Alkali Lake

Original letter to stop the injustice of DEQ proposal concerning site.
OPB reports on one of the most toxic dumps in Oregon still remains in legal limbo. “The groundwater near the landfill is very contaminated,” says Bob Schwarz of the DEQ but the Department of Environmental Quality has no plans to clean it up. Why not? Former Lake County Commissioner J.R. Stewart says, “The chemical companies you’re talking about are multi-billion dollar corporations.(Bayer CropScience) Come on... fight for what we know is right and get it done.”
Studies for the EPA know contaminated water reaching the surface in an area and those chemicals dissipate in the wind spread contaminates outside the area.
Bayer CropScience, the DEQ and others have spent more on lawyers to avert responsibility than it would have cost to contain the problem and start the process of bio degradation of the toxins. But because of in action, incompetence and a greater will to avoid responsibility and expense than the will to do what is right the contaminated site expands its toxicity and its Risks-to-Environmental-Health.

The Perfect Crime

Something seems wrong about leaving 1,250,000 gallons of toxic waste unattended in leaky barrels.

Was it a bad idea?

Was it negligence?

Or, was it the "The Perfect Crime"?

This is just a portion of the 25,000 barrels containing dioxins such as TCDD and other toxic residues trucked out to remote part of the Oregon desert, stacked up on wooden pallets in leaking and corroding containers and left. The barrels remained abandoned there contaminating the area for years before being crushed and run over by bulldozers which finally spilled the remainder of lethal toxin into the air, water and soil near Alkali Lake, Oregon. And then it was all covered up. See our comments on the DEQ And Bayer Crop Science Consent Judgment.

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Bulldozers puncture drums of toxic waste at Alkali Lake, Oregon. In the late 1960's, a chemical company made Agent Orange and decided to park the manufacturing waste in the middle of the Oregon desert. 25,000, 55 gallon barrels full of toxic waste were placed at Alkali Lake, left to evaporate into the air and leak onto the desert floor. By the time the Oregon DEQ took control of the site in 1976, 50% of the contents had already leaked out. The agency chose to deal with it by bulldozing the barrels into 12 unlined trenches, burying it and putting a fence around it. The trench method was the least expensive option presented to the DEQ, and was chosen against scientific advisors' advice and protest; the United States Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator over the area also opposed the trench remediation. The state then foolishly released Chemical Waste Storage's owners from any liability because the DEQ was clearly making things worse. This original video shows that. On October 2019 an aerial drone was used to survey the site for the county. How much of these contaminants have escaped this toxic site?

Who did all this?

Why did they do all this?

What else was done?

What is the final result and is there one?

These are just some of the many questions for which we are seeking answers too.

One of the more toxic chemicals contained in these barrels is 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin(TCDD).

TCDD is the most potent compound (congener) of its series (polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, known as PCDDs or simply dioxins) and became known as a contaminant in Agent Orange, an herbicide used in the Vietnam War.

This is one of the few sign warning people of he hazard of even being near the site in 2019. The RECORD OF DECISION for the ALKALI LAKE CHEMICAL WASTE DISPOSAL SITE LAKE COUNTY, OREGON, states on Page 5 states "Maintaining existing fences... Warning signs have been placed on the fences to identify the presence of Hazardous substances... The fences and signs would be inspected annually, and measures to maintain them would be conducted as needed."

The Expert Group of the World Health Organization considers developmental toxicity as the most pertinent risk of dioxins to human beings. People are usually exposed simultaneously to a number of dioxin-like chemicals.Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) are compounds that are highly toxic environmental persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer. Due to the omnipresence of dioxins, all people have background exposure, which is not expected to affect human health. They are mostly by-products of various industrial processes.

This professional ballerina was doing a photo shoot within close proximity to the dump site. There had been no signs warning of the danger in the vicinity. A county official stumbled upon them when doing the aerial filming of the site.
I think someone is not doing their job. Their signs are not numerous enough, strategically located, adequate in size nor are they being maintained sufficiently to protect the public.

TCDD was classified in 1997 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a carcinogen for humans. "TCDD is the most toxic member of the 75 dioxins"

"The TCDD found in Agent Orange is thought to be harmful to man. In laboratory tests on animals, TCDD has caused a wide variety of diseases, many of them fatal. TCDD is not found in nature, but rather is a man-made and always unwanted byproduct of the chemical manufacturing process. The Agent Orange used in Vietnam was later found to be extremely contaminated with TCDD. "

What do you do with the "unwanted byproduct of the chemical manufacturing process" such as TCDD from the manufacture of Agent Orange?

Evidently, some think it was a good idea to dump it in Lake County, Oregon.

Why Lake County?

Because it is one of the largest counties and least populated ones in Oregon.

It has very few voters.

Is that the best thing to do with toxins?

No, but it is the cheapest.

Leaking toxins include "2,4-D & MCPA herbicide residue containing chlorophenols and polymeric chlorophenoxyphenols; metallic chloride waste, paint and paint solvent; dioxins/furans (including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin); EPA Waste #K043 " "Potential contamination of groundwater, soil, air, & food chain. Water table 5 to 7 feet below ground level; site in groundwater discharge area. "

Truck drivers told me the cans were leaking when they arrived. The producers of this toxic soup knew how dangerous it was. That is why they were going way out in Lake County.

If you had something that will kill someone is it okay to take it where it only kills a few people?

What if it would cost you a million dollars or more to detoxify it and make it safe?

What if you had the money but it would eat up your profits to make it safe?

What if when you made the product from which this toxic bomb would be produced and you knew it could be made in a safer way but would make you less money?

We have many local concerns about toxic dioxins from the production of Agent Orange.

But law enforcement should have concerns about negligent homicide at the very least.

You are looking at the smoking gun that has killed and maimed numerous Lake County residents. It should be very clear that there was a threat to life and limb and the public health. That there still is an ongoing threat and damage. Everyone should be outraged and want something done about it.

What you are looking at is the work of a serial killer for profit.

And at least one government agency has participated either through ignorance or negligence or just through seemingly justified bureaucratic convenience in covering up the evil truth now buried in Lake County but still doing damage.

The barrels and toxins continue to rise out of the ground, poison the water and air with sometime invisible death that kills long after exposure and will keep on killing.

What happened and is happening at Alkali Lake?

The residue for that production produced by the company filling a government contract to produce Agent Orange for use in Vietnam was dumped at Alkali Lake including at least 25,000 barrels of this toxic poison and then the barrels crushed into the ground by the State of Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality and literally covered up. There are reports of barrels leaking when they arrived; truck drivers not permitted to get out of their trucks at the site; tanker trucks spraying toxic residues in shallow ditches and even spreading these oily toxic residues on the local airstrip to keep the dust down.

There are also reports of high rates of cancers associated with TCDD, Birth defects in children as well as sick livestock, spontaneous abortions of livestock and even two headed calves...

What is the truth?

Who will tell it?

And who will act upon the truth?

Leaking toxins #1

Agent of Injury

The corrosive and unstable nature of this method of disposal barrels was clearly negligence. It should be obvious that those who are responsible did this for reasons of expedience and economics. They simply had the barrels placed in a remote location with a callous disregard for the safety and health of those who were eventually exposed and possibly have suffered and even died.

Local citizens are striving to discover the extent of the damage and compel the government and those responsible to clean up the problem and make amends for injuries caused by these negligent and egregious acts against common sense and the people who live there and even just past through the area.

Some people would have you believe that every thing is okay. There is little population in the county and therefore little political clout. Maybe that is why that site was chosen? Who would oppose them? Who would stop them? And if harm was discovered and damage exposed, who could fight them?

The problem with TCDD is that its affects are not immediate. TCDD is a Persistent Bioaccumulating Toxin [PBT] that has been related to cancer, diabetes and birth defects and many other health problems. Anyone exposed to these chemicals may develop problems years later. It is very difficult to tell how many have become ill or died because of the irresponsible abandonment of these chemicals.

In an addendum to the Ninth Report on Carcinogens from the National Toxicology Program (NTP), 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, also known as TCDD or dioxin, is listed as a "known carcinogen. "

The local people who have been exposed do not have the resources to fight this problem. The thousands of Veterans and the nation of Vietnam have been fighting their exposure and subsequent problems for 30 years. But even our own American Veterans have been running into a stonewall when it comes to taking responsibility for the ongoing injuries and even deaths of veterans caused by exposure.

On the Agent Orange Website, which is a member of the Vietnam Veteran Web Ring, states.

• Can you sue the government or the chemical companies?

Evidently the answer is "No!"

• Title 38 of the United States Code prohibits veterans from suing the government for injuries suffered while in the military. A class action suit was filed in behalf of veterans in 1979 against the chemical companies and settled out of court. The final funds in this legal action were distributed by 1992. Additional attempts to sue the manufacturers have been attempted, and have been prohibited by the courts. The most strongly fought of these legal battles, Ivy vs. Diamond Shamrock was supported in behalf of the plaintiff by attorney generals in all fifty states, the Supreme Court, however, refused to hear the arguments and that case ended in 1992. In the parlance of the court, the issue is "res judicata" or "the matter is settled".

More and more information has been painfully slow in coming forward to the victims and survivors of this toxic nightmare. The damage may be irreversible. It appears that the health and well-being of innocent people have been set aside for profit and gain, convenience and settlement. Saving face may be more important to some than saving lives and stopping this type of negligent and even premeditated assault on people unaware of the danger.

We would like to know and we are starting to find out just what happened at Alkali Lake and why. But what happened there is not as isolated as Alkali Lake. What happened is the callous disregard for the lives of others. The spirit of, "I am okay, who cares about anyone else" is all to much apart of thinking in the world today. It is not Christian... It is not what Christ taught.

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." John 13:34

We encourage everyone to seek the truth, study to learn the facts and act so that what is righteous and loving may prevail for you and your brothers.

Letter concerning Alkali Lake Toxic waste dump and proposalsbetween DEQ and Bayer Crop Science

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Agent Orange

Cans filled with toxins

"Scientific studies have shown that that (Agent Orange) can be associated with the developments of soft tissue sarcomas, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, Hodgkin's lymphoma, a skin disease called chloracne, some respiratory cancers," says the VA's Dr. Frances Murphy

Medical legacies of Vietnam live on:

"Lynda Van Devanter Buckley served as a surgical nurse near the Cambodian border. Like some of the other 9.2 million Vietnam veterans, she says 25 years later, she's still fighting the effects of that war every day. ... Her doctors say the cause of her illness is exposure during the war to a combination of chemical agents and pesticides used to clear trees and identify targets. " The legacy of Agent Orange

Spina Bifida and Agent Orange

"VA presumes that spina bifida in biological children of certain Vietnam-era Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange was caused by the Veterans’ military service. Eligible children may receive VA benefits." "As of 2016, the US Department of Veterans Affairs considers spina bifida a service-connected disease and provides compensation to Vietnam veterans' children who have been diagnosed with spina bifida."

One of the nearest residence to the site child was born with Spina Bifida. Can we assume that the DEQ is responsible for all their medical expenses"Some 3,000 children have been born with spina bifida linked to their parents' exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical that new evidence suggests may also be linked to a higher incidence of adult onset diabetes."bare?

"Some 3,000 children have been born with spina bifida linked to their parents' exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical that new evidence suggests may also be linked to a higher incidence of adult onset diabetes."

Another CNN article

Possible link between Agent Orange, leukemia

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Research released Thursday suggests a possible association between a child's chance of getting a type of leukemia and a parent's exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used during the Vietnam War that already has been linked to several health problems among veterans and their offspring. "...

"In 1998 researchers found an association between Agent Orange and spina bifida in the offspring of exposed veterans. And last year an Air Force study found a 47 percent higher incidence of adult onset diabetes in Vietnam veterans who had been exposed to Agent Orange as compared to other veterans."

Another article:

Study supports possible link between Agent Orange exposure and diabetes

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Air Force veterans who were exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War are showing an increased risk for diabetes, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Air Force."

"The findings are the latest results from an ongoing study of Air Force veterans that began in 1982. The report shows the veterans studied who came into contact with Agent Orange were 47 percent more likely to be diagnosed with the illness than a control group of veterans who were not exposed to the chemical. " ...

"This report includes the strongest evidence ... that exposure to Agent Orange is associated with adult-onset diabetes," said Dr. Joel Michalek, a senior investigator on the study panel. ...

"... that there appears to be an increased risk of the adult-onset form of the disease -- called type 2 diabetes -- among the study subjects who had higher levels of dioxin.

"Dioxin is related to fat, and diabetes is also related to fat," Michalek said.

from Agent Orange Website

"The U.S. military used Agent Orange to remove vegetation cover used by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese for concealment and later to kill off crops to deny them food. "

The above was snipped from CNN article: [Such destruction of civilians' crops causing hunger, famine and starvation is a war crime.]

"The earliest health concerns about Agent Orange were about the product's contamination with TCDD, or dioxin. TCDD is one of a family of dioxins, some found in nature, and are cousins of the dibenzofurans and pcb's. "

"The TCDD found in Agent Orange is thought to be harmful to man. In laboratory tests on animals, TCDD has caused a wide variety of diseases, many of them fatal. TCDD is not found in nature, but rather is a man-made and always unwanted byproduct of the chemical manufacturing process. The Agent Orange used in Vietnam was later found to be extremely contaminated with TCDD. "

Other articles Concerning Agent Orange

Agent Orange is still being blamed for birth defects more than 30 years since its use HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnamese and U.S. officials have agreed for the first time to study the possible effects of Agent Orange, a toxic chemical defoliant used by the American military during the Vietnam War. SEE PHOTOS which are worth a thousand words.

Here is an article that is in the "hidethis" Archives at newsbank.com. You have to purchase it. Lead Paragraph: Something is very wrong in Cam Nghia. One of every 10 children in the Vietnamese village suffers from a serious birth defect. It is a heart-rending catalog of missing and malformed limbs, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and mental retardation. In other hamlets throughout the former South Vietnam, adult soft-tissue cancers are unusually prevalent. According to the Vietnamese government, pregnant women have elevated rates of reproductive disorders and spontaneous abortions...

New Zealand's Agent Orange Victims Promised Help

"WELLINGTON, New Zealand, April 10, 2001 (ENS) - Prime Minister Helen Clark has agreed to improve services for Vietnam veterans who claim their health has been damaged by Agent Orange. The toxic herbicide is central to another conflict today as well, between people living near a plant where agricultural herbicides were made and the company that produced them."9

See also: Agent Orange, Better killing through chemistry, by Richard Alan-Leach http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Environment/Agent_Orange.html

There is little remedy once exposed but here are some thoughts Your Health and Dioxin (Agent Orange/Herbicide) Exposure by Gary D. Moore http://www.ultranet.com/~jkimball/BiologyPages/A/AgentOrange.html

WHAT does all this mean?

Toxins like those mentioned above can cause illness and death. They can remain in people and animals for years causing a variety of debilitating and lethal results including birth defects many years after exposure. The people who are harmed by this may never realize the cause and those who created this hazard may escape retribution.

Was it the "The Perfect Crime"? We hope not.

These toxins are not really apart of the silent spring of Rachel Carson. Much more is known today about the toxicity of what was dumped in Alkali Lake, but enough was known at that time that it was painfully obvious that it should not have been dumped there, left there and allowed to contaminate the lives of those unknowingly exposed.

What can be done

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 3 John 1:2

There are many things that can be done.

Stop denying there is a problem by referring to it as herbicide contamination. The used barrels were not filled with Agent Orange. They were filled with the toxic byproduct of the sloppy manufacturing process which has been outlawed world wide. It was the irresponsible and intentional pursuit of inadequate and cheap disposal systems and reckless management of known toxins.

There is an opportunity to do the right thing, the Christian thing and major companies like Bayer, who bought the original company, including their profits and liabilities, the DEQ who recklessly buddozed the cans spreading an already deadly situation, the United States Government who ordered the manufacture and did business with viciously irresponsible companies have and are all playing a part in this present disaster.

So people gather and want solutions. making a plan

See our comments on the DEQ And Bayer Crop Science Consent Judgment.

Bio-degradation

This disaster could be turned into an opportunity to not only change the course of the contamination but use it to turn around the problem of TCDD and similar contamination by finding a way to degrade these unnatural, man-made toxins and substances.

There is a way, if there is a will to find it.

There are numerous methods of biodegradation of dioxons if we will seek a solution.

Biodegradation is the naturally-occurring breakdown of materials by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi or other biological activity. ... Essentially, composting is an accelerated biodegradation process due to optimized circumstances.

"There are a variety of factors like pH, temperature, oxygen, nutrient availability etc., which can affect the rate of degradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons studied the effect of temperature, salinity and oil concentration on biodegradation of crude oil, the biosurfactant activity and naphthalene degradation by a newly identified strain Bacillus cereus 28BN was investigated the metabolic capability of 15 bacterial isolates isolated from oil-contaminated site by using enrichment culture technique which were able to degrade aromatic and polyaromatic fractions."

More research into studies by the Japanese and by Olga Maltseva and Patrick Oriel concerning an Alkaline 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol-Degrading Enrichment Culture produced by DNA Fingerprinting Methods and Isolation of the Responsible Organism, Haloalkaliphilic Nocardioides especially Strain M6.

It was found that "Prolonged cultivation of an enrichment culture followed by successive transfers resulted in a strong increase in the 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) degradation rate." http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/63/11/4145.pdf

Other studies show promise of relief: http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/conference/Papers/Brent_Peyton2.pdf

Bio-remidiation and Phyto-remidiation Articles

• 2023-07-20 Sunflowers: Nature’s Radiation Cleanup Crew and Soil Restorers
• 2021-02-24 How to Identify and Treat Herbicide Contamination of Commercial Soil, Compost and Manure
• 2018-08-28 Hemp Cleans Up Radioactive Soil and So Much More
• 2014-07-07 Mycoremediation - Growing Mushrooms to Clean the Earth

Settling with Bayer for $700000 is a ridiculous sum considering the damage, ongoing problems, clean up. Alkali is a great opportunity to discover a solution to this type of contamination all over the world.

If Bayer has profits of 376 million euros (that would be $527,400,000 US Dollars) and it is really interested in the health of the people and curing headaches it would seem that they would be willing, even enthusiastic, to do something for the health of people, save lives, clean up the poisons left behind by the company they have purchased.

And where are the Churches, where are the people, where is the love for one another both those near and far?

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Matthew 23:23