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People have moved into houses built on the "Love Canal" toxic dump in Niagara unaware of its history as probably the worst toxic waste catastrophe in the US: h

People have moved into houses built on the "Love Canal" toxic dump in Niagara unaware of its history as probably the worst toxic waste catastrophe in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/nyregion/love-canal-toxic-homes.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/nyregion/love-canal-toxic... (archive: https://archive.ph/UFJ96 https://archive.ph/UFJ96)

hinkley 3y ago
Seattle turned a creosote saturated lakefront area into a city park. And then had to shut it down within a year, scrape all the topsoil off to a deeper depth and replace it. There are actual creosote superfund sites in Puget Sound, from railroad tie manufacture. For some reason the gasworks weren’t one, even though they are a point source of the stuff.
- divbzero 3y ago
  Gas Works Park is the Seattle city park referenced above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Works_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Works_Park https://www.seattletimes.com/life/50-years-since-gas-works-park-opened-heres-what-it-means-to-seattleites/ https://www.seattletimes.com/life/50-years-since-gas-works-p... The cleanup effort is still ongoing: https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/june-2023/cleaning-up-cleanup-of-shoreline-and-sediment-moving-forward-for-seattle-s-gas-works-park https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/june-2023/cleaning-up-cleanup-of...
- vkou 3y ago
  > Seattle turned a creosote saturated lakefront area into a city park. And then had to shut it down within a year, scrape all the topsoil off to a deeper depth and replace it. You're missing the part where it has been reopened for decades. Just, uh, don't dig or wade in the water.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    I assume by “reopened” you mean closed and reopened repeatedly? Yeah I moved a while ago and didn’t hear the comedy of errors continues. Looks like they’re thinking of dredging an area of lake union twice the size of the park?
    - vkou 3y ago
      The park's been open for 40 years. It's entirely possible I'm wrong about this, and I missed an environmental closure, could you find a news article for it? Yes, there's definitely a comedy of errors when it comes to remediating the site. I believe that there's a 2027 dredging plan. As I understand it, the consensus is that the environmental danger largely lies in the buried waste poisoning the waterways, and the watertable, not picnic-goers. Am I wrong? Is the consensus wrong?

hinkley 3y ago

Seattle turned a creosote saturated lakefront area into a city park. And then had to shut it down within a year, scrape all the topsoil off to a deeper depth and replace it. There are actual creosote superfund sites in Puget Sound, from railroad tie manufacture. For some reason the gasworks weren’t one, even though they are a point source of the stuff.

divbzero 3y ago
Gas Works Park is the Seattle city park referenced above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Works_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Works_Park https://www.seattletimes.com/life/50-years-since-gas-works-park-opened-heres-what-it-means-to-seattleites/ https://www.seattletimes.com/life/50-years-since-gas-works-p... The cleanup effort is still ongoing: https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/june-2023/cleaning-up-cleanup-of-shoreline-and-sediment-moving-forward-for-seattle-s-gas-works-park https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/june-2023/cleaning-up-cleanup-of...
vkou 3y ago
> Seattle turned a creosote saturated lakefront area into a city park. And then had to shut it down within a year, scrape all the topsoil off to a deeper depth and replace it. You're missing the part where it has been reopened for decades. Just, uh, don't dig or wade in the water.
- hinkley 3y ago
  I assume by “reopened” you mean closed and reopened repeatedly? Yeah I moved a while ago and didn’t hear the comedy of errors continues. Looks like they’re thinking of dredging an area of lake union twice the size of the park?
  - vkou 3y ago
    The park's been open for 40 years. It's entirely possible I'm wrong about this, and I missed an environmental closure, could you find a news article for it? Yes, there's definitely a comedy of errors when it comes to remediating the site. I believe that there's a 2027 dredging plan. As I understand it, the consensus is that the environmental danger largely lies in the buried waste poisoning the waterways, and the watertable, not picnic-goers. Am I wrong? Is the consensus wrong?