Waste Texas...I Hate To Be So Far Behind...But Maybe I Was Helpless Anyway

During much of 2008 through June 2010 I worked as a private investigator, spending most of my time in Louisiana, far South Texas, or Colorado.  It appears that during that time I fell very far behind in my understanding of what was going on my backyard, near Andrews, Texas.

I totally missed the fact that tons and tons of PCB cleaned from the Hudson River in NEW YORK was sent to the Waste Management Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Andrews.  You remember, the facility that was built to accept low-level radioactive medical waste?  I fail to see how PCB is "medical waste" but what do I know?  After all I am just one of the many dumb desert dwellers who are standing in the way of progress for the City and County of Andrews.  I guess I would be a tree hugger if there were any trees outside of the Andrews city limits.  Oh...off track again!

So PCB or chlorinated biphenyls, will be dumped in the WCS landfill in Andrews. This compound is a carcinogen is linked to thyroid disease, learning, memory and immune system disorders.  In the Hudson River, fish samples were found to have lethal amounts of this chemical.  So the fish there cannot be eaten for the above reasons.  The water from the Hudson, one assumes, is used as drinking water, after treatment of course.  Does that clear out the hazard posed by PCB?

More to the point for you and I, some one million pounds (plus) of PCB was dumped in the Hudson over the years by General Electric.  GE has spent $750 million to clean up the mess and rail road us...I mean "it" to Andrews.  By the way, the railroad route went through many large cities, and in West Texas it passed through Lubbock on the way to WCS.  I wonder what would have been the consequences of a derailment or other accident along the way?  But, not to worry!  Once the filth from New York reached its final resting place at WCS, everyone was safe!  Right?  Well, no...not really.  Putting aside common-sense which would tell us this waste was safe nowhere, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, Texas Chapter, once again raised the alarm that this toxin was being dumped, I mean, disposed of right on top of the upper reach of the Ogallala Aquifer.  The claim of course was immediately countered by both WCS (Linda Beach, VP of WCS Andrews) and the leaders of Andrews (in this case Glen Hackler, the Andrews City Manager), who once again let us know that the WCS facility was safe, and the PCB was contained.  Never mind that it was placed five hundred feet over the aquifer.  And we already know the WCS facility does not leak radiation.  NOT!!

Like I said, I am a year late in learning this information, but at least I should be comforted by the words of Ms. Beach and Mr. Hackler.  I guess I would be, if I had not learned some other information.  For one, Mr. David Barry, spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency for Region 6 says, "Yes, the facility does sit above the Ogallala aquifer. It sits on the southern end of the aquifer."  Even more telling to me, is the fact that one employee with the Texas Commision on Environmental Quality quit his job after serving sixteen years with the Commission.  He had strongly recommended against the WCS operation and the continuing addition of varieties of material to be dumped at the facility.  This employee was so frustrated that he could no longer continue working for the agency that was supposed to be securing environmental quality for all of us, the citizens of Texas. 

What about the attitudes of the people in Andrews.  Still divided it seems.  One citizen told a television reporter that WCS was great for the community, that the company had done so much for the economy and the schools there.  He was not concerned about the hazards at all.  If WCS said the facility was safe then it must be.  But another Andrews resident summed it up this way: "All of our time has been wasted. We've all been played for suckers. We've all been pointless impediments to a process that resulted in issuing this license from the first day."

I hate to do so, but I must agree with this last gentleman.  It appears that in Texas, no matter what the hazard, no matter what the damage to the people and the environment, no matter how long it will take nature to repair the damage (thousands of years), if there is MONEY to be made, if POLITICIANS (at any level) stand to gain, the right money and influence peddled in the right directions will prevail over the will of the people, the common good, and most of all, over any common-sense reasoning that such activity will ultimately cost thousands of dollars in medical bills, funeral expenses, and environmental cleanups.  If someone can yell that "the sky is falling" and get a few scared people to listen, all the better!

I still feel bad about being so far behind the times, but I have to wonder if it would have done any good to have been on the scene back in 2009 considering all the opposition that has gone before me and the fact that Waste Texas...I mean Waste Control Specialists have gotten their way no matter what. 

(Sources for information and quotes are from NewsChannel 11)