
have resulted from it. There have been reports of cancers, learning disabilities, asthma, and many more health problems.
The government failed this community and all of New Jersey by ignoring
the problem for so many years. I am not surprised that a large company like
Ford would lie to protect itself and its money. But the DEP was created to
prevent large companies like Ford from endangering people. This was a complete
lack of judgment by New Jersey’s
government.
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