More myths from PERCÂ
MYTH 2: OUR GARBAGE WILL POISON US
The claim that our trash might poison us is impossible to completely refute, because almost anything might pose a threat. But the EPA itself acknowledges that the risks to humans (and presumably plants and animals) from modern landfills are virtually nonexistent: Modern landfills can be expected to cause 5.7 cancer-related deaths over the next 300 years-one every 50 years. To put this in perspective, cancer kills over 560,000 people every year in the United States (EPA 1990, 1991; Goodstein 1995).
Older landfills do possess a potential for harm to the ecosystem and to humans, especially when built on wetlands (or swamps), because pollutants can leach from them. When located on dry land, however, even old-style landfills generally pose minimal danger, in part because remarkably little biodegradation takes place in them.
Modern landfills eliminate essentially any potential for problems. Siting occurs away from groundwater supplies, and the landfills are built on a foundation of several feet of dense clay, covered with thick plastic liners. This layer is covered by several feet of gravel or sand. Any leachate is drained out via collection pipes and sent to municipal wastewater plants for treatment. Methane gas produced by biodegradation is drawn off by wells on site and burned or purified and sold.
Back in the day, landfills were know as “The Dump” and were built wherever people, though usually a township, wanted to put it. This was usually a chunk of land no one wanted because no one could built on it, usually it was a swamp or a tide flat or just wherever the locals started dumping their crap.
My current jobsite sits atop a Superfund site that is second only to the Hanford Nuclear reservation. I see the state come out at regular intervals to drill a core out from our parking lot so they can test the soil. In the early 20th Century the area was a tideflat where no one wanted to build, so the city government designated it “The Dump”.
Now your tax dollars go to maintaining it. If you’re 50 or older, your tax dollars previously went to cleaning up the City of Seattle government’s mistake.
You’ll find that a large number of our current environmental issues are the fault of someone in government.
Modern landfills, run by private industry, are so clean that when they are near completion, the surrounding areas not needed to take in and process the landfill gases are rehabilitated and turned into parks. The one I spoke about yesterday along Interstate 5 south of Seattle was purchased by a private company who is selling off the gases and will be making a very nicely landscaped park out of it. There was a time when they were thinking of turning it into a golf course, but how many of those damn things do we really need?
Phil, what do you mean by “Now your tax dollars go to maintaining it. If you’re 50 or older, your tax dollars previously went to cleaning up the City of Seattle government’s mistake.”? If your worksite was created before anyone knew better ways to create landfills, their isn’t much anyone can do now except to maintain it. Are you saying that the City of Seattle maliciously created the site knowing that their actions were wrong?
*cough* http://www.newcastlegolf.com/ *cough*
Yes Chris, I am saying that the City of Seattle knew better than to let people dump their used car batteries, motor oil, paint and other corrosive/poisonous items on a tide flat.
Their entire goal for having this done was that so they could cover it up with dirt and build on it. It took place a decade or so after the city’s government regraded Denny Hill so that they could build on it. They took the dirt from the hillside and dumped it on the beach in front of downtown Seattle, creating the Seattle Waterfront.
They couldn’t tear down the hillside that runs along the tide flat because people had already built just over the ridge and to do so would have brought those houses down. So their bright idea was to fill this thing in with a bunch of crap and then toss a couple feet of dirt over it.
Take a look at the list of Superfund sites and you’ll see that 90% of them are because of government actions. And at least half of those were willful.
Govenment is the last agency I want dealing with the environment. Modern private industry can do 100% better.
Phil, do you happen so know of any links that talk more about that? I’m sure it would make for some interesting reading.
I have read (and taken Seattle’s underground tour) to learn that many of the hills in Seattle are artificial. But those actions took place at the turn of last century.
Sorry Chris, I don’t. I’ve just grown up with the local history (which was a required course to graduate high school, btw).
Your best search terms would probably be “Denny Regrade” or “skid row origin” or maybe even “Hooverville”, that’ll get you down to the right area I’m talking about.
Thanks Phil, I’ll give those a try. I didn’t grow up in the Seattle area so I’m lacking in local history.