- 1 day ago
- #superfund
- #pensacola
- #earthday
For the better part of a century, Agrico Chemical and Escambia Wood Treating Company poisoned the soil and groundwater
due to careless waste management. Due to the toxic exposer, 403 families were affected and demanded to be moved. Which
became the 3rd largest relocation program in EPA history.
#superfund #pensacola #earthday
due to careless waste management. Due to the toxic exposer, 403 families were affected and demanded to be moved. Which
became the 3rd largest relocation program in EPA history.
#superfund #pensacola #earthday
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge. Today, because it's Earth Day, we are going to switch gears and talk about a different kind of crime, environmental. In particular, Superfund sites. The silent killers that can affect you and you don't even know it until it's too late.
00:17There are a lot of Superfund sites throughout the United States, but I'm going to focus on two sites that hit close to home. Agricochemical Company and Escambia Wood Treating Company. Only because they are next door neighbors to each other and the effects of both of these companies are still being felt by the survivors to this day.
00:36These two companies are located in my hometown of Pensacola, Florida. Even though Pensacola is more known for its beautiful beaches, the downtown area, and the NAS military base, there are some ugly secrets about this city that most tourists are unaware of. Let's go ahead and get started. Buckle up everybody, this is going to be a long one.
00:58Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA. The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. The program is designed to investigate and clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.
01:29Sites managed under this program are referred to as superfund sites. There are 40,000 federal superfund sites across the country, and approximately 1,300 of those sites have been listed on the National Priority List, or NPL. These sites on the NPL are considered the most highly contaminated and undergo long-term remedial investigation and action, i.e. cleanup.
01:57To clean up a large piece of land, you need someone to cough up the cash to pay for it. EPA has managed to get 70% of responsible parties to pay for the mess that they have made, but there are still 30% of these responsible parties that cannot be found or have filed for bankruptcy.
02:14If this is the case, the taxpayers had to flip the bill for the cleanup. Throughout the 1980s, most of the funding came from an excise tax on petroleum and chemical manufacturers. However, in 1995, Congress chose not to renew this tax, and the burden of the cost was shifted on taxpayers like you and me.
02:35Since 2001, most of the cleanup of hazardous waste sites has been funded through taxpayers generally. Despite its name, the program suffers from underfunding.
02:46In November 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act reauthorized the excise tax on chemical manufacturers for 10 years starting in July 2022.
02:59So now these guys are back to flipping the bill.
03:02Now what qualifies a piece of land to be declared a Superfund site and or to get on the national priorities list?
03:09The EPA and state agencies use the Hazard Ranking System, or HRS, to calculate a site score ranging from 0 to 100, based on the actual or potential release of hazardous substances from a site.
03:25A score of 28.5 places a site on a national priority list, eligible for long-term remedial action, a cleanup, under the Superfund program.
03:36As of March 23, 2022, there are 1,333 sites listed, an additional 448 have been delisted, and 43 new sites have been proposed.
03:50The primary goal of a Superfund cleanup is to reduce the risk to human health through a combination of cleanup-engineered controls like caps and site restrictions, such as groundwater use restrictions.
04:03A secondary goal is to return the site to productive use as a business, recreation, or as a natural ecosystem.
04:12Identifying the intended reuse early in the cleanup often results in faster and less expensive cleanups.
04:19EPA's Superfund Redevelopment Program provides tools and support for site redevelopment.
04:25Probably one of the most famous and earliest cases to ever make it onto the Superfund NPL was the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York.
04:44Not long after was Times Beach, Missouri.
04:46These places were well known, not only due to the large amount of chemicals dumped and people exposed, but for the relocation programs that were put into place, which were largely forced by residents demanding to be moved.
05:01Due to the two Superfund sites here in Pensacola, this city became known for the third largest relocation program.
05:08Agri-Co Chemical Company's Superfund site is a 35-acre property on Fairfield Drive in Pensacola, Florida, sandwiched between CSX Switchyard to the west and Interstate 110 to the east.
05:26There are a couple of baseball fields owned by the city to the north along with Escambia Wood Treating Company.
05:32According to records from Escambia County Utility Authorities, or ECUA, before it was known as Agri-Co Chemical Company, the site was previously owned by American Agricultural Chemical Company, or AACC, who began operations in 1889, producing sulfuric acid from pyrite, iron sulfide, which were stored in lead tanks, and the waste would be dumped into one of four unlined ponds.
06:00In late 1920, AACC stopped production of sulfuric acid and started making fertilizer from balsfatic rock, and the waste from making the fertilizer was stored in the same ponds that held the waste from sulfuric acid production.
06:17Because these ponds were unlined, that liquid would soak straight into the ground.
06:21By 1963, AACC was sold to Continental Chemical Company, a division of Continental Oil Company, or Conoco, now Conoco Phillips Incorporated, which continued producing fertilizer until 1972, when Agri-Co Chemical Company purchased the facility in 1972, and operated the plant until 1975, when operations ceased.
06:46By 1979, all of the equipment had been removed from the site, and the buildings were torn down, leaving only a concrete foundation and four wastewater ponds behind.
06:58Trouble began when testing was conducted in 1958 of a supply well on the corner of 12th Avenue and Hayes Street, found low pH levels and high levels of fluoride and bensin in the water supply.
07:11The well was removed from service at the beginning of 1959 due to the contamination and was abandoned due to the contamination of the 12th Avenue well.
07:22Other wells around the East Hill neighborhood were also found to be contaminated, including on F and Scott Street, and several others.
07:31It was discovered that when the wastewater was dumped into the ponds, it was soaked into the ground and into the aquifer, which flowed east-southeast, which flowed into the East Hill neighborhood, but also into the Bayou Tahar.
07:44The EPA tested the soil and groundwater at the Agri-Co site.
07:48The soil and surface water were contaminated with elevated levels of fluoride, arsenic, and lead.
07:55Groundwater beneath the site is contaminated with fluoride, arsenic, chloride, sulfate, nitrate-slash-nitrite, and radium-226 and 228.
08:07EPA placed the site on the Superfund Program's NPL in 1989.
08:12A fence was finally placed around the site after noticing the children using the dirt path that leads to the factory to get to the baseball fields.
08:22Plus, there was garbage that was being dumped at the site as well.
08:26Agri-Co agreed to pay for the cleanup and monitoring walls that were placed on the site.
08:31But soon it seems that new chemicals were being found in the aquifer.
08:35Looks like there's a second polluter that is up to some shady stuff as well.
08:39Now, this company is what really brought my piss to a boil, and I'm going to try and remain calm while talking about these people.
08:52While doing my research, I had to get up and take a breather several times.
08:56The amount of shady crap that these bastards were up to was nothing short of anger-inducing.
09:01So let's go ahead and get into this.
09:02The Scambia Wood Treating Company, or ETC as I'm going to call them, began its operations in 1942.
09:10W.J. Noonan, who already owned a construction business, partnered up with Charles Soule, a graduate from the University of Alabama,
09:19graduating with a bachelor's in engineering, to start a utility pole manufacturing company.
09:24They purchased a 26-acre piece of land on Palafox Street that used to be used for farming.
09:30The process was as follows.
09:32Cut down southern yellow pine trees based on height, straightness, and the least amount of knots.
09:38De-bark and shape the trees into poles.
09:41Drill all the necessary bolt holes in a process called framing.
09:45Then have these poles dry out in a process called seasoning.
09:48Once dry, these poles would be placed in 100-foot tanks filled with coal tar creosote, pressurized to penetrate deep into the wood.
09:58After the process was complete, the poles were stored until ready for shipping via train, which CSX Switchyard was already at the back of the property.
10:07Rinse and repeat.
10:09Just like with Agri-Co, ETC would dump the waste in unlined ponds, separate the oily substance from the water, and reuse it or dispose of it into the city's groundwater supply.
10:21Due to this process, the poles were guaranteed to last for 25 to 35 years.
10:26They also made railroad ties and foundation pilings, too.
10:30At the time, business was good.
10:32As World War II ended and more homes and neighborhoods were being built, the more utility poles were needed.
10:39ETC made $350,000 annually back in the early 1950s.
10:44The newspaper praised ETC for boosting the economy in Pensacola.
10:48They had 235 employees, who the majority of them lived in the neighborhood surrounding the plant.
10:54Now, of course, business didn't always run smoothly.
10:57Sometimes the tanks would bust open, spilling toxic chemicals all over the place.
11:02When the tanks would break down, workers were forced to put burlap sacks over their boots and roll the poles in the oily mixture.
11:09Without those bags over their shoes, the soles would get eaten away within a week.
11:14They had no protective gear provided to them.
11:16Plus, if it rained, and let's face it, this is Florida, it rains quite a bit.
11:21They would clean up the toxic runoff by sprinkling sand over these puddles and call it good.
11:27Residents in the surrounding neighborhoods often had to put handkerchiefs over their nose and mouth to avoid the smell that came from the wood-treating plant and agri-cochemical plant.
11:37When it came to getting clean water, it would take at least a few minutes to pump out the oily brown water before the water became clear enough to drink.
11:45If they bathed in it, their skin would become itchy.
11:49No one really complained.
11:51They just put up with it.
11:52After all, the neighborhoods surrounding agri-co and Escambia Wood were only one of very few neighborhoods that black people were allowed to buy houses in the 1940s.
12:03And if you haven't guessed it by now, yes.
12:06All the workers were black, and all the management were white.
12:09So if a worker tried to complain, they would just straight-up fire them.
12:13Meanwhile, the outwardly positive appearance of ETC boosted the owners, not only financially, but politically as well.
12:22People were singing the praises of Charles Soule and his family, so much that from 1963 to 1967, he was a city council member, and from 1967 to 1969, Charles was mayor of Pensacola.
12:36Business was going so well that the Soule family branched out their business and bought three more properties in Georgia and Mississippi, making millions of dollars in sales annually, about $15.4 million to be exact.
12:51In the 1960s, the formula for processing the wood products switched from creosote to pentachlorophenol, or PCP, and was used exclusively from 1970 until the plant closed.
13:03PCP comes in a crystallized form, so it was dissolved in hot number 6 diesel fuel, and then pressure injected into the poles.
13:12The reason for the switch was because it preserved better, and made the utility poles lettering color and weight, instead of using the sticky heavy creosote.
13:21The waste from the process was dumped into the same ponds as before, so more chemical toxins.
13:27Lovely.
13:28Also, around 1969, another shift was happening.
13:32W.J. Noonan, president of ETC, decided to sell his shares of the company and step down from his position.
13:40Charles Soule Sr. went from vice president and general manager to president of the company.
13:45W. Homer Davis went from vice president and treasurer to vice president.
13:50Oh, and who did he sell his shares to?
13:52Homer Davis, Tom Hayes, and Charles Soule Jr.
13:56Yes, the son of Charles Soule Sr.
13:59Eventually, Jr. would take over the business as president, and Sr. became chairman.
14:04At the end of 1970, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, was established.
14:12After Congress passed the Clean Water Act and other environmental regulations in the 1970s,
14:18and of course EPA inspectors started sniffing around the plant,
14:22the company's owners saw the writing on the wall.
14:24So what did they do?
14:26Came up with a way to make a quick buck.
14:28The Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
14:30Employees bought up company stock and assets thinking that it would be a great investment,
14:36but they were never informed of the environmental trouble that ETC was in.
14:40Underestimating the cost of the cleanup,
14:43thinking that it was only going to cost about half a million dollars to clean up the plant.
14:46So once all the stock was bought up, ETC closed in 1982 and filed for bankruptcy,
14:53leaving those same investors to pay for any fines from the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation and the EPA.
15:00I told you this was bad.
15:01In 1987, those investors filed a $22 million lawsuit against the Sol family,
15:08claiming that the Soles overvalued the stock and assets in the sale to employees
15:14and underestimating the cost of environmental cleanup.
15:18The suit claims that those are securities violations.
15:20It seeks cancellation of debts, return of payments, unliquidated assets, and $20 million in punitive damages.
15:28Also, there was another lawsuit in Eskimbia County Circuit Court
15:31with charges that Senior and Junior received improper cash advances totaling $600,000
15:38that they arranged between ETC, its parent and sister companies, and other companies they owned separately.
15:46It seeks the return of cash plus interest plus unspecified punitive damages.
15:51The Sol family flatly disputes any wrongdoing.
15:54To make a long story short, in 1990, they lost.
15:58To the tune of $2.39 million, plus $100,000 in punitive damages.
16:04At least it was something.
16:05Wasn't the $20 million that they were asking for that was better than nothing.
16:09But at least, well hopefully, it taught them a lesson that you cannot take advantage of your employees
16:14and walk away unscathed.
16:16At the same time those lawsuits were filed, FDR inspectors decided to pay a visit to ETC
16:24to inspect any contamination by the wood-treating plant.
16:28After finding new chemicals in the old agri-co-monitoring wells, just southeast from ETC,
16:34testing from the ponds was conducted, and the results were shocking.
16:37They found dangerous levels of creosote, pentachlorphenol, polyaromatic hydrocarbons,
16:44dioxin, arsenic, benzopyrene, dieldrin, naphthalene, tulene, xylene, benzene, copper, chromium, asbestos, and PCBs.
16:56Even though the results show, it plainly, that ETC contaminated the ground and the aquifer below,
17:02former vice president, and now just listed as a consultant, Homer Davis, remember him,
17:09denied any evidence of contamination that requires any cleanup.
17:13He also objected to any monitoring wells being installed on the site.
17:16The EPA told him that ETC has 30 days or will be faced with a $6,000 fine.
17:23ETC only contributed $68,000 to close down the ponds and assess the groundwater.
17:28But the attorney for ETC claims that they don't have any more money to help with cleanup.
17:34ETC was abandoned in 1991, leaving behind a giant mess.
17:39They left behind leaking drums, a lab full of broken equipment and open containers,
17:45an overturned electrical transformer, crumbling asbestos insulation around a boiler.
17:50At this time in 1992, the EPA had not declared ETC a Superfund site.
17:56Instead, it was classified as a site in need of emergency cleanup, just like Exxon Valdez oil spill.
18:04The plan was to come in and quickly clean it up without anyone really noticing.
18:08They didn't hold any kind of meeting with the residents nearby.
18:12When some of the workers tried to inform one of the EPA coordinators, he told them to get lost.
18:18Some houses were as close as 15 feet from ETC.
18:22But nope, they decided not to listen to anybody.
18:25They figured this was going to be quick work.
18:28So EPA, dressed in hazmat suits, which locals called spaceman suits,
18:32started up the heavy equipment and started digging.
18:35After so many feet were dug, test the soil, found that it was still contaminated and kept digging.
18:41Rinse and repeat.
18:42Until they dug up 255,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil into
18:49a huge mound of dirt that stood 60 feet tall, 1,000 feet long, and 40 feet wide.
18:56And then put a tarp on it and left it there.
18:59They didn't stop digging because they ran out of soil.
19:02Nope, they stopped because they ran out of money.
19:04So here it sat.
19:06A huge mound of dirt for everyone in Pensacola to see.
19:09So much for cleaning it up quickly before anybody noticed, huh?
19:13Residents nicknamed it Mount Deoxin.
19:16To give you an idea as to the size of Mount Deoxin, where the circle is, is one household.
19:22This eyesore sat there for 15 years, becoming the largest land feature in Pensacola.
19:28But all this digging led to more problems than EPA realized.
19:32ETC was finally listed as a Superfund site in 1994.
19:43Due to the digging of ETC and the contaminated groundwater that no one was informed was contaminated,
19:50people became either sick or died due to exposure.
19:54An estimated 20 people per block died.
19:56Residents complained to officials, but it fell on deaf ears.
20:00In 1992, after seeing her family and her neighbors become sick or die,
20:06Margaret Williams, along with neighbors and former workers from ETC,
20:11founded the Citizens Against Toxic Exposure, or CATE.
20:15Now the goal of CATE was to get the EPA to clean up both Superfund sites properly,
20:22test the soil in the resident's yard,
20:23and if the yard was contaminated, relocate them to a safe, permanent home.
20:28Now I'm going to come out and say this.
20:30Margaret was nothing short of a badass.
20:32I heard her speak on C-SPAN back in 2003,
20:36and she's the kind of southern grandma that you would love to have.
20:39She never got angry, but was very charming when she talked.
20:43Margaret Williams grew up on Pearl Street.
20:45Her father worked for Acreco, just across the railroad tracks from their home.
20:50Her father had to take his own precautions while working with chemicals.
20:54Since no one provided them with any kind of protection while working,
20:57he would wear a bandana over his nose and mouth and burlap sacks on his feet.
21:02Their house was like an oven during the summertime,
21:04because her parents didn't want any of the fumes to come into the house.
21:08There was yellow sulfur caked on the screens of her windows.
21:12The local well water was oily and took several minutes to clear up.
21:15Years later, there were wells capped by the county officials and city water was piped in.
21:21Quote,
21:22No one ever told us at the time the reason they capped the wells was that the groundwater was contaminated.
21:28We just thought that they were improving the system.
21:30Unquote.
21:31Margaret recalls,
21:32Both Margaret's mother and father died of cancer, as did two of her uncles.
21:37In fact, she noticed that there were too many early deaths in the neighborhood,
21:41and an alarming amount of people have cancer.
21:43So this was going to be her fight after retiring from the Escambia County School Board,
21:49where she worked for over 30 years until 1992.
21:53Now she was organizing meetings with EPA, the mayor, city council, and even news media,
22:00to get them to pay attention to what was going on and to fix it.
22:04Due to the meetings with EPA,
22:06the EPA officials were informed about the illnesses that the people were suffering from.
22:10Many of the residents suffered from a number of illnesses.
22:14Because of the exposure,
22:15people in the area were experiencing several kinds of cancers.
22:19Genetic damage,
22:20birth defects,
22:22miscarriage,
22:23hysterectomies before the age of 20,
22:25heart disease,
22:26liver damage,
22:27kidney damage,
22:29lung damage,
22:30nerve damage,
22:30leukemia,
22:31and other blood diseases,
22:33immune system damage,
22:35thyroid damage,
22:36hormone imbalances,
22:38metabolic diseases,
22:39severe skin irritation,
22:41burning,
22:42itching,
22:43gangrene,
22:44skin cancer,
22:45severe eye irritation,
22:47permanent scarring of the cornea,
22:49severe respiratory irritation,
22:51difficulty breathing,
22:52coughing,
22:53chest pain,
22:54anemia,
22:55blood thinning,
22:56bleeding,
22:57and bruising.
22:57The EPA denied any correlation between the chemical exposure and those illnesses.
23:03Security was also a problem on both Agrico's site and ETC's site,
23:08because children were seen sliding down mild dioxin,
23:12coming home with rashes and nosebleeds.
23:14Another problem was that the tarp covering mild dioxin was guaranteed to last up to five years.
23:21But then they quickly changed the story and said that it was good for 10 years.
23:25Margaret pointed out that there were tears in the tarp and that trees had began to grow,
23:30sticking out of the tarp.
23:32Plus,
23:32wind,
23:33rain,
23:33and hurricanes would blow the exposed soil into people's yards,
23:37spreading the contaminations even further.
23:40EPA went out and repaired the tarp,
23:42put up more signs to stay out,
23:45and reinforced the fence.
23:46That was as much as they were willing to do to address the problem.
23:50EPA didn't really want to hear any more complaints after the meeting with Kate,
23:54at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.
23:56The EPA tried to give the BS answer that the chemicals from Agrico stopped at the railroad tracks,
24:03and that the chemicals from ETC's site stopped at the fence line.
24:07Plus,
24:08tried to tell the members of Kate that the EPA doesn't have any money to move anyone.
24:13Of course,
24:14no one bought it.
24:15But thanks to Bob Martin,
24:17an independent ombudsman working for the EPA,
24:19who went out to the neighborhoods noticing the white crosses on people's front lawns,
24:25representing the people that had died within the past five years,
24:28spoke with the people there and listened to their cries for help.
24:32With tears in his eyes,
24:33Bob promised to help them as much as possible.
24:36He got the ball rolling.
24:37Along with Lois Gibbs,
24:39the woman who organized all the Love Canal homeowners,
24:42bought a full-page ad in the USA Today Florida edition.
24:46The ad featured photos of children from around the Escambia Woods site,
24:50along with a quote from one of President Clinton's speeches.
24:54Quote,
24:54No child should ever have to live near a hazardous waste site.
24:58Unquote.
24:59Since it was election year for President Clinton,
25:01the ad actually worked.
25:03Magically,
25:04the EPA found the money.
25:06And in 1996,
25:07the relocation program started.
25:10Once the test proved that contaminants did indeed spread into the nearby neighborhoods,
25:15358 families were relocated from Oak Park,
25:19Rosewood Terrace,
25:21Golding,
25:21and the Escambia Arms Housing Project.
25:24After additional testing,
25:2545 more families were added from the Clarenda Triangle neighborhood as well,
25:30which is right across the street from Mount Deoxin.
25:34A total of 403 families.
25:37But due to crooked appraisers,
25:39many of the people were relocated to houses that were worse than before,
25:43or moved them into subpar governmental housing.
25:46Some people held out until they finally got a fair appraisal.
25:50Only one family with two houses refused to move.
25:54And those houses are still there to this day.
25:56It is the third largest relocation program in EPA history.
26:01But the problem still remains.
26:03What was the plan for Mount Deoxin?
26:08Once the relocation program was complete,
26:11the neighborhoods surrounding Mount Deoxin began to look more like a ghost town within the heart of the city.
26:17Locals drove around,
26:19looking at the once lively houses.
26:21There were no children playing.
26:22No one sitting out on the front lawn.
26:25It was just empty.
26:27It was nothing short of creepy.
26:29I personally remember riding out there in the late 90s,
26:32sitting on the back of my friend's pickup truck,
26:35driving up and down the empty streets.
26:37Occasionally we would see a porch light lit,
26:39but no cars in the driveway.
26:41It was both eerie and sad.
26:43All of the houses and apartment buildings were torn down and fenced off,
26:48with EPA signs on the fenced off areas.
26:51In 2007,
26:52the EPA finally came up with a solution to get rid of Mount Deoxin once and for all.
26:58The plan was to rebury it,
26:59using what was called a containment cell.
27:02It was 18 acres.
27:03The pit that was dug was 36 feet deep,
27:06which a liner was placed.
27:08Then 20 feet of contaminated soil was placed on top of the liner.
27:12Then the rest of the soil was mixed with cement to stabilize it.
27:16Then the top of the liner was placed,
27:18and finally 6 feet of clean soil was placed on top.
27:22There's a drainage system installed on the containment cell.
27:25This all took place from 2008 to 2010,
27:29right across the fence from a daycare center.
27:31The plan after the containment cell was finished was to redevelop the land into an industrial park.
27:38But over the years,
27:39no business wanted to buy the land,
27:41which I can't say I blame them.
27:43In 2015,
27:44Escambia County Sheriff's Department proposed to build a new jail on the land,
27:49since the old jail,
27:50which was nicknamed Castle Grayskull,
27:53was falling apart.
27:54But this plan was quickly shot down by citizens,
27:56pointing out that they spent the better part of a decade trying to get people out of that area.
28:01Why would you want to put people back in?
28:04So as of now,
28:05it sits vacant.
28:11The soil cleanup for the Agrico site finally was complete in 1999.
28:16The fence still surrounds the area with just a single sign at the gate.
28:20Because there was no bus from Agrico to clean up the mess,
28:23they were just an afterthought as to what happened to the site.
28:27Turns out the plan was proposed in 2015
28:30to make the site into a butterfly habitat,
28:33planting butterfly-friendly plants to attract monarch butterflies.
28:38Now that does sound nice,
28:39but the factory to the north of the site makes a lot of noise,
28:43and the traffic from Fairfield Drive hopefully doesn't scare them away.
28:47As for ETC and Agrico,
28:49the contaminated groundwater is still being cleaned up.
28:52The EPA said it would take several years to get the groundwater fully cleaned.
28:57Honestly,
28:57we've been waiting for over 30 years for them to clean up the water,
29:00so waiting a few more years
29:02isn't going to hurt any further than the damage that was already caused.
29:06In 1999,
29:08soil and groundwater was tested at Brown Barge Middle School
29:11due to the close proximity to Agrico and ETC.
29:15Thanks to the east-southeast direction of the groundwater,
29:18there was found to be a groundwater plume.
29:20The water that was tested showed dangerous levels of arsenic,
29:24lead,
29:25deoxin,
29:26and fluoride.
29:27Parents demanded that the school be moved.
29:29In 2007,
29:31the school was relocated.
29:32Plus,
29:33the baseball fields that were just north of the Agrico site were bulldozed.
29:38Now,
29:38remember when I said that the Sowell family bought three more properties for their wood-treating business?
29:43Well,
29:44all three were placed on the Superfund list, too.
29:46The two in Georgia are on the NPL and are still being cleaned up and monitored to this day
29:52because they used the exact same process to get rid of their toxic waste.
29:56You would have thought that they would have learned their lesson from ETC, but no, of course not.
30:02Sadly,
30:03Margaret Williams passed away in 2011.
30:06She was 88 years old.
30:07Her fighting spirit and never willing to back down from a fight saved the lives of so many people.
30:13And for that,
30:14her name will not be forgotten.
30:15Rest in peace,
30:16Margaret.
30:17The Kate website hasn't really had much activity since Margaret's passing and eventually was shut down for good.
30:23The only way you can access it now is through the Wayback Machine.
30:26By the way,
30:28since EPA refused to admit that the toxic exposure is what made all those people sick,
30:33no compensation was paid to any of the victims.
30:36So those four people are still dealing with illnesses that won't go away.
30:40Those that are still alive,
30:41that is.
30:42So while the EPA and the city tried to make a buck off of selling this land,
30:47those victims are suffering.
30:48After all,
30:50AgriCo and ETC are just two out of the seven Superfund sites here in Escambia County,
30:56one of the smallest counties in the state of Florida.
30:59And this idiot,
31:00who looks like butthead,
31:01thought it would be a great idea to get rid of the EPA.
31:05But he didn't exactly propose anything to take its place.
31:08The EPA isn't perfect by any means,
31:11but if something isn't working right,
31:12you try to fix it,
31:14not get rid of it.
31:15After all,
31:15the EPA is pretty much our only hope in fixing these Superfund sites.
31:20So stay in your lane,
31:21Matt Gaetz,
31:22and stop trying to look so dang creepy.
31:24As the years dragged on,
31:26both AgriCo and ETC sites have started to look abandoned.
31:30The neighborhoods are still fenced off,
31:32but the EPA signs eventually fell off,
31:35and the U.S. government no trespassing signs have become sun-faded.
31:39The big sign about ETC Superfund site fell over during a storm,
31:44and no one has bothered to fix it.
31:46Oh, and that website that's on the sign?
31:48Yeah, that website was shut down too.
31:50Even the Wayback Machine yielded little results.
31:53The other sign on Hickory Street has been engulfed by bushes and other plants,
31:57blocking most of the sign,
31:59hoping that we would forget what happened here.
32:02But we know it's there,
32:03and we know the horror stories that come along with seeing those signs.
32:07The lives that were lost,
32:08the fight to stay alive,
32:10and the fight to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
32:14Now, I know I hit you with a lot of information.
32:27Honestly, if it wasn't for all the shady crap that ETC pulled,
32:31and their unwillingness to cooperate with authorities,
32:34turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the problems,
32:37I guess they figured if enough time passes,
32:40they could get away with it.
32:41I know this might make me sound like a hippie,
32:43but these businesses need to take a different approach
32:46to the way they dispose of the waste they produce.
32:49In fact, everyone should have the mentality of treating this earth
32:52like you would if you were staying in a guest room,
32:55at your relative's home,
32:56or even an apartment.
32:58Leave it in as good,
33:00or in better condition,
33:01than how you found it.
33:03After all, this is our only home,
33:05our one shot to get it right.
33:06Because, as comedian George Carlin once said,
33:10everyone is talking about saving the planet.
33:13Save the planet?
33:14The planet isn't going anywhere.
33:16We are.
33:17There's a lot of truth in that statement.
33:19If you want to find out if there are any Superfund sites in your area,
33:23there will be a link in the description box below.
33:25It's a Wikipedia page with links to the list by state.
33:29I'm doing you a favor by providing you with a Wikipedia page,
33:33because navigating the EPA's website is so frustrating
33:36that I got a headache from it.
33:38And I don't want you to suffer like I did.
33:41If you found this video interesting,
33:42please smash that like button.
33:44And if you really like what I do,
33:46subscribe, will ya?
33:47And when you do,
33:48don't forget to tickle that little bell icon
33:50so that you don't miss out on the next episode.
33:53You never know who, or where,
33:55I will cover next.
33:56Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
33:59This is Phoenix, signing out.
34:01Have a good evening, and stay safe.
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