The people wearing the white tyvak suits are easier to see working at the former BF Goodrich plant because one of the first things they did in those suits was to clean off the fences so YOU CAN see them in there, working safe and doing it for the nearest neighbors and the 900 kids who go to school nearby and the kids who do a lot of deep breathing on the soccer fields just north of the plant.
EPA is here working on this 5 year old mess, but doing it as the emergency it has been all these years. Asbestos was applied to the surface of most structures, machinery and parts used throughout the facility and when the "Rip and Run" guy removed what he could sell, he left the rubble and BOY is it loaded with friable asbestos!
I knew it was bad last fall when Rhonda Jefferies with DEQ, gasped when I told her the city had an inspector walk the plant once a week to check on break-ins. In the next breath she was able to speak she said, he should inspect from the street-side of the FENCE. It was THAT seriously dangerous. For a week now the trucks are loaded and we are able to say goodbye to load after load from the site, of Miami's BF Goodrich Superfund site.
BF Goodrich has other Superfund sites they left polluted (It is their business model to walk away, stall and hope the former workers who know as they say "where the bodies are buried" pass away without revealing the company's polluting secrets.)
One BF Goodrich Superfund site is 60 miles outside Los Angeles, CA, dealing with asbestos and the site in Calvert City, Kentucky which was dealt with by the state of Kentucky until EPA's understanding of the magnitude of contamination increased.
Our state of Oklahoma was charged with the oversight of the BF Goodrich site until EPA's understanding of the magnitude of contamination increased and they stepped in to begin this action on asbestos removal.
EPA can do the cleanup Miami deserves. But this is the moment to speak up, let's let EPA increase their understanding of the magnitude of contamination there is here so Miami gets the CLEANUP we need. Dear former workers we need you now to expand EPA's understanding while they are HERE.
Lawsuits for the individuals living in the nearby neighborhoods may end up compensating their participants, may end up with a buyout for some. But DEQ and EPA need to apply the pressure to the polluting company, our former friend, BF Goodrich, and their new owner, Michelin to DO THE RIGHT THING AND CLEAN UP THE SITE.
Whatever the milestones in your life you have accumulated or lived through, I am wishing you the victory, the relief or the satisfaction each has brought. Getting the Asbestos OUT of BF Goodrich is a milestone we are experiencing, and knowing it will protect human health, the health of people you know, of children who deserve long healthy lives makes us know the value of the removal action taking place in our behalf.
Another milestone we reached together was living through another major flood. Wondering about how Tar Creek lay her waters had me out collecting samples to analyze for heavy metals from willing neighbors on blocks that received heavy doses of the polluted creek water. How many more floods will we be spreading those metals on parks and yards? EPA needs to get with the Tar Creek in the Tar Creek Superfund Site. She gave her name to the site, and spills out 1 million gallons of tainted water EVERY DAY for 40 years. I say EPA, it is time to MILESTONE TAR CREEK!
The new EPA Region 6 Administrator David Grey and his assistant, Erin Chancellor are coming to Tar Creek June 28 and for an hour that day Milestones will be on our Wish List with them. Over a year ago, Erin came to LEAD Agency with Ken Wagner (who is now Oklahoma's Secretary of Energy and the Environment), when they both worked with Albert Kelly at the EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. We will certainly have reducing lead levels in children on that list and making sure there is funding to sample every property in Ottawa County for lead AND to remove and replace with clean yard soil when needed.
Reaching my newest decade brought garden work, friends, young friends, new friends, former students who span some of those past decades to be the friends I need most in my life now. Looking back, I was the young friend to some really special elders and now realize how special it is to cross those generations and be their elder now. These decades have given me good friends and personal milestones, but on a June day there is nothing more rewarding than finding beautiful ripe blackberries in the field and sharing the cobbler they become with those friends.
Blackberrily Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim
EPA is here working on this 5 year old mess, but doing it as the emergency it has been all these years. Asbestos was applied to the surface of most structures, machinery and parts used throughout the facility and when the "Rip and Run" guy removed what he could sell, he left the rubble and BOY is it loaded with friable asbestos!
I knew it was bad last fall when Rhonda Jefferies with DEQ, gasped when I told her the city had an inspector walk the plant once a week to check on break-ins. In the next breath she was able to speak she said, he should inspect from the street-side of the FENCE. It was THAT seriously dangerous. For a week now the trucks are loaded and we are able to say goodbye to load after load from the site, of Miami's BF Goodrich Superfund site.
BF Goodrich has other Superfund sites they left polluted (It is their business model to walk away, stall and hope the former workers who know as they say "where the bodies are buried" pass away without revealing the company's polluting secrets.)
One BF Goodrich Superfund site is 60 miles outside Los Angeles, CA, dealing with asbestos and the site in Calvert City, Kentucky which was dealt with by the state of Kentucky until EPA's understanding of the magnitude of contamination increased.
Our state of Oklahoma was charged with the oversight of the BF Goodrich site until EPA's understanding of the magnitude of contamination increased and they stepped in to begin this action on asbestos removal.
EPA can do the cleanup Miami deserves. But this is the moment to speak up, let's let EPA increase their understanding of the magnitude of contamination there is here so Miami gets the CLEANUP we need. Dear former workers we need you now to expand EPA's understanding while they are HERE.
Lawsuits for the individuals living in the nearby neighborhoods may end up compensating their participants, may end up with a buyout for some. But DEQ and EPA need to apply the pressure to the polluting company, our former friend, BF Goodrich, and their new owner, Michelin to DO THE RIGHT THING AND CLEAN UP THE SITE.
Whatever the milestones in your life you have accumulated or lived through, I am wishing you the victory, the relief or the satisfaction each has brought. Getting the Asbestos OUT of BF Goodrich is a milestone we are experiencing, and knowing it will protect human health, the health of people you know, of children who deserve long healthy lives makes us know the value of the removal action taking place in our behalf.
Another milestone we reached together was living through another major flood. Wondering about how Tar Creek lay her waters had me out collecting samples to analyze for heavy metals from willing neighbors on blocks that received heavy doses of the polluted creek water. How many more floods will we be spreading those metals on parks and yards? EPA needs to get with the Tar Creek in the Tar Creek Superfund Site. She gave her name to the site, and spills out 1 million gallons of tainted water EVERY DAY for 40 years. I say EPA, it is time to MILESTONE TAR CREEK!
The new EPA Region 6 Administrator David Grey and his assistant, Erin Chancellor are coming to Tar Creek June 28 and for an hour that day Milestones will be on our Wish List with them. Over a year ago, Erin came to LEAD Agency with Ken Wagner (who is now Oklahoma's Secretary of Energy and the Environment), when they both worked with Albert Kelly at the EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. We will certainly have reducing lead levels in children on that list and making sure there is funding to sample every property in Ottawa County for lead AND to remove and replace with clean yard soil when needed.
Reaching my newest decade brought garden work, friends, young friends, new friends, former students who span some of those past decades to be the friends I need most in my life now. Looking back, I was the young friend to some really special elders and now realize how special it is to cross those generations and be their elder now. These decades have given me good friends and personal milestones, but on a June day there is nothing more rewarding than finding beautiful ripe blackberries in the field and sharing the cobbler they become with those friends.
Blackberrily Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim
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