Pulse Magazine
Spring 2017
Reuse. Reread. Recycle
Noxious chemicals and contaminated soil: The EPA in New York?
Photo Courtesy of First Run Features
By Andrew Garcia
While environmental protection can seem like a modern, liberal issue in today’s political climate, the conservative side of American politics was the first to tackle the issue head-on. Republican President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency in an executive order addressed to Congress on July 9, 1970. Divided into ten separate regions spanning over all fifty states, each region of the EPA is responsible for upholding the environmental values and regulations of each separate state, on top of keeping local citizens safe from potentially disastrous environmental hazards. Within our local Region 2 of the EPA, which covers New York and New Jersey, is a long-time employee who has been with the EPA from nearly the beginning: George Zachos.
“I am a Charter Member of the EPA and started working on November 1, 1971,” he said.
Zachos, now a 46-year employee at the EPA, is the matrix manager in the Emergency and Remedial Response Division (ERRD). The division, which is responsible for the development, implementation and coordination of regional activities under a federal program called Superfund, has worked to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.
“It serves as the focal point for all emergency response and emergency contingency planning activities,” says Zachos.
When addressing Congress on what he believed to be one of the nation’s most important interests, Former President Nixon said,
“Our national government today is not structured to make a coordinated attack on the pollutants which debase the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land that grows our food. Indeed, the present governmental structure for dealing with environmental pollution often defies effective and concerted action.”
- President Nixon
Many will read this quote and take away the air of truth that it holds in our current political system: the growing scarcity of natural and environmentally friendly resources and the looming danger of climate change, paired with hesitance in the current administration to tackle the problem. Zachos and the ERRD have faced this exact mission and have completely turned around many environmentally hazardous areas in the New York/New Jersey region.
Among the sites that the ERRD has worked on is the Brick Township Landfill. This landfill site, before being closed in 1973, accepted various waste materials including sewage and contaminated liquids since the 1940s. After the EPA took over as the primary agency for the site in 2007, cleanup work quickly began by Brick Township and the site was fully cleaned in 2013. A cap on the landfill prevents rainwater from spreading the contamination, and restrictions are now in place to prevent the site’s contaminated groundwater from being used as drinking water. The once environmental liability is now a community asset, as the former landfill is now a solar power facility that is large enough to completely supply the electricity used by the local government buildings and community parks.
The Roebling Steel Company site near the Delaware River in Florence Township, New Jersey, had contaminated soil, groundwater, and river water from years of industrial use. Now that the EPA has removed all sources of contamination in the area, the site is now home to the Roebling Museum, showcasing the community’s history, and a 34-acre green space along the water for visitors and locals to enjoy.
The West Point Foundry Preserve, a National Historic Site and a public park in Cold Spring, New York, was also once contaminated with wastewater that spewed into the Hudson River and adjacent cove and marsh, and spread contaminated dust into neighboring residential yards. The marsh and surrounding 87 acres are now upheld by Scenic Hudson, a not-for-profit environment preservation organization.
Perhaps the most disastrous of circumstances for local landfills was the Love Canal, located on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, New York. What began as a vision in 1910 from William T. Love for a beautiful community with self-sustaining power slowly turned into a toxic environment that led to the evacuation of hundreds of families. Love originally wanted a short canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers to be the community’s main source of power, but was turned into an industrial chemical dumpsite in the 1920s. In 1953, the site was covered with earth and was sold to the city, leading to about 100 homes and a school being built there. While it seemed fine for more than 20 years, in reality it was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
Photo Courtesy of First Run Features
In 1978, the site exploded. The explosion was triggered by a large amount of rainfall, and the contaminants residing in the site began to spread to the neighboring residents.
“I visited the canal area at that time. Corroding waste-disposal drums could be seen breaking up through the grounds of backyards. Trees and gardens were turning black and dying. One entire swimming pool had been popped up from its foundation, afloat now on a small sea of chemicals. Puddles of noxious substances were pointed out to me by the residents. Some of these puddles were in their yards, some were in their basements, others yet were on the school grounds. Everywhere the air had a faint, choking smell. Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces,” wrote Eckardt C. Beck in an article for the New York Times.
The community was also plagued with an unusually high amount of birth defects and miscarriages. When residents started evacuating, pregnant women and infants were made to leave first.
This record-level contamination outbreak completely changed how the federal government and the EPA tackle these issues. This was the first case that emergency financial aid was approved for anything other than a natural disaster.
“The site was declared a disaster by then President Carter on August 7, 1978. This site prompted Congress to pass the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund, in December 1980,” says Zachos. “I was also the first EPA Project Manager at this Site in 1980.”
The EPA can now make grants for states to be able to safely dispose of toxic waste and allows the 35 million tons of hazardous waste produced to be managed and disposed of safely.
While the outbreak of contaminated areas can often be nearly impossible to avoid after years of neglect and mistreatment, the EPA always works hard, region-by-region, to sustain and nourish our environment. With hard work and careful planning, various toxic sites across the United States have been completely transformed into community assets, providing enjoyable environments for families to safely reside.
“In any case,” Zachos says, “our mission is unchanged: to protect human health and the environment.”