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I read with interest Peter Partington’s answers to being last on a ranking on sustainability. Peter Partington goes on to try to outline other things he feels he and the regional, government have achieved. But let’s look at reality.
Peter Partington boasts about being offered an award for Brown field redevelopment, This brown Field redevelopment is a scam and a farce created by the big industries, real estate, developers, and finally government.
Big industries were attracted here because of the abundance of hydro electricity. They were allowed to operate with basically no restrictions due to the high paying jobs. Every time the government asked these big industries to stop their pollution and control their air emissions, the government would cave and allow another extension on pollution control. These companies buried their toxic waste dumped tons of toxins of chemicals and other substances into our lands, 20 years of air emissions tests show that all these company’s air emissions were way over the acceptable limits of particulate matter the whole 20 years and yet extensions on pollution controls were always given. All these factories were located near water ways or on the water shed and our waters were used as toilettes where tons of toxins twenty four hours a day 7 days a week were allowed to be dumped in all water ways.
After allowing all these factories to bury toxic waste on their lands and in our municipal dumps, these factories closed down and left behind these toxic dumps. All the old land fill sites that were closed and all the old industrial sites have neighborhoods built near them and on them. For decades these old industrial sites were left alone as old studies proved there was no way to re-use these properties with all the contamination on them.
Decades passed and these sites located in prime spots and neighborhoods have expanded to make these sites even more appealing. Now municipal governments are running out of room for expansion from growth. So we need some-one to help make these sites be re-used somehow.
Big industries have won the battle where they do not have to spend billions on clean ups. They are washing their hands of responsibility. The tax payers will be given this land and be stuck with the legacy of the industrial revolution. What legacy? Why look around everyone has cancer, heart disease Multiple sclerosis, ADHD… The buried toxic waste, the emissions we were exposed to for our whole lives, the water pollution is causing mass disease and premature death.
Now the high paying industrial jobs have vanished and the toxic lands left behind are dormant and abandoned. Low paying jobs are left behind and real estate costs have surpassed wages. Therefore we are in dire need of geared to income housing. Most of these brown field projects are just that where it is not worth it for a developer to buy land build on it and rent to low incomers. But if they get the contaminated property for a dollar or donated… then they can reap a profit from geared to income housing. The poor ,retired, immigrants, and native people are slated to be living on these lands.
The governments have tweaked the laws and regulations to enable the big industries to hire their own consultants and get the risk assessments and studies to be done by private for profit companies. So the company that polluted fragrantly for decades sometimes a century hire consultants of their choice and pay them. Our government does not police the tests or risk assessment to ensure that testing is done to maximize the protection of our health by ensuring the environment is not contaminated. No government person does any testing or is on site while testing is done. The city region… rely on these bought and paid for studies and assessments when they make their decisions. The government actually hires the same consultants that the big industries do to get cheaper rates, but imagine if a big polluting industry hires consultants for millions of dollars and the city pay hundreds of thousands of dollars who do you think the consultants will represent? Our health is being put into jeopardy because of the lax environmental policies. Amendment 187 for instance recognizes the water shed as a sensitive important part of our environment and wants to protect it but the big industries have polluted these water sheds and therefore the government is protecting toxic mistakes that have been ignored for decades.
Sustainability depends on living within your means and our government allowed these industries to flagrantly pollute until our environment is saturated with toxins. We as a people are paying the price where we are plagued with illness and premature deaths, sustainability has been allowed to slip for probably 50 years in environmental disasters. Our government has failed to protect our environment and hence sustainability has been drastically neglected. Re-use of toxic lands without enforcing clean ups first is a recipe for disaster love canal just a short ways away should have taught us yet we as a people ignored it for high paying jobs. Our government ignored it for they do not want to be liable and industry does not want o pay for their clean ups as they will cost millions or billions. Our air water and lands are contaminated by buried toxic waste yet no-one wants to be responsible. Just rebuild on it and forget about it until people start to drop dead from illness, do not forget environment causes genetic disease also it is environmental first then genetic. So what we get is our children and grand children pass through their genes bad genetics.
Regional and all governments, You deserve a failing grade on sustainability and your Brown field redevelopment should be called brown fields because it is all full of crap.
Sincerely Mike Cushman
cusherman@msn.com
