2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Well Sanders supporters...name one wrong vote or policy that Sanders ever made or had? [View all]Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)although they were very actively in the dumping business there for many years. Sierra Blanca Texas was the location of one of the largest sludge dumps in the country, and the City of New York used Sierra Blanca as sewage disposal dump.
Take a tour here:
This week the Texas Toxic Tour takes us to Sierra Blanca Texas, home to the nation's largest sewage sludge dump. The story examines how Sierra Blanca, a small town on the U.S./Mexico border, became the resting place for New York City's sewage. The video interview includes a meeting with several local residents concerned with unusual health problems. Additionally, this segment will focus on how the TNRCC ignored local health concerns and illegal dumping to support tripling New York's waste being dumped in the Lonestar State.
http://www.txpeer.org/toxictour/merco.html
New York Times here:
It is hard to imagine places more different than New York and Sierra Blanca, and the contrast has always underscored the mercenary marriage between the nation's largest city and the small town where it has dumped its sewage since 1992. That year, after Congress had prohibited the city from dumping its sludge in the Atlantic Ocean, New York signed contracts with several companies to treat and transport its sewage. One of them was a Long Island joint venture, which began shipping up to 250 tons every day on the 2,065-mile journey to West Texas. The Texas Observer, the political journal, recently called it ''the poo-poo choo-choo.''
The Long Island company, Merco, had first sought a site in Oklahoma, but after meeting resistance there learned about a failed resort called the Mile High Ranch in Sierra Blanca. The company purchased the 81,000-acre area so that the treated sludge could be spread on ''application areas'' as if it were fertilizer. The company rotates the areas of land chosen to absorb the sludge.
Environmentalists and critics immediately accused Texas officials of ramming the project through approval. They have long argued that the sludge has exposed the area to health risks and other problems. Texas Tech University has studied the project and has found no evidence of contamination."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/27/us/new-york-s-sewage-was-a-texas-town-s-gold.html
Also, just for extra fun, here is the 2008 version of this 'Dumping Nukes on the Poor' smear, aimed at Obama by Dolores Huerta:
"One of the things that, you know, they keep talking about, the progressive candidates, you know, Hillary Clinton voted against the nuclear waste dumping in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, while on the other hand Barack Obama actually took money from the company that was creating the nuclear waste and wanted to dump it in Nevada."
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/1/democratic_presidential_nomination_could_hinge_on
He took money!