Ill. town steps up David-vs.-Goliath campaign against 2 major corporations Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E reporter

Published: Wednesday, August 15, 2012



Frustrated by a Superfund cleanup that has dragged on for nearly two decades, local activists of a small village in central Illinois today launched a campaign aimed at two mega-corporations -- Exxon Mobil Corp. and CBS Corp. -- as well as the state's EPA.

Citizens of the Village of DePue, bolstered by the pro bono work of a professor at Northwestern University Law School, say the companies have shirked their responsibility to clean up the 950-acre site loaded with toxic heavy metals that have contaminated the village's lake, water and soil for 17 years.

The fight is a David-versus-Goliath struggle as DePue, with its 1,800 residents, takes on two of the country's largest corporations, said Eric Bryant, the village's president. But Bryant said the community is tired of the contamination that is the result of 80 years of zinc smelting and fertilizer production at two facilities on the local lake.

"Responsible parties will argue that there's been stuff done," Bryant told Greenwire, "but there's been no cleanup really that's amounted to anything to protect the health and environment of the community."

Exxon Mobil and CBS's ownership of the site is a complicated story. Originally, Mineral Point Zinc Co. of Wisconsin began zinc smelting at the facility in 1905 to make automobile products. The plant was taken over by the New Jersey Zinc Co. three decades later and then again by Gulf & Western Inc. another three decades after that. That company eventually acquired Paramount Pictures Corp., which was then obtained by Viacom Inc. CBS obtained responsibility for the cleanup when it split with the media mega-corporation in 2005.

Mobil Mining and Minerals Co., which became part of Exxon Mobil, purchased the fertilizer operation from Gulf & Western in the 1970s.

The companies nevertheless say they remain dedicated to remediating the site and note that they have fulfilled the requirements of a 1995 consent decree. Further, said Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Claire Hassett, the companies have invested $40 million in the cleanup thus far.

"We will continue to meet our responsibilities to remediate the site," Hassett said. "In addition, Exxon Mobil is committed to supporting the broader needs of the community through our support of the DePue school system, where we are helping to advance test scores and math and science education."

But the corporations' plans for the site are part of the problem, say the local residents. They will unveil the campaign -- along with an online map that shows the extent of the contamination -- today at a public meeting. And they point to a recent letter from Illinois EPA to state legislators that they say indicates support for Exxon Mobil and CBS's cleanup proposal that would leave a large pile of zinc waste -- or slag -- in place instead of removing it.

"The companies," said Nancy Loeb of Northwestern University Law School and the village's lawyer, "spent millions of dollars on consultants in an attempt to show that this Superfund site poses no significant risks, and they delivered a superficial plan that barely touches many of the contaminated areas, leaves the slag pile and other waste in place, does nothing to stop contamination from seeping into the groundwater, and leaves backyards, playgrounds and Lake DePue without real remediation."

Further, Loeb also criticized how the companies calculated risk, arguing that they looked at individual exposures instead of aggregate exposures that more accurately represent the experiences of the village residents.

Illinois EPA, however, said the citizens' concerns are misplaced.

"IEPA agrees that the current plans are insufficient," the agency's spokeswoman, Maggie Carson, said.

Carson noted that the consent order allows "presumptive remedies," which allow the companies to develop their plans, but added that "at this point we are still in the evaluation stage."

Bryant noted that Illinois EPA has been better in recent years at forcing Exxon Mobil and CBS to move forward but added that time is running out. The site is riddled with carcinogens and other toxins, including lead, arsenic and cadmium.

He said there have been nine cases of multiple sclerosis in the small village and countless cases of cancer -- though it is hard to say whether the environmental factors led directly to those diseases.

"People here are tired of Exxon Mobil and CBS earning record profits while jeopardizing the health and well-being of the children, families and wildlife in DePue," said Keith Garcia, a science teacher at DePue High School. Garcia's class sampled soil and water to document pollutant concentrations for the campaign.

Bryant added that he hopes the campaign will shed light on what residents believe are the corporations' dilatory tactics.

"They can hide behind the Superfund process," Bryant said, "but the bottom line is there is a contaminated lake here, a terrific natural resource, that is going to be destroyed unless someone steps up and does the right thing."

"Everything you take for granted is a blessing. Everything you fear is a friend in disguise. Everything you want is a part of you. Everything you hate you hate about yourself. Everything you own does not define you. Everything you feel is the only Truth there is to know. Everything you wish for is already on its way to you. Everything you think creates your life. Everything you seek for you will find. Everything you resist will stick around. Everything you let go of stays if it's supposed to. Everything you need is right where you are. Every time you bless another your bless yourself. Every time you blame another you lose your power. Every time you think you can, you can. Every time you fall you must get up and try again. Every time you cry you're one tear closer to joy. Every time you ask for forgiveness, all you have to do is forgive yourself. Everyone you see is your reflection. Everyone you know mirrors you. Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to live in joy. Everyone seeks a higher purpose. Everyone breathes the same breath. Everyone needs love to survive. Everyone has a purpose to fulfill. Everyone's the same as everyone else. We just get caught up in labels, names, skin color and religion. Everyone's the same as everyone else. No one wants to feel the pain. Everyone's the same as everyone else. Everyone is dying for love to remain." - Jackson Kiddard, author and polymath via The Daily Love

Hi, God.  Source of life, originator of all things.
I bow in gratitude for the beauty of this life.  For the wonder of this life.  For life itself.
Thank you.

I feel in my soul, from the depths of my heart, the desire to DO GOOD.
To do satisfying, wholesome, passionate, enjoyable, helpful, contributing "work".
And by work, I mean JOY personified.  I mean GOD actualized through my actions.  Being Life's instrument to do amazing, wonderful things.  To help others in an enriching manner.  To experience, explore and see this magnificent existence in the full splendor of pulsing, thriving LIFE.  To make a positive impact.  To be true to my shining, bright heart.

I may not know exactly what this work is.  The next bend in the path is not always visible.  But I keep moving ahead, one foot in front of the other, with full knowledge that I am being supported and that there is incredible beauty around each corner. 

Please guide me to find the perfect people, connections, opportunities, possibilities, financial means and experiences, in the most joyful way possible, to make this all happen.  As your child, I know you are providing this for me already.  I am ready to step it up a notch.  Let's do this, ok?

We’re using VolunteerSpot to schedule people to help with the DePue Legacy Garden.

 Please sign  up - here’s how it works in 3 easy steps: 

1. Click this button and go to the volunteer page

2. Enter your email address. (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot.)

3. Sign Up!  Choose your spots. VolunteerSpot will send you automated confirmation and reminder messages.  Easy!


Note: VolunteerSpot does NOT share your email address with anyone or send spam emails. If you prefer not to enter your address – please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

This can be applied towards many situations in life... sometimes it is gentle persistence, instead of force, that gets things done.

(I do not know where this image originated, but it is extra cool to me because I recognize where the photo was taken, I hiked there just last summer.  That amazing blue water, along with many incredible waterfalls, is found in the middle of the Arizona desert...believe it or not!  The mysteries of the natural world...!)

I love this reminder!!

"Life is all about balance and it is time to create more balance in all aspects
of your life: work and play, relationship time and alone time, social time and
quiet meditation, physical activity and rest, giving and receiving, feminine
energy and masculine energy. Balancing out each aspect of your life will enable
you to give your energy to the world in a much more grounded and centered
way." We discussed aspects of balance in my yoga class tonight. I thank you Cheryl Lee Harnish and my new favorite page on Facebook, Raising Vibrations for confirming that message!
As I have been posting about the pain and pleasure associated with my yoga journey. One thing that is reiterated over and over is balance; just like the  enlightening message above. Many people associate yoga with physical balance, yet this balance comes with much less effort when we are aligned with healthy mental and spiritual balance as well. They are all interconnected.
One of my first classes I had at the school, the instructor was explaining the need to do to one side what you do to the other. She would say, "What you do to the right you do to the left." A student commented "Oh, it's like the O-C-D way". The teacher was very quick and witty with her comment and said, "No, it's the Y-O-G-A way." It was quite entertaining, and to this day, recalling that memory makes me smile.
There is so much truth to the statement and oing yoga continues to help me in ways I can't even explain. BUT, today I AM conscious of balance, I AM aligned, and I AM one with my yoga princess warrior girl. If you haven't started yet, what's stopping you? Do it! Let go of the excuses, center yourself, and focus your intentions. You will come into balance: Mind, Body, and Spirit!
Namaste

Food Patriots? What does that have to do with yoga? OK, I've been doing yoga, it's been going great, but I have a much more exciting program to share with you tonight. Jeff Spitz with Groundswell Educational Films and Food Patriots came by to visit and film for the DePue documentary currently being compiled. Great project, great company, great guy!
Visit their website, there are several amazing documentaries and films that will inspire you. One program that I really identify with, is the Food Patriots movement. In visiting foodpatriots.com you will see many interesting stories. The site describes them as a new feature length documentary film and public engagement campaign with the goal of getting everyone to improve their buying and eating habits by 10%. That's 10% more fresh fruits and veggies, 10% more organics, 10%  more locally grown – 10% more from wherever you are on the continuum. As consumers learn to demand better food we will pressure both policy and supply changes in our food system.
I have posted blogs about my adventures in gardening. This is my thing! I will work to expand "my thing" into a community effort eventually. In the mean time, I support the food patriot cause. There is no judgement, just a concept of being a little more conscious in your decisions surrounding food. Really, who wouldn't want to be a food patriot? Obviously,  I for one am on board! I am going on a food patriot spree and I am recruiting, challenging, inspiring, motivating, and encouraging each of you to be a Food Patriot too. Visit their site, show some support for another organization supporting good, positive, change in our world.

Today my post comes from Swami Ashok Chaitanya, who discusses life and changes. We are all contantly experiencing change, however, some points in time are more prevalent than others. I feel like now is a great time of change for us individually, and as a whole.
I am attending a yoga class tonight, and then an EPA meeting at city hall, so  I don't anticipate a blog this evening. In leiu of day 7 Yoga challenge, I thought I'd share a really great message I found on facebook today:
Existence knows only one thing which is unchanging, and that is change.The only thing that is absolutely  real is your consciousness. Everything else goes on changing. That which goes on changing is an appearance — don’t get identified with it. You are the unchanging divine, you are the unchanging godliness. Just be a witness of the body, of the mind and of everything. This witnessing is the only thing which is eternal in existence. Everything is changing. Just the reflecting witness remains here and now without any change. This is the very center of existence.For the intelligent people the changing world is the right world — because intelligence wants new excitements, new challenges, new ecstasies. In the world, everything goes on changing. The name and the fame is just a soap bubble. It may become very big — the bigger it becomes, the more dangerous, because it is going to burst soon. That is why, in a very changing world, people become uprooted; their lives become anxious.
This was not so in past ages. Man was more silent – not so really, but he appeared more silent because the state of affairs around him was so static and the mind was not in much conflict. Now everything is changing so fast, and the mind cannot change so fast. Mind clings to the past, and everything changes every moment. That is why there is so much anxiety in the West. My whole approach is that things are constantly changing, nothing is fixed. So I cannot say to you that this thing particularly is right, and that thing particularly is wrong. In a different context, things will be different. So it is better to give you an awareness which will decide spontaneously, moment to moment, what is rightand what is wrong. You should not be dependent on scriptures dead and old, and you should not be dependent on saints — either dead or alive! You should be simply free in your awareness and let your own awareness respond to reality as it comes — and reality is continuously changing.
This whole world is just name and form. Everything is changing: the child becoming the adult; the adult becoming the old man; life turning into death; birth turning into death; health turning into disease; disease turning into health — everything is changing. Even opposites are not
really opposites, because they can change into one another. The north becomes the south, the south becomes the north. The east is also the west, and the west is also the east. It depends. It depends on where you are looking. Just to understand that life is made of the same stuff as dreams are made of is the essence of the way. Detachment: live in the world but don’t be of the world. Live in the world but don’t let the world live within you. Remember that it is all a beautiful dream, because everything is changing and disappearing. Don’t cling to anything. Clinging is the cause of our being unconscious. If you start unclinging a tremendous release of energy will happen within you. And that energy that was involved in clinging to things will bring a new dawn to your being, a new light, a new understanding, a tremendous unburdening — no possibility of any misery, agony, anguish. The question is not how to change ugliness into beauty, how to change pain into pleasure, how to change misery into happiness. No. The question is how to change the unconscious into conscious, the unenlightened attitude into the enlightened attitude — how to change your inner world of being, how to attain to life-affirmative values and drop life-negative values.
Remember, life is always uncertain. Everything dead is certain, life is always uncertain. Everything dead is solid, fixed – its nature cannot be changed; everything alive is moving, changing – a flow, a liquid thing, flexible, able to move in any direction. The more you become certain, the more you will miss life. And those who know, know life is the center of the Universe. If you miss life, you miss that center of the Universe. Everything is changing if you look at life. If you watch life, then Heraclitus is right: you cannot step in the same river twice, because the river is constantly flowing, changing. Old Heraclitus says:
The ONLY thing that never changes is change. Only change is constant, otherwise everything is changing.
Don’t think of changing jobs, actions; think of changing the quality of your consciousness. Be more loving to yourself. The first thing to remember is to be more loving to yourself. The moralists have poisoned the whole world. They say, `Don’t love yourself. This is selfishness.’
They say, `Love others, don’t love yourself. The love of the self is sin.’
Buddha’s definition of the existent is “that which always remains the same.” There is only one thing that is existent, and that is the witnessing self, the witnessing consciousness. It remains always the same… past, present, future, from eternity to eternity, it is the same. This is the only existent thing. Everything else changes; every moment it is changing, and that which is changing is nonexistent. It does not mean that it is not there; it simply means that while you are seeing it, it is already changing. While you are listening to me, you are already changing — your death is coming closer.
This world is ephemeral. The word `nonexistent’ in Buddha’s philosophy simply means “that which is ephemeral, that which goes on changing” — you cannot rely on it. The only thing you can rely on is your witnessing consciousness. It never changes. It is the very center of the cyclone. Only one thing belongs to you in this whole experience: that is the watcher, the witness. Who is witnessing the fragileness, the ever-changing flux of personalities? Who is watching the shaking of the roots? Certainly he is beyond all of it. That beyondness is yours. That beyondness is you. That is your individuality, that is your being. Settle in that witnessing, and all that you are feeling disturbed by will disappear.
What you see in the world is not the reality, but only an appearance. Deep behind the appearance, the mask, is the reality. To know the reality you have to be free from appearances. And all your attachments prevent you; you become attached to the mask. We rarely grow and become mature. We just go on changing our toys. We remain children; we go on changing our teddy bears. Everything is changing in the world; you cannot find anything in the world which is unchanging unless you go deep within yourself and reach to the very center of your being. There only you will find the center, the center of the cyclone, which remains absolutely unchanging. It is on that very center that the whole change depends, the whole wheel of life and death moves. Without that center, the world will disappear. That center, that unchanging truth is the very
foundation of this changing world; it is rooted there. Not to know it is to live a lie which is not worth calling life. Not to know it you will have to go on doing foolish things all your life in order to give a certain fallacy to yourself of the unchanging truth.
Namaste