There is little surprise that by now, everyone is fighting over the new bathroom policy about sexual identity. In fact, this same argument is informing the rest of the world of the ignorant and brash nature Americans have.
This is not just another state of distraction, nor just another means for local states to argue over our bowel movements; this also paints the trans and gay communities in a negative light. This is performed by asserting that there is actually a little (if not a lot) of sexual stigma involved upon relieving your bladder.
As the end results loom, this ‘legalese’ is clouding the minds of several millions of people in the open public, provoking a state of violence, which has been initiated against individuals that have caused no harm to anyone.
However the argument of right or wrong usage of the bathrooms in America goes, nuclear environmental disasters are actually unfolding before everyone’s eyes. With that being said, American’s are too ignorant and blind to see the course of future history unfold.
Oddly enough, according to the state of Missouri, their emergency plan has been recently distributed by the St. Louis County officials and has happened within recent months. Bridgeton Landfill, a nuclear waste dump facility has had a fire constantly burning for just over 5 years; the state is yet to fully control the fire.
There are several clouds of smoke billowing from the site. This causes a major problem, as the fire’s smoke is actually making the air in several parts of St. Louis heavily polluted. In 2013, the state Missouri attorney, General Chris Koster, sued the Republic Services responsible for the landfill. He charged the company with neglecting the landfill burning site and harming the local environment.
Just last year, city officials became concerned that the fire might reach nearby West Lake Landfill. This normally wouldn’t be such a big issue, but there are two major factors involved with this matter. Firstly, they still cannot control the fire, and secondly, the other landfill is covered with nuclear waste. The toxic nuclear waste, which has been building up for decades, comes from government projects and weapons manufacturing. The site has also been under the control of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1990. Such despoils have been known to come from the Manhattan Project and even the Cold War over several generations. However, the EPA has yet to come forth with any information regarding the clean-up of the landfill.
Last year in December, the EPA announced that they will install a physical barrier in their attempts to isolate the nuclear waste. However, the time frame that the EPA has set in place states it could take up to a full year to complete. With that, it is little surprise that local residents are not exactly ecstatic about the EPA’s timeline. Some residents are concerned; even though there are several years of warnings, the government has done little to stave off a possible environmental disaster.
To add to the residents’ troubles, there has been no ground broken for the development of any type of wall – and the fire is still smoldering. The EPA has also only finalized last Thursday, an Administrative Settlement Agreement and an Order on Consent, which requires Bridgeton Landfill, LLC to start the development process of the isolation barrier system. The barrier, however, will be located at the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site.
West Lake Landfill and Bridgeton Landfill going up in flames in a matter of weeks aside, there are also reports of two other nuclear reactors located within the United States, leaking nuclear waste for several months.
A recent study, which was commissioned by the Miami-Dade County, has concluded that the area’s four-year-old nuclear power plant, located at Turkey Point, has been leaking toxic nuclear waste and polluting the area’s Biscayne Bay.
Naturally, this rasied several alarms among local county officials, as well as environmentalists, that the plant sitting on the coastline is polluting the bay’s surface waters and fragile ecosystem. During the last two years, the bay waters surrounding the nuclear power plant have experienced large saltwater plumes moving towards the wells. The wells, located several miles away, are the same wells that supply drinking water to millions of residents in Miami, as well as the Florida Keys.
Samples of the water taken during the study show everything from the deadly radioactive isotope, tritium, to elevated levels of salt, ammonia and even phosphorous. As of now, according to scientists that conducted the survey, the levels of tritium are too low to harm people. However, in December and January, the levels were far higher than they should be, in local nearby waters. This paints a much bigger picture of the underlying issue.
Laura Reynolds, an environmental consultant with the Tropical Audubon Society and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, states “We now know exactly where the pollution is coming from, and we have a tracer that shows it’s in the national park.” She goes on to say “we are worried about the marine life there and the future of Biscayne Bay.”
But wait, there’s more.
Just a mere fifteen hundred miles north of the leaking nuclear power plant in Florida, is the Indian Point Nuclear power plant located in New York. Since early this year, there have been reports of an uncontrollable radioactive flow from the Indian Point Nuclear power plant. This plant continues to leak harmful chemicals into local groundwater, which in turn flows into the Hudson River. This is naturally raising the specter of a Fukushima-like disaster just 25 miles from New York City.
The Indian Point Nuclear Plant rests on the Hudson River and provides electrical needs to an estimated two million people. During January, the workers prepared one of the reactors for refueling, when they accidentally spilled contaminated water. This contaminated water consisted of tritium, which has caused radiation spikes in the groundwater where the wells are monitored. Reports have suggested that one well’s radioactivity increased by as much as 65,000 percent.
Last year, the tritium leaks ranked ninth place, with four of those leaks severe enough to shut down four reactors. The most recent leak, however, and according to an assessment by the New York Department of the State as part of the Coastal Zone Management Assessment, contains a wide variety of radioactive elements. Such elements consist of Strontium-90, Cesium-137, Cobalt-60, Nickel-63 and is not limited to just Tritium contamination.
While the utility companies, as well as government agencies, still continue to downplay the severity of the incidents, the residents near the plants are already feeling the effects.
RT reported that the Radiation and Public Health Project researchers have compared the state and national cancer data from 1988 through 1992. There were three other 5-year periods (1993-1997, 1998-2002, and 2003-2007). The results were published in 2009, showing cancer rates going upwards of 11 percent. While unexpected increases were detected during 19 of the 20 major types of cancer, thyroid cancer showed the biggest increase, growing from 13 percent below the national average to 51 percent above the average.
While our government is more focused on the potty debate, instead of investigating the nuclear environmental disasters, we face several potential Fukushima-like scenarios, all the while the mainstream media remain painfully silent.
Sources: EPA.gov, Scribd, Clean Energy, NY Times, The Free Thought Project, RT
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