Pollution issues...

[Boerseun]

Read Orb's "Tropicana" thread just now, and it made me wonder!

Within a 10 kilometer radius of my house there are some seriously worrying things...

First off, of course, is a uranium enrichment plant called Pelindaba that was mothballed just before we had our first democratic elections in 1994. They used to produce weapons-grade plutonium for our nuclear weapons programme. Nowadays, they only provide radiation services for exported agriculture products. Or so they say...

Secondly, we have a plant operated by Hernic, where they take chromium out of the rough ore. Their one waste product is chromium hexaflouride, the same crap that made Erin Brokovich famous. This is so bad that quite a few farmers downstream from the Hernic plant have given up farming - the groundwater kills their produce.

Everybody reckons that things with Pelindaba and Hernic is A-OK, but we'll only see any permanent side-effects ten or twenty years down the line when people start keeling over from all kinds of cancers. So, what I want to do is to distribute a few thousand flyers around town with a couple of questions to see if there are trends forming. What questions should I include? I have never conducted research like this in my life. Any ideas?

I, for one, have stopped drinking the local water. I exclusively drink water that I personally bottle on my friend's farm from a borehole that lies safely upstream from both these two polluting companies. I want to devise a completely safe regimen, but I can't think of all the possible pitfalls here.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Within a 10 kilometer radius of my house there are some seriously worrying things...

This is so bad that quite a few farmers downstream from the Hernic plant have given up farming - the groundwater kills their produce.

So, what I want to do is to distribute a few thousand flyers around town with a couple of questions to see if there are trends forming. What questions should I include? I have never conducted research like this in my life. Any ideas?

I, for one, have stopped drinking the local water. I exclusively drink water that I personally bottle on my friend's farm from a borehole that lies safely upstream from both these two polluting companies.

Before sending flyers, check out the ground water/surface water of these farmers. By this I mean find their source of water. While their complaints may be real, their potential pollutant may have nothing to do with these two plants. Most of the ground water contamination in my state is thru farming practices themselves. Of this contamination, its either herbicides or fertilizers (I cant remember exactly) which account for the majority of contaminated wells. Pesticides were a minimal impact when discussing farming source chemical contaminants. Manure remains the primary source of farming contaminants in general but this is generally runoff rather than ground water (if I remember right).

Talk to someone/research how things move around in your/their soils. My own soil is almost impossible for a contaminate to move thru and into the groundwater. There is a 3' layer of glacial melt soil (I cant remember the exact name) which is almost like a layer of concrete. On top of that is yellow clay. I know this information from the geologists which were involved with my own pursuit of a polluter.

You will need to know depths of wells and what aquafers the water is being tapped from. Drilling our well (140') we hit 3 pools of water. Neighbors to the north hit 5 in their 380' deep well. And each of these pools move seperatly from the others. Well drillers often know exactly what the names of the aquafers are and whos wells tap which ones. Once you get that information, you could probably contact a hydrologist at a good university for more detailed information.

[Phileas Fogg]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

So, what I want to do is to distribute a few thousand flyers around town with a couple of questions to see if there are trends forming. What questions should I include? I have never conducted research like this in my life. Any ideas?

My advice: better to keep quiet. You have no evidence. It's just rumors, personal emotions and doubts. What I gather from bits and pieces of information I just read, is that in your country they may pass legislation to make it a punishable offence to spread "allegations which result in unnecessary panic or incitement". You don't want to break the law....

I would make some serious consideration about this. Then I would study some law. Then I would think again; - what is the right way, and the right forum for discussion.

[Mercedes Benzene]

Originally Posted by Borseun

I, for one, have stopped drinking the local water. I exclusively drink water that I personally bottle on my friend's farm from a borehole that lies safely upstream from both these two polluting companies. I want to devise a completely safe regimen, but I can't think of all the possible pitfalls here.

Yeah... that's a really smart idea. You should get your local water analyzed... It would be interesting to see what exactly contaminates your water.

[pgrmdave]

Our water isn't affected by human problems - there's little industry out here, but our water did contain abnormally high levels of uranium (4 - 20 times the legal limit) for years. They only found out a few years ago, and shut down those wells that were affected. Yay for years of uranium enriched water...

[Mercedes Benzene]

Our water isn't affected by human problems - there's little industry out here

Little industry in New Jersey! HA!
That cracks me up.

[pgrmdave]

You'd be surprized at what you find in NJ - more malls, toxic waste sites, and horses than any other state. We have quite a lot of agriculture, and the populated places are packed against the cities (NYC and Philly). The population density ranges from about 200 / sq.mi. in the least populated county to 13,000 in the most populated.

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by Cedars

By this I mean find their source of water. While their complaints may be real, their potential pollutant may have nothing to do with these two plants.

Everything's pointing in that direction, though. There have been intensive farming for more than 120 years around my town, but only since the opening of the chromium plant have the farmers downstream battled like they do now. So much so that a few months ago, the town council actually posted a warning to the farmers saying "If the borehole water is orange, don't drink it!" Where in the world have you heard of such brash idiocy? And if you follow the topography, all the farmers battling with water problems are downstream, tapping into the same aquifer.
We have a nature program here called 50/50, and they investigated the story more than a year ago. Also, another program called Carte Blanche made for a local subscription channel investigated, and everything pointed to the chromium plant. And lo and behold, a few weeks after airing, that was the end of it. There was more interesting things going on than a slow cancer developing in a tiny town in the North West Province.

Scary things are happening here...

[Mercedes Benzene]

Scary things are happening here...

Yeah... sounds like you need an EPA.

[InfiniteNow]

B -

Why do you think people drank beer in the first place? It killed the bad bacteria and preserved the water for future consumption well before filters and reverse osmosis and the like. Granted, nuclear waste is another story, but if you're drinking enough beer you won't care anyway.


Let us know what you find my friend.