RADIOACTIVE school site is tip of N.J. toxic iceberg

[donsu]

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=679

RADIOACTIVE SCHOOL SITE IS TIP OF NEW JERSEY TOXIC ICEBERG — Over 100 School Site approvals expedited under Secret Deal


A scheme to purchase land and build a high school on a highly contaminated former Manhattan Project site in Union City was not vetoed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Instead, the former uranium processing facility is one of as many as 200 contaminated sites that have been expedited for school construction under a secret “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) between the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the state’s Schools Construction Corporation (SCC). State officials have refused to disclose the list of all known contaminated school sites purchased by the SCC and reviewed by DEP under the MOU agreement.

The full extent of environmental and financial malfeasance that has engulfed the $8 billion program, one of the nation’s largest public works programs, now appears to be finally dawning on top aides to Governor Jon Corzine. Earlier warnings sent by PEER, including one sent as late as February 9, 2006, that the agreement between DEP and SCC should be rescinded appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

“For an environmental agency to look the other way at putting a public school on a contaminated Manhattan Project site shows just how corrupt things are in New Jersey,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, noting that the Union City school construction fell through only because SCC ran out of funds rather than from environmental objections. “We would hope that the Corzine administration would wake up and realize that not only SCC, but DEP and its pathetic site remediation program, need more than cosmetic measures; they require major surgery.”
-snip-
--------------------------------------


send your kids to school so they can get cancer and have short lifespans

an elementary school on Stock Island (Key West) snuggles up to a trash mountain and for yrs. a trash burning bldg.
people look at me funny when I mention it. go figure.

[don954]

1. NJ school supplies....

paper, pencils, radiation exposure badges..

[BrklynLiberal]

2. But they did this only in poor neighborhoods?!!!

“Huge sums of taxpayer funds dedicated for the education for New Jersey’s most disadvantaged children have instead been spent in a way that needlessly put children and educators at risk,”

[donsu]

3. of course

nt

[Sinti]

5. It's a Republican poverty eradication program

in 15-20 years they can halve the population living in poverty in this area, and they're doing it through "education".

Why do you hate America? :sarcasm:

[BrklynLiberal]

6. "eradication of poor people". This is Compassionate Conservatism.

This is in the same category as the testing of insecticides they wanted to do on poverty stricken children.

[Sinti]

7. There are times I feel I'm living in some dystopian novel

Eugenics never died, it just went into the closet.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Very accurately put.

[Tesha]

4. The article has *NO* facts regarding the contamination.

Does anyone know the actual particulars? I mean,
Union City wasn't exactly a hotbed of nuclear
development.

(Reading the DEP report now...)

Tesha

[donsu]

9. "Manhattan Project" = nuclear

nt

[Tesha]

12. Okay, I read the DEP report.

Don't worry about thge radiological aspects of
this site; worry about the fact that it also
housed a former gas station and former dry
cleaner.

Benzene (from the gasoline) is a very potent
carcinogen, probably a lot more potent than
Uranium. And dry cleaning fluid ain't so good
for you either.

Tesha

[SidDithers]

13. Lotsa perchlorethelyne used in the Dry Cleaning industry...

you're right about radiation dangers. The dangers benzene and perc are probably much more significant than any remaining radioactive material.

Sid

[MadHound]

10. Well, after reading the DEP report, there's a couple of huge red flags

One, they haven't done any sort of radiological survey. Being as this is proposed to be on the former Manhattan Project site, there really should do a thorough radiological survey. Folks back in the day didn't quite know what they were dealing with at the time, and tended to get somewhat sloppy.

Second of all, they cold rolled uranium on this site, which means that a lot of uranium is probably still around on the site. Not real good, being as this uranium could be ten feet deep by now.

Frankly I think that this is an ill-advised plan, and one that shouldn't be followed through on. Rather, they should assign some folks the job of finding out just exactly how contaminated this site is, and determine if it is suitable for some use in the future. Certainly don't build a school on top of it.

[SidDithers]

11. Got any information about radioactivity testing...

and measured radiation levels? How 'bout analysis of soil samples?

Sid