What’s the problem?
Toxic pollution.
How do you organize your community to clean up a hazardous waste spill or dumpsite?
In 1982, residents of Woburn, Mass., made national headlines when they sued W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods for chemical contamination linked to a cluster of childhood leukemia cases in their community.
The case, along with the 1986 Massachusetts Hazardous Waste Cleanup Initiative that led to the creation of Community Action Works, helped focus attention and resources on the growing problem of hazardous waste dumpsites. Since then, New England has made progress in reducing toxic chemical pollution and cleaning up the worst waste sites. But these problems haven’t disappeared completely.
There are still 123 sites in New England that are so hazardous that the federal government has designated them as Superfund sites, requiring priority funding and cleanup action. And there are still more than 80,000 chemicals in use on the market, the vast majority of which have not been tested for human health effects and are therefore unregulated. The odds that a community may be forced to grapple with a toxic pollution problem are still higher than they should be.
What can your community do if you know or suspect there’s a hazardous waste site or other toxic pollution threatening the health of your family, friends and neighbors? Here’s what some community groups have done:
- Marlborough, Massachusetts: Homeowners near a Citgo gas station were shocked to learn the station had spilled 2,000 gallons of gasoline underground. Community Action Works teamed up with residents to raise the cleanup cap from $1.8 million to $2.8 million, reserving extra funds to help homeowners secure a full cleanup.
- Groton, Massachusetts: For years, Claudia Saball and her neighbors had suspected that chemicals in their water were causing health problems in their children. With our help, Claudia and her neighbors organized a campaign that, within six months, connected the neighborhood to clean water from town wells. The group later won financial compensation, funding for a health study, and a cleanup of the contamination.
- Western Massachusetts: Before the chemicals known as PCBs were banned by the EPA, General Electric (GE) routinely discharged them into the Housatonic River. Community leaders fought to hold GE accountable and for a full cleanup of the river. Their ongoing story is told in the short film, “The River Guards.”
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