I’ve been living in a basement unit in Greenpoint for a few months now. I just recently learned about the superfund site right next door to my apartment- the Harte and Company building on Clay/Dupont Street.
I was reading online that the risk of breathing in toxic chemicals from the plume under the factory is low, at least on street level. That being said, volatile organics in the subsurface can migrate into lower levels of structures near the site. I live in a very old basement unit that most likely does not have a vapor barrier to mitigate the intrusion of soil vapor.
A couple months ago ground water flooded my room by seeping through the floor after it rained heavily. The leak was fixed but now I’m concerned about chemicals that could have entered my room. Should I be worried?
I obviously didn’t do enough research before moving into this unit, what steps should I take to ensure I’m living in a safe environment?
My wife and I are looking at homes in the south Houston area and I found one that we both like but it is somewhat close to the Brio Superfund Site. The house is close to Frazier Elementary for reference. Should we be worried about any health issues caused by the site. I know a neighborhood and school were closed some time ago but I'm not too familiar with the area. Thank you for any information
A friend is offering to let me rent a room in their home for a great price. Problem is their home is situated on top of a superfund site, in North Whisman near that Whisman-Ellis-Middlefield study area where the air and groundwater are contaminated with toxic waste? I am having trouble finding a definitive answer about whether or not it would be safe to live in that area.
There seem to be quite a few families living in that neighborhood with young children, surely the government wouldn't allow the area to be developed for residential use if it really were that bad? My friends home is a new construction built in the last 10 years if that matters.
Is there a realistic chance of negative health effects from living there for 1-2 years? How could I test for and protect myself from the contamination?
How many tech offices are on Superfund sites? How many employers aren't telling their employees about it? Apparently Google also told their employees they couldn't even talk about safety issues about the Superfund site one of their offices was on & where employees were exposed to the toxic chemicals.
This story is scary....
>Apple Wanted Her Fired. It Settled on an Absurd Excuse. The reasons for firing Ashley Gjøvik include tweeting a photo of herself—taken by her own phone.
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>Gjøvik, 35, had become persona non grata at Apple soon after raising concerns internally this spring about the vaporous toxins long known to have tainted the soil beneath her Sunnyvale office. Among other polluters in the 1970s, a microwave component maker that once occupied the site had let a slurry of acids, heavy metals, and industrial solvents soak into the ground. A “groundwater plume” made of toxic waste once extended for more than a mile, encompassing schools and hundreds of homes. One of the more dangerous compounds was trichloroethylene, better known as TCE.
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>Throughout the mid-twentieth century, TCE was widely administered to dental patients and women in childbirth, inhaled as a way to ease pain. Today, it’s a known carcinogen associated with childhood leukemia and low birth weight, and other birth defects. The ground beneath Gjøvik’s office—known internally as Stewart 1—was excavated in the mid-1980s and backfilled with gravel and concrete, one of several efforts to mitigate the contamination. In 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the remedies sufficient. But a year later, air samples were taken at nearby homes and schools and revealed TCE vapors had again reached “unacceptable levels.” In 2019, a new EPA study stated the “vapor intrusion” issue had since been addressed but, it warned, a long-term fix still had to be assessed.
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>Apple, which has its own history of poorly handling toxic waste in Sunnyvale, did not conduct adequate testing, according to Gjøvik, whose concerns about the noxious compound grew after she recalled having once fainted at work for reasons she could not at the time explain. She wanted to know why Apple hadn’t done more to keep employees abreast of the situation and asked to talk to a health and safety manager. Notes she recorded during the conversation, later shared with the EPA, stated: “Apple decided no legal requirement.”
[https://gizmodo.com/apple-wanted-her-fired-it-settled-on-an-a
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Does anyone have experience managing sites and bringing healthy soil/waters back? The idea of taking a gross human error and repairing it to rebuild our land is so appealing to me, as is the cheaper acreage. Are the regulations attached really so limiting, does it end up costing more? I have some experience amending lead and other heavy metal contaminated soils and there is some fascinating work being done across the country with bioremediation.
My father says I'm being idealistic... Any help or stories would be much appreciated, thanks!
I’ve been living in a basement unit in Greenpoint for a few months now. I just recently learned about the superfund site right next door to my apartment- the Harte and Company building on Clay/Dupont Street.
I was reading online that the risk of breathing in toxic chemicals from the plume under the factory is low, at least on street level. That being said, volatile organics in the subsurface can migrate into lower levels of structures near the site. I live in a very old basement unit that most likely does not have a vapor barrier to mitigate the intrusion of soil vapor.
A couple months ago ground water flooded my room by seeping through the floor after it rained heavily. The leak was fixed but now I’m concerned about chemicals that could have entered my room. Should I be worried?
I obviously didn’t do enough research before moving into this unit, what steps should I take to ensure I’m living in a safe environment?
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