so forgotton one ; if a bunch of people were to contact their elected representatives concerning the problems in your town , would that somehow hurt your cause ?     if nothing were done by the elected ones , would you be worse off ?   but on the other hand , what if something , some small thing was done to improve the lot of yourselves and your town regarding this because of the snail mail ..... 

   when you first posted to the site - what was you goal - to vent ? or to fix something that was broken ?

sorry , you have not been there and have not done this - you have never turned united members of a blog site loose on a problem before ,   when you have a minute , give Dan Rather a call ,  ask him how this works .....

no guarantees .... but what do you have to loose ?    a few stamps and some paper and ink ..... 10 minutes of your life .....   X 20 0r 10 or 50 others    ....

future contracts are not yet classified - and never will be if they were never awarded ......

Hey there AW:

From AW

>"Christie Whitman will be giving a speach in buffalo about smart growth on May 17th. She must be >in town for the community meetings in Middleport on the 19th. Nice that she was able to get some >pr before she tells the people of Middleport that she switched side to help them. Anyone believe >that? AW"

Believe it? This is exactly what NYState Attorney General Dennis Vacco did when he left government service and turned up as a senior spokesperson for guess who...Chemical Waste Management-Waste Management!!

Yep and honest Smokin Joes.

L

-- Edited by alwayswatching at 09:32, 2005-06-10

quote:

---

Originally posted by: Scott Leffler
"AW, Unfortunately, the George's don't like me very much. Odd, isn't it?"

---

I just don't understand why!

Yes, I do.

I had a ambulance call in Middleport today and I asked about what happened and the person said they contained the water in some secondary holding system. I also found out that the guy I was on ambulance duty with, his wife has had 3 people from her class die of cancer. I didn't realize how serious the problem was. Good luck with your cause.

-- Edited by alwayswatching at 09:34, 2005-06-10

Whitman sees no role for firm in arsenic suit

By PATRICK LAKAMP
Buffalo News

5/18/2005

Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday that she does not expect to become personally involved in helping a pesticide manufacturer in its dispute with Middleport residents and environmentalists over arsenic contamination.

Whitman heads a consulting firm based in Gladstone, N.J., called Whitman Strategy Group, which is a consultant to FMC Corp.

"I don't envision any need for my ever getting involved in this particular issue," Whitman told The Buffalo News before her speech in Nichols School, where she was the featured speaker for the "Smart Growth Is Smart Business" seminar series.

"I have actually had nothing to do with this issue with FMC," Whitman said. "It came to us because one of my partners had been working with FMC before I even started Whitman Strategy Group."

News that Whitman's firm was working with FMC has alarmed a dozen Middleport residents who are suing FMC for allegedly failing to honor a 13-year agreement to decontaminate the area.

Buffalo attorney David J. Seeger, who represents the 12 plaintiffs, has called Whitman an "apologist for arsenic."

The former New Jersey governor said she "was very distressed" by the implication she opposed tougher regulations on arsenic.

"As the governor, I had reduced the acceptable amount of arsenic in the water in New Jersey to 10 parts per billion years before the federal government took any action," she said.

But when she ran the EPA, the agency initially suspended tightening the long-standing federal standard for arsenic levels in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. At the time, Whitman said there was "no consensus on a particular safe level." Seven months later, after a public outcry, the Bush administration announced it would adopt the same standard of 10 parts arsenic per billion parts water.

FMC, an agricultural chemicals company, made herbicides containing arsenic at its Middleport plant until 1974. Since the 1980s, the company has been carrying out studies and remediation near the plant, including the removal of old soil and laying of new fill on much of the adjoining Royalton-Hartland Central School campus.

The company also paid to strip the soil from 14 homes.

Last year, scientists from Exponent, a Bellevue, Wash., company hired by FMC, concluded that arsenic exposure from the soil is small.

The dozen residents who live near the plant have said "only a tiny fraction" of the contaminated area has been cleaned up, and they are suing FMC for allegedly failing to honor the 13-year-old agreement.

A settlement hearing will be held on the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on May 27.

Whitman said her firm's role is "to help bring a satisfactory conclusion to a 13-year process that hasn't served the community or the company very well."

Whitman defended FMC.

"Overall, they have a very good record," she said.

Whitman said her firm works with companies like FMC that want to do the right thing by the environment but don't know how to communicate their message or have chosen to keep a low profile.

 

See US & J front page for Middleport pic. oops, sorry.

Vera

 

-- Edited by alwayswatching at 18:18, 2005-06-05

I remember that stream, it was right across the canal from the elementary school. But I can't remember any type of stream on the school side. That stream is a lot lower that the school, but it also lines up with FMC. The whole town goes down hill, south to north.