Just dump it in a hole
I now realize that when I was younger, many of my employers were criminals. Beyond the low wages, the hair nets, the need to eat while sitting on a pile of metal; the environmental habits of the rich and famous were not something to teach to your children. Today, we’re learning that “brown field” doesn’t refer to good soil.
I’ve been watching the ongoing saga in a city where I spent several summers learning how to play nicely. The city, wanting to keep their citizens in good health, bought a large field where they planned (plan) to build a sports complex. All went well until the required environmental studies showed that the previous owners had been slobs. That’s the politest word in my vocabulary.
I worked in the factory that was located there, as a summer intern. I learned many useful skills, such as how to stand in tanks of xylene while washing metal parts. Some reading, long after the fact, pointed out that such chemicals aren’t really conducive to anything except cleaning metal parts. Long term effects of exposure may yet be revealed to me.
At another summer job, my boss also owned a bowling alley construction firm. Bowling is good for the health (apparently), but the shellac used to cover the hardwood flooring is less so. When we had several drums of old product to discard, I was instructed to dig a hole down by the lake shore and pour it it. End of product, end of problem. We also used to clean any paint brushes in the lake, and anything else that wasn’t needed (and wouldn’t float up) seemed to disappear off the end of the docks.
Locally, the munitions plant just north of here used great quantities of Trichloroethylene to clean metal parts. Not the same product as I worked with, but more toxic. The great quantities seem to have ended up in the water table, where a number of villages have found that the water is good for nothing except pain and sorrow. Once again, owners with a need for cheap garbage disposal.
The whole thing comes down to one thing. We haven’t always had the enviroment or the future in mind when industry came to town. Now we’re going to pay the price.
