“[An] oil slick on the Cuyahoga River — polluted from decades of industrial waste — caught fire on a Sunday morning in June 1969 near the Republic Steel mill, causing about $100,000 worth of damage to two railroad bridges. Initially the fire drew little attention, either locally or nationally. The ‘69 fire was not even the first time that the river burned. Dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, the river had caught fire on several other occasions.
“The picture of the Cuyahoga River on fire that ended up in Time Magazine a month later — a truly arresting image showing flames leaping up from the water, completely engulfing a ship — was actually from a much more serious fire in November 1952. No picture of the ‘69 river fire is known to exist.
“Throughout much of Cleveland's history, water pollution did not trouble the city's residents very much. Instead, water pollution was viewed as a necessary consequence of the industry that had brought prosperity to the city. This attitude began to change in the 1960s as ideas associated with what would become known as environmentalism took shape….
“The ‘69 fire, then, was not really the terrifying climax of decades of pollution, but rather the last gasp of an industrial river whose role was beginning to change. Nevertheless, Cleveland became a symbol of environmental degradation.”
(Cleveland Historical, “Cuyahoga River Fire: The Blaze That Started a National Discussion”)
Could there be fire on the water of the Pearl River? Could Jackson’s water woes worsen?
Yes: Someone is asleep at the wheel.
Texaco was once known for advertisements proclaiming, “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.”
The name of the game today tends toward corporate profit rather than customer care: Let the buyer beware!
A series of nincompoops apparently have conspired — no better verb exists — to permit a Shell station near the Pearl River, immediately upriver of the J.H. Sewell Water Treatment Plant — on the south side of Lakeland Drive.
“Preposterous!,” you say? Please drive past and look: You are not paying attention if you are not angry:
Not only can a gasoline slick ignite as if Jackson was Cleveland, decades ago: Leaking fuel storage tanks sited as such would follow drainage patterns into the river, to the water treatment plant. More problematically, fuel spilling on the cement at the gasoline station will wash into the river, to the water treatment plant, whenever it rains.
Is Shell so certain of the safety of the gasoline station on which its name is emblazoned that it is willing to set aside a generous contingency fund to compensate Jackson residents who might develop cancers or other maladies after drinking water polluted by chemicals in its fuel?
Are chief executive officers of Shell so certain of its fuel’s safety that they shall routinely mix constituent chemicals into the water that they, their children, and their grandchildren drink and serve it to guests socializing in their homes?
To drink or not to drink: that is the question (borrowing from William Shakespeare): If Shell’s chief executive officers won’t put their mouths where their money is, they ought not expect Mississippians to do so.
Mississippians should refuse to patronize that gasoline station and all Shell stations: The company should confront Mississippians’ unwillingness to compromise their environment and health to profit petroleum companies.
Please complain vociferously to city, county, and state officials and bureaucrats: The service station has not opened as I write. It appears not too late to stop the insanity.
Does no law limit how close facilities containing contaminating chemicals can be to creeks and rivers?
For people vilifying government and malefactors of a supposedly Deep State: Those destroying the sanctity of watersheds deserve opprobrium.
The disgrace is Exhibit “A” of evils happening when politicians pay greater heed to campaign contributors and lobbyists than the public good.
Multiple issues underscore the wisdom of the maxim that “THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW!”
Jay Wiener is a Northsider.
