2006 CPEO Installation Reuse Forum Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 11 Sep 2006 21:34:48 -0000
Reply: cpeo-irf
Subject: [CPEO-IRF] South Weymouth (MA)
 
Submitted by David Wilmot <DCatbird37@aol.com>

Hello,

I sat down yesterday after reading the minutes of the July Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting where the long awaited presentation of the now ongoing "Base-wide Watershed Assessment" was being delivered by the Navy and their environmental consultants.
I was hoping to address some questions I would have posed if I'd had the opportunity to attend that night.


As often happens before I address you, I read a bit of the Bible and the morning paper and recent events take control of my passion, and I end up lashing out at things I perceive as injustices. Although I am a believer that being slow to anger is a virtue, I often fall victim to what I perceive as a money-driven web of deception gaining further hold here with the South Weymouth Naval Air Station Redevelopment, as well as with American politics in general.

This next day I was greeted with an appreciated return correspondence from the locally appointed redevelopment board's secretary, who regretted my previously forwarded email of September 8th, stating that due to a number of circumstances, a Mr. Urann was in attendance at the Watershed presentation in question.
" Mr. Urann was in attendance at that meeting on behalf of the Corporation and LNR."


I'm not sure of who Mr Urann is, but if he's in the employ of "Master Developer" LNR or a contractor under their employ, then I have a hard time believing his primary responsibility lies with protecting our citizen's best interests. Perhaps Mr. Urann is a civic-minded local citizen watching out for us,but eight years of involvement here has jaded me. The "Corporation" never showing the least bit of interest in my often stated public health concerns has jaded me as well. Speaking candidly about contamination and diseases and God does tend to make one unpopular

I wish developers weren't driven to employ PR firms to sway towns peoples votes as regards reuse development. But they were.

I wish I didn't see the outside "Master Developer" wrangling control of this project away from the locally appointed "Development Corporation(SSTTDC)", and thus away from citizens original plans for reuse, but that's just how I see it. .

I learn this week that the very questionable DDA agreement struck by the "Master Developer" and SSTTDC has now been in some ways amended. I'm afraid to look at it. I wonder if the SSTTDC or town officials have a grasp of the legalese inherent to that document. I know my head spins when the "Master Developer" and it's legal staff attempted to publicly present it Like much of this "Public Process" it's extremely difficult for the common man to grasp much from the proceedings. It's a shame it has to be this way. "Reuse Plans, Amended Reuse Plans, Master Plans, Covenant Deferrals, DDA Agreements, Amended DDA Agreements, how does our common man appointed board of development overseers keep it all straight????...
I'm quite sure the "Master Developer" does, so what am I worried about?


I wish after eight years of imploring the Navy and BRAC regulators to do the right things, I wasn't still asking for the same justice now, but I am.
Pretty simple stuff,... Cleanup the site and waterways, restore any natural resources that had become tainted, then develop a reuse plan that would best serve the former host communities needs. Eight years and many attempts to orchestrate this just simplicity, and I'm still saying the same things I was sharing with the Navy around a table eight years ago.
Quite maddening really.


A couple months ago when Bryan Olson, the EPA director of all 16 New England military Superfund sites sat a couple hours with a colleague and myself at my home, Bryan told me he had recently received a phone call from the nation's capitol with a request to learn who this Dave Wilmot guy is??? Flattered that a guy so often ignored around here, had unknown audience in Washington, I probably smiled but let the reference fade.

This morning's(9-11) opening of the Book, answers that question much better than I could have then.
I pray you all can read the following verses with the reverence and love I offer them to you with. I never set out to preach to anyone, but it's important to share this with you.


Psalm 119: Verses 41-48...

            " Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord---
              Your salvation according to Your word.
              So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me.
              For I trust in Your word.
              And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
              For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
              So shall I keep Your law continually,
              Forever and ever.
              And I will walk at liberty,
              For I seek Your precepts
              I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings,
              And will not be ashamed.
              And I will delight myself in Your commandments,
              Which I love,
              And I will meditate on Your statutes. "

I believe that by living God's way, each one of us has the freedom to fulfill God's plan for our lives, and now more than ever I believe it's important we rightly exercise those freedoms. I'm just a sick guy who God blesses, that's who He's shaped me to be...


The Base Redevelopment and Closure (BRAC) process was originally promising to return the former base as cleaned up, restored environment to be used for the betterment of our towns.
Money and politics being what they are, we will now have to settle for a "regional betterment" largely residential development, to put further pressure on our already overtaxed services and grid-locked roadways.


The airbase, which historically had been an expansive marsh recharging our local water supplies was filled and covered in runways and hangars, to promote coastal security leading up to World War II.
Drastic times call for drastic measures, and we knew so little about environmental protection then.
The BRAC process promoting itself first and foremost as assurance that former bases would be returned to former military host communities environmentally restored to levels providing Public Health.


Eight years of witnessing this process has shown me without a doubt that a God-given healthy environment to raise our children in falls far below money movement and political aspirations on anyone's priority list here.

I see that as morally inexcusable, but as I previously stated, each of us is given freedom to make their own choices.

Through unjust weakening and circumventing of Cercla, Clean Air and Clean Water Laws, lower income neighborhoods all across the country are being force fed a toxic military legacy, while our leaders pour hundreds of billions of dollars, and the blood of our young into the desert sands trying to establish a democratic outpost in a land so divided with secular differences that there appears no chance of success.

So, our brave young soldiers die, and the world community's view of America crumbles further.

Those same brave, young soldiers who are lucky enough to return home, carry home increased incidence of diseases like those of us living around domestic military facilities and polluted industrial sites greatly increasing our chances of developing environmentally spawned diseases.

I see on 60 minutes last night that the firefighters and other first responders at the 9-11 catastrophe now suffer the toxic legacy of disease brought on by the dust of pulverized concrete, glass and jet fuel they were exposed to at "Ground Zero".

Money being poured into the sand would be much better spent in addressing responsible environmental cleanup of poisoned bases before they're returned to public enterprise,
Money being poured into the sand would be much better spent addressing the real need to address environmental health issues exploding across the "civilized world" because our leaders don't wish to recognize it.


When I first moved to Abington, I never thought about military toxin releases, jet fuel spills or solvent plumes.
Never knew anything about them. Completely ignorant.


I loved the opportunity my neighborhood gave me to get far away from a stressful city job.

I loved the opportunity to splash around in the woods and wetlands down behind my house. The scream of Navy jets overhead was a little irritating, but having a prepared military watching out for us was a good thing.
Naive knucklehead...
So naive, I even a few times led my children and their friends into the woods to dig into piles I told them could be Indian burial sites. I didn't have any idea that what seemed at the time a harmless quest for arrowheads and excitement, could have been putting the kids in harms way. Kid's are like that, even old middle-aged kids with graying whiskers.


I read these minutes of the last RAB with much interest.
A number of us "concerned citizens" have been promised this "Base-wide Watershed Assessment" for years.


How is it that the bucket of rain water collected by the back porch steps was alive with wriggling mosquito larvae this morning? Maybe they purposely stayed away from residential areas? You'd like to think so but I rarely find accordance lately with the people responsible for the decision making.

Why am I bothering you all with all this?


Being a father, as well as a kid at heart, and knowing now what I've learned over the past eight years regarding politics, economics, heavy metals, toxic chemicals and chronic disease proliferation, I find it quite impossible to spare you these periodic tirades.


I, like Mike Bromberg, in his letter last week to Terry Fancher of our "Development Corporation", would like to know why the area referred to at many RAB meetings as "the Lunar Landing Area", was found "suitable for transfer" by the Navy and suitable for transference by the "Development Corporation" without any testing being performed to explain it's blackened, unvegetated state. As stated by Mr.Bromberg, for involved parties to merely write it off as "naturally occurring peat", without acknowledging the sponge-like properties of the moss, and possible absorption of toxic substances, seems a very valid question for the "Corporation". What assurances can you provide us, or the future dwellers of that and adjacent parcels, that a public health issue isn't hidden there?


Are our decision makers here in the least cognizant of potential environmental health risks?
Perhaps our "Master Developer" is?
Eight years of witnessing to my own elected "protectors" has shown me time and again the power of "stoking the economic engine" to far and away supercede any regard for Public Health, at least in our neighborhoods.


Are we saddled with the same lack of understanding and just priorities that out government continues to cling to in regards to Global Warming and Climate Change?
The polar icecaps recede, oceans warm and rise, and our governing administration requires more and more "sound science proof" that our planet's in trouble. The Siberian permefrost is melting and Florida manatees are showing up on Cape Cod, and the "old money" industries demand our leaders seek more proof. The world's gone mad.


And thus, a most likely catastrophic global change brought on by the incredible amount of greenhouse gases we're continuing to pump into the atmosphere is ignored by the country most responsible for the tragedy, and the only country on the planet wealthy enough to do something about it.
Our leadership is letting us down. .
Prophesies are being fulfilled at a head-spinning pace.


Many of my fellow Christians prepare themselves for the second coming with silent prayer,
but me, I'm a Book of James guy, blind injustice and the Spirit, stir me to words.


James 1:25 says, "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

No doubt at all that we can all bank on this.. Eight years of Spirited engagement with the earthly-powers-that-be monitoring this military base cleanup, has taught me the power of combining God-given words with honesty and perseverance.Am I still forced to ask the same questions? Yes, I must say I am. But, has my involvement here been a waste of time. Not at all. Has my and my seemingly most ignored colleagues efforts to promote environmental justice here been in vain? I don't they have at all.

So much money is at stake and so many political factions are involved, when a military base is offered up to privatization, that pure honesty becomes a rare commodity. By holding tenaciously to the Truth of matters, your voice will be heard. I've learned that over and over during this long process.

When I'm visited at my home by world renowned scientists, top state Public Health officials, federal officials, and the media, I'm humbled, that a self-educated sick guy can warrant such audiences.


I've also developed a rock solid faith in what James later says about the ultimate importance of honesty...
James 5:12 says, "But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath. But let your 'yes' be 'yes', and your 'no', 'no' lest you fall into judgement."


By definition of political appointment requiring our elected to seek what they believe is sound compromise in their decision making, my Congressman and Senators believe they have license to look away from the pure Yes-No truth of righteousness, even when the settled upon compromise is nearly always heavily weighted towards protecting the political positions and financial concerns of those empowered by having and driven to have still more.
Those having less to start with fall further victim to the empowered.
This happens even when it comes to shouldering the less fortunate with increased health risks, so that our government can quickly dispose of toxic land and waterways into the waiting and ready hands of developers waiting to maximize their profits.


Should less fortunate Americans be required to take on greater health risks for them and their children, because our government is in a hurry to dispose of contaminated property, and outside interests stand ready to profit by our governments impatience?

I don't believe that any form of justice resides in this practice.

Our Congress and Senate knowingly allowing the Department of Defense so much ultimate control over Public Health initiatives in this country is a moral abomination..

Our touted "Liberty and Justice for All" no longer applies, if it ever did.
I once believed it did, I don't anymore.



Back at the pond,
A dragonfly finally comes into view over a bank of golden hysopp beyond the lillied shallows.
Swallows converge on some winged feast left living.
A turkey vulture wheels by low for a look-see.
Hard to tell whether their expanding range is due to warming climate or increased availability of carrion...


What with the exploding incidences of this Multiple Sclerosis and many other chronic diseases proliferating around contaminated military/industrial properties like this all over the country, you would hope your elected leaders would be cognizant of the global scientific communities embracement of the need to adopt precautionary principles when addressing the known releases of toxic substances into the environment.
This would especially be prudent in such proximity to a residential environment.
Talk of beginning new residential development before complete and morally responsible cleanup of known toxins on former federal facilities is morally corrupt. I don't like to think of the United States of America as morally corrupt, but seeing this happen in my back yard is all too convincing.


With what is already known about adverse health effects caused by the heavy metals, jet fuels and other poisonous byproducts of military exercises, how is it possible that a fully informed United States Senate and Congress can continue to ignore such injustice being perpetrated on their constituents?
The need for further precaution should be warranted when dealing with the still largely unknown, but strongly suspected, increased adverse health effects of combined element toxic stews like the lifeless streams that run off this airbase. The United States Congress and Senate should hold some responsibility to protecting the Public Health, but I don't see it.


I believe we'd all benefit from a rereading of the book of James.
If anyone had ever suggested I'd one day be giving a sermon to my Congressman and Senators, I'd have told them they were nuts.


I can't believe Our elected leadership is on such an ill-fated course.
How can we believe that the pious, law abiding Islamic peoples who modestly veil their women's faces, will ever welcome American Democracy, visible to the world as a culture most interested in celebrity, wealth, hot-pants and cleavage.
Our mass media is so rife with sex and violence that you can't turn on a television without being subjected to a Victoria's Secret lingeree or erectile disfunction cure commercial. Our children now learn about erectile disfunction years before they should be learning about erectile function...
Should we be surprised that radical Islamic people don't embrace pushes towards the American Democracy visible to them?
Is there any hope that the presence of our brave, sacrificing soldiers over there can now bring any more than a rising death count that our leaders feel right in ignoring.
It's indeed as if the lunatics are running the asylum.


Six years ago the Republican majority Congress was presented with a request to fund a two billion dollar National Children's Study to explain why our children are being stricken with steeply climbing rates of certain chronic health conditions. Cited by pediatric doctors, those most at risk are children raised in proximity to contaminated Superfund sites.
Just this week I read that Autism in this country has increased in incidence from 1 in a thousand children, to 1 in 175. There are reasons for this much beyond the all too readily cited "better diagnosis techniques".
Six years have passed and still our moral majority elected leadership refuses to invest two billion in the health of our children, while hundreds of billions are wasted in the desert sands.
There is something seriously wrong with our government's priorities.
Stating the case much more eloquently than I ever could, is Dr. Leo Trasande appearing June of this year in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works.
I suggest we all read it.


Oh yes, the Basewide Watershed Assessment meeting concerns...
- When will details be available to the public?
- Did the initial evaluation of "No unacceptable human health risks from exposure to surface water and sediments" take into any consideration the unknown effects that elevated concentrations of lipophilic and hydrophilic substances have on the surface water and sediments?
- Has ATSDR played any roll in any of this?
- Shouldn't the expertise of MDPH be caled into play here?
- Did the "little to no ecological risk" assessment of macroinvertebrate data stem in it's entirety from that lone worm milkshake concocted some years ago.
- How can the assessors of these conclusions look beyond the lifeless,metallic, macroinvertibrate-depleted Frenches Stream, to cite "little or no ecological risk"?
- I'm at a loss to understand?
- How is the cited "Holistic higher trophic evaluation" derived?
- It was stated that the higher trophic bioaccumulative studies would have "more emphasis on bioaccumulative compounds such as PCBs than on iron.
- My own research has shown me many scientists are of the belief that many metals contribute to adverse bioaccumulative properties such as the neuro-degenerative effect of high manganese levels on the human brain. I would then think the cited high levels of manganese in the water to be an issue. The EPA refusing to track Manganese as a public health risk is irresponsible.
- The Navy's continuing proposal to leave the toxic WestGate Landfill atop Frenches Stream is irresponsible.
- The MDPH should have full access to the Navy/EPA existent EGIS database system, along with the existent geographically layered Flight Path/Runway/Taxiway Warm-up Buttress aviation information the Navy has in it's possession. Failure to provide this information is a direct affront to state health departments efforts to geographically plot disease occurrence towards nationally/ globally significant health findings
_ The Navy should as well realize it's moral responsibility to provide the MDPH with their thus far withheld Newport Naval Hospital SWNAS health records to lend some validity to the MDPH four year study of ALS/MS occurrences in proximity to this collection of Superfund sites in South Weymouth



I've once again reached a point where I think I've said all I can say.
God gives us all free will to make our own decisions. Nothing I can ever write will sway that Truth.
I pray each one of you seek God's righteous wisdom in all your decisions.
Protect our children and theirs.
Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' 'No'.


                                        thank you, David Wilmot
                                                        Abington, Ma.

--


Lenny Siegel Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545 Fax: 650/961-8918 <lsiegel@cpeo.org> http://www.cpeo.org


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