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CHEMICAL
WASTES-
They Ruin the Earth and
Poison
Our Water!
by
Jeff Calkins
Too few reali ze the tragedies j ust ahead if chemical wastes continue to be dumped into
the earth. Even fewer realize the spiritual dimensions of the problem.
M
OST
of us do not live
e lose to chemica l
waste dumps. But
those wastes can poison us
anyway. W e st i ll drink
water.
Half the American popula–
tion takes its water s upply from
the ground. Yet g roundwater is
extremely vulne rable to pollu–
tion. Chemical wastes that seep
into g round water s upplies can
pollute it for decades.
Qroundwater is far harder to
cleanse than surface water. Once
contaminated, it is not exposed to
s uch factors as sun li ght and
motion, which clean surface water.
Yet many chemical waste dumps
are near, or cvcn on top of, under–
ground water supplies.
Certainly chemical was te repre–
sents a terrible health hazard today.
And it also represents something
profound about the
spiritual
state
of the world today.
Slimy, Toxlc, Hazardous,
and Deadty
The sludge dumpcd into chemical
waste sites is sorne of thc most
deadly stuff cvcr manufactured.
One chemical sometimcs found
at waste dumps is C-56. lt is a by–
product of making the insecticide
January
1982
Mirex . The chemical was once con–
sidered for use as nerve gas- but
was rejected because it was too
deadly! Another substance asso–
ciated with chemical warfare, diox–
in, has also been found at chemical
dump sites.
Still another chemical is acri–
dine, found in the waste of synthet–
ic fuel processes. When exposed to
acridine, newborn crickets emerge
with extra heads, eyes and anten–
nae. And the list includes PC B, an
incredibly toxic substance, which
has been buried at various landfills
and dump sites in quantities rcach–
ing about
300,000 tons.
Sorne esti–
mates are that 60,000 tons have
already found their way into the
water supply.
The fumes alone of sorne of these
waste chemicals are so deadly that
dumpers themselves havc been
known to be overcon)e by their
fumes when they discharge their
cargo. Air samples near dump sites
in Southern California turn up
chemicals known to cause cancer,
or damage the liver, lungs or ner–
vous system.
Chemical wastes also pack consid–
erable explosive power. Sludge may
be composed of a dozen sub–
stances- whicb together combine
with unknown effects. As one state
environmental official said speaking
of the probability of a majar explo-
sion al a local dump, "if [that dump]
ever goes up, l warn you to be
nowhere near New York City, with
all the unidentified chemicals in that
mess. We just have no idea what
might be the synergistic effect of the
chemicals in the smoke that would
spew out of there."
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, when
a chemical dump did catch fire and
blow up, nearby residents carne
down with symptoms of cbemical
poisoning.
And chemicals have been known
lo explode with little disturbance. A
fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico was
killed when a drum of waste that he
hauled up in his net exploded. l n
West Virginia, the ground exploded
when workers were digging near a
manufacturing plant.
Sludge Mountains
Each day, enough industrial waste is
produced to fill the New Orleans
Superdome from floor to ceiling,
according to estimates based on
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) figures. Almost every type of
manufacturer produces sorne kind of
hazardous waste. Gasoline refining,
plastics, batteries, tanning, even the
clothing industries produce waste on
an immense scale-36 million tons
annually.
The chemical industry, as you
would expect, produces the largest
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