http://social-ecology.org/wp/1998/10/the-texas-vermont-maine-nuclear-dump-bringing-environmental-racism-home/
Gov. Bush’s Democratic opponent in this fall’s elections, along with many journalists, viewed the judges’ ruling on socioeconomic issues as the first official validation of the dump opponents’ claims of environmental racism in the siting process. While Hudspeth County may have only 2300 residents living in an area the size of Connecticut, nearly a third of them live in the town center of Sierra Blanca, just five miles from the proposed dump site. On July 26th, over 300 people joined state officials from both sides of the border in blockading the international bridge at El Paso/Juárez to protest both the dump and the compact.
More -
Meanwhile, la lucha sigue. In October international demonstrations, including shutdowns of all five El Paso-Juárez bridges are planned for the Día de la Raza, October 12th. On the same day a group of Mexican officials and elected representatives will have begun a three day hunger strike outside the United Nations in New York, following an early October rally in Vermont.
In Vermont, residents still cherish the image of the Green Mountain State as an environmentally pristine place, and tend to overlook any realities that may tarnish this image. The horrific idea that the state is addressing its nuclear waste problem by shipping it to a politically powerless West Texas community is beginning help illuminate the real consequences of the complacency and arrogance that too often characterize public debate in Vermont, as well as in many other places where it remains politically acceptable, even in “progressive” circles, to ignore the harsh underside of the thin veneer of 1990s style “American” affluence.
It's a long read from back when it was happening - but worth the 15 minutes.
Note in GDP folks are focusing on less than 600 people living there (nerve center) but the entire population was 2300. The proximity to the border is important. I have oversight of four functions at work and one is hazmat compliance. I have DOT, IATA, IMDG and the 2016 Lithium Ion Battery Certification.
That waste had to be transported there. The article outlines the route most likely to be taken. That's a long way down the road for that class level hazmat. There was risk along the way.
Dubya had a financial interest in the company.
Leahy was in on it.
Bill Clinton signed off on this.
The whole thing is ten kinds of ugly.
But none of this
- none of this should be a "she did it too" at a woman who never sat in the Senate until January 2001.
My greatest frustration is people trying to assign blame to SOS Clinton for something done when she was not an elected official.
If that happens -Jane Sanders involvement needs to be on the table.
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