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Where I am, developments are constantly built on old landfill, including landfill used for industrial waste. People buy in and then are shocked 5-10 years down
by heavyset_go 4y ago
Where I am, developments are constantly built on old landfill, including landfill used for industrial waste. People buy in and then are shocked 5-10 years down the line when they find out their soil is contaminated and they can't eat what they grow in their gardens.
That, and the developments that get built near Superfund sites or old industrial sites. Most of a nearby town's residential areas were built on property that once had Industrial Revolution-era refineries and mills on them, back when waste was regularly just buried or dumped in streams and rivers. To this day you're warned not to eat shellfish and fish caught in the bay because of heavy metal contamination from that era. Tons of people still eat them anyway.
Can't say I'm surprised to learn that the same mindset gets applied to old nuclear waste dumps, too.
- iancmceachern 4y agoThere is a development on treasure island in the sf bay in which your not even technically supposed to dig in your yard at all, for any reason, or risk being exposed to too much of whatever they left there.
- ethbr0 4y ago"Whatever they left there" is the most terrifying part of a lot of these long term sites. Without documentation, and as GP mentioned, you can scour the site as much as you want... and easily miss a single buried barrel of god-knows-what, that only the guy who tossed it off the truck knows was there (if even they knew), until it finally rusts through or is punctured. Ironically, leaking or unsealed waste sites are probably safer, because it pervades the environment, is more easily detectable, and doesn't have sudden failure modes.