$36 million to clean up DDT mess

June 12, 2009

One more reminder that DDT is a deadly substance:  EPA announced a program to cap render harmless the largest DDT dump, off the coast of California.

Jeff Gottlieb writes in The Los Angeles Times:

The federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed spending at least $36 million to clean up the world’s largest deposit of banned pesticide DDT, which lies 200 feet underwater off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Montrose Chemical Corp., which was based near Torrance, released 110 tons of DDT and 10 tons of toxic PCBs into the sewers from 1947 through 1971. The chemicals then flowed into the Pacific.

What do you think?  A substance that is deadly, makes one of the largest and deadliest Superfund sites in America, and costs $36 million in taxpayer smackaroons just to seal up so it won’t kill again — is it “perfectly safe” as the advocates claim?

This is one subject you will not see discussed at Steven Milloy’s sites, Junk Science, nor Green Hell.  You won’t find the Chronically Obsessed with Rachel Carson (COWRC) mentioning this clean-up.

Remind them.

Public hearings on this plan are scheduled for June 23 and 25.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Audublog.

Leave a Comment » | DDT, Economics, Environmental protection, Natural history, oceans, Public health, Rachel Carson, Science, Wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

June 12, 1898 – U.S. flag rises over Guantanamo Bay

June 12, 2009

Hoisting the flag at Guantanamo, Cuba, June 12, 1898. Image from the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress

Hoisting the flag at Guantanamo, Cuba, June 12, 1898. Edward H. Hart, photographer. Image from the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress

Oh, it’s important in retrospect, no?

On June 10, 1898, U.S. Marines landed at Guantánamo Bay. For the next month, American troops fought a land war in Cuba that resulted in the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Western Hemisphere. Cuban rebels had gained the sympathy of the American public while the explosion and sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, widely blamed on the Spanish despite the absence of conclusive evidence, further boosted American nationalistic fervor.

On June 12, the area was secured and the flag posted.

Read a lot more about this event, and get resources on the Spanish-American War, at the Library of Congress.

1 Comment | 1898, Flag ceremony, foreign affairs, History, History images, Spanish American War, War | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell