Re: Manhattan Project Legacy

[denison8@wideopenwest.com]

Under normal circumstances, you would be correct.  However, as part 

of the threatened condemnation proceedings, the city of Niagara Falls 

would have declared the property to be essentially valueless.



At 0:58 -0400 6/10/03, Syd Levine \(AnaLog\) wrote:

>One correction:  eminent domain does not result in a taking without

>compensation.  When the government takes property under eminent domain, it

>must pay fair compensation (there have been unfortunate abuses like the

>blacks that used to own the land where Mammoth Cave is located who received

>pitiful compensation decades ago, but Hooker was hardly without legal

>representation in any condemnation proceeding).

>

>----- Original Message -----

>From: <denison8@wideopenwest.com>

>To: <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

>Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 1:04 AM

>Subject: Re: Manhattan Project Legacy

>

>

>>  There's been a lot of debate on the list lately over whether the

>>  folks who buried potentially hazardous materials around Niagara falls

>>  (and a host of other sites) were wrong to do so.  A lot of the

>>  discussion has centered on the fact that the regs of the time allowed

>>  the companies to dispose of the materials in ways we would find

>>  utterly unacceptable today.  Let us also keep in mind that the

>>  companies that buried the materials are not necessarily responsible

>>  for the fact that the burial sites are now near (or under) populated

>>  areas.

>>

>>  Love Canal (right up in NN's home turf) is a prime example.  If you

>>  look deeper than the surface media coverage and activist hype, you

>>  learn that Hooker Chemical used the best practices of the day when

>>  they disposed of their hazardous waste in the canal.  The company

>>  never wanted to relinquish control of the property, because the

>>  management and employees knew that there was some very nasty stuff

>>  buried there.  Hooker sold the property to the Niagara Falls school

>>  board under duress (the city threatened to condemn the property and

>>  take it under imminent domain without paying Hooker anything at all).

>>  Hooker agreed to the sale because it was the only way to get deed

>>  restrictions on the use of the property written into the contract.

>>  When it bought the site, the city assumed all liability for future

>>  problems caused by the buried chemicals.  Despite the fact that the

>>  company no longer had any legal liability, Hooker fought tooth and

>>  nail to keep the school board and the city from doing stupid things

>>  like building schools and houses on the property and breaching the

>>  canal walls for sewer runs.  But when people started getting sick,

>>  who got the blame?  Hooker, of course.  The USEPA listed various

>>  government entities in the lawsuit, but admitted that it did so only

>>  to assure cooperation with the cleanup order.  To the best of my

>>  knowledge, the people and government agencies that were responsible

>>  for putting unsuspecting citizens in harm's way never really paid for

>>  their criminal stupidity.

>>

>>  The moral of the story: don't cast blame before you know the whole

>>  history of the site.  Things are rarely as simple as they seem.

>>

>>  --

>>  ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

>>

>>  Eric Denison                     Where do you stand?

>>  1729 Penworth Drive              Take "The World's Smallest

>>  Columbus OH 43229-5216           Political Quiz" online at

>>  denison8@wideopenwest.com        www.self-gov.org/quiz

>>  (614) 433-0387

>>

>>  "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of

>>  servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home

>>  from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or your arms. Crouch

>>  down and lick the hands of those who feed you. May your chains

>>  set lightly upon you. May posterity forget that ye were our

>>  countrymen." - Samuel Adams

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>>

>>



-- 

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????



Eric Denison                     Where do you stand?

482 Belle Haven Court            Take "The World's Smallest

Westerville OH 43082             Political Quiz" online at

denison8@wideopenwest.com        www.self-gov.org/quiz

(614) 523-0836



"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of

servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home

from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or your arms. Crouch

down and lick the hands of those who feed you. May your chains

set lightly upon you. May posterity forget that ye were our

countrymen." - Samuel Adams

************************************************************************

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