Article: Clean Up the Neighborhood, But Not Too Much, Please

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

The following appeared in today's Washington Post. 

While it is a bit off topic, I thing that it shows a

response that people can have when remediation affects

them personally.



As an aside, it is the state of New Jersey.  Need I

say more.

-------------------------------------

Clean Up the Neighborhood, But Not Too Much, Please 



After decades of living in a toxic wasteland, South

Camden, N.J., residents finally got a reprieve when

state and federal officials announced a massive

cleanup. 

  

So what did toxin-weary homeowners do? They protested.





Residents told the Star-Ledger they are worried that

once the stench from the nearby county sewer,

incinerator and factories disappeared and the soil no

longer laced with with gamma radiation, they might

lose their homes. They are concerned that the $2

million cleanup for a city long seen as the poster

child for environmental blight will make the

waterfront neighborhoods ripe for commercial

development. 



"They're saying the neighborhood is not viable," Chris

Auth, a resident, told the Star-Ledger. "Our response

is, 'You're the ones that made it unhealthy. It was a

viable neighborhood.' " 



Tony Evans, a spokesman for Mayor Gwendolyn A. Faison,

said local officials expected a different response to

the news that Camden was cleaning up. 



"Before we started, they wanted it all gone, and now

that it's going, you have people saying they want to

stay in the community," he said. 



But, Evans acknowledged, some residents will have to

move as part of the cleanup and revitalization. 



-- Michelle García 





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+++++++++++++++++++

"The care of human life and happiness . . . is the first and only legitimate object of good government."

Thomas Jefferson



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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