DEP Drags Feet on American Cable Recyclers Mess

I recently got an e-mail from Ricky Johnson, who lives along Ben Titus Road in Still Creek, a Hometown-area neighborhood beset by high rates of cancers, thyroid disease and other serious illnesses, including a rare blood disorder known as polycythemia vera. Ricky himself is battling cancer, so the ongoing poisoning of the environment is an issue of great personal importance to him and his family.

The other day Ricky decided to check on what's been happening at American Cable Recyclers, which I discussed in a recent post. He reports:

"On Apr. 9, 2006 Sunday we took a walk up at American Cable Recyclers.

"There are 2 dumpsters by the burning tanks with hardly anything in them!

"The fluff piles in the back where the fence is down are still there, maybe a little less 'cause we had a downpour a couple of nights ago and it washed out some.

"It looks like the picture you have on your site. We walked down the hill to the headwaters and the ground is still spongy.

"You know, it's very very depressing seeing this problem taking this long for action by DEP. Like [with] every other problem we have here, they aren't doing their job!

"We the people around here are the ones once again paying the price with our lives getting sick and dying!

"When it all ends it will be too late for a lot of us around here."

So what's the deal, Department of Environmental Protection? Are you taking steps to clean up the American Cable Recyclers mess? Or is this yet another environmental disaster you'll force the people of the Hometown area to suffer indefinitely?