Jesus Saves, and Probably in the Cayman Islands – Esquire.com

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where the sign on the cross is the thing you might need the most.

Last week, when we discussed some environmental crimes perpetrated on some people without the wherewithal to fight for themselves in any effective way, a Top Commenter pointed us toward a place called St. Louis, Michigan, and a sprawling case involving a defunct chemical company called Velsicol. The case is completely amazing on merits, but what makes it even more distressing is that the story isn't even close to being over. From MLive:

That was 42 years ago. In the decades since, Nyerges suffered 10 miscarriages and multiple ectopic pregnancies that she blames on exposure to polybrominated biphenyl, or PBB, an insidious poison she and 9 million other Michiganders ingested in 1973 and 1974, when a distribution snafu at a Gratiot County chemical plant contaminated the state food supply. That colossal screw-up -- accidentally switching a ton of Nutrimaster, a cattle feed supplement that boosted a cow's milk supply, with Firemaster, a toxic flame retardant -- caused one of the largest chemical poisonings in the western world. Researchers say that many in Michigan still have elevated blood PBB levels from consuming contaminated eggs, milk, butter, cheese and meat.

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Let's pause for a moment and consider the cause of this ongoing disaster: A company accidentally mixed up cattle feed with a fireproofing chemical. American business is a cockeyed wonder.

Six in 10 people tested for PBB in Michigan today -- including some born after the disaster -- have levels above the national average, according to researchers at Emory University in Georgia. Because PBB lives for decades in body fat and mimics the effects of estrogen, people directly or indirectly exposed have become prone to reproductive health issues and thyroid problems. "Among the people in Michigan, a vast majority are above the national average," said Michele Marcus, an Emory public health professor who has led the research into the long-term effects of PBB for the past 15 years.

That's 60 percent of the people in Michigan today ringing the bell on the PBB meter due to a corporation's blunder 42 years ago. And Velsicol wasn't the best corporate neighbor on its best days, of which there were very few.

Today, St. Louis is known mostly for its toxic legacy -- a chemical past that scars the very land where the plant once stood. The factory was leveled after Veliscol closed up following investigation into the PBB incident, but the property has since become one of the largest and costliest Superfund sites in the country. Under the grass, beneath a clay cap behind a chain link fence, are huge amounts of hazardous chemicals in concentrations that could pose a major health risk to humans and wildlife. Total cleanup is estimated to cost between $300 million and half a billion, paid for almost entirely by taxpayers. "It's essentially going to be there forever," said Jane Keon, a local resident and founding member of the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, which has advocated for cleanup and research on behalf of those exposed to Velsicol's PBB. Although Velsicol exported its infamous contamination to nearly every refrigerator in Michigan, the company also did a number on the community that supplied its workforce. Production of PBB caused so much dust pollution that Velsicol moved its research lab to Alma College to find clean space to work. On the ecological end, natural topography meant the Pine River received the brunt of toxic drainage and erosion from the factory.

Of course, things being the way they are, in 1982, the company managed to skate through bankruptcy protections. This protected the company, but not the people in the town.

While the company was going bankrupt in 1982, Veliscol and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement that provided $20 million for cleanup, a pittance of the eventual cost. Nonetheless, a slurry wall was built around the perimeter and a cap was placed over the site. But there was nothing underneath to keep the buried chemicals out of the local water. The encapsulation proved to be an utter failure. The slurry wall leaks in major areas and the EPA had to install a groundwater trench around the site that collects 20,000 gallons a week, which is shipped to Detroit for treatment. In 1999, a 10-year, $100 million project began to remove 750,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from 36-acres of the riverbed across from the site. Last summer, the EPA began digging up yards and replacing soil in the 9-block neighborhood bordering the site. Crews hauled away 50,000 tons of soil contaminated mostly with dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT, a pesticide once widely used to control malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne diseases.

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Leading to, inevitably

Taxpayers are funding the work now. Velsicol shed its liability for St. Louis long ago. The company is now owned by Arsenal Capital, a private equity firm. Chemtura Corp. now owns the patent on Firemaster, which is made with a slightly different chemical composition. More St. Louis yard dig-ups are scheduled this year. The EPA plans to start in-situ thermal treatment (sticking electrified rods into the ground to boil off chemicals) at some point. Work on that could happen this year if EPA higher-ups allocate money for construction.

Returning to today, we discover that the proposed Trump budget cuts the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, including the SuperFund program, by 31 percent. This is the way the world works. This is the way things get rigged.

Beep Beep Here Comes America

We move on up to Minnesota, where a state representative opposed an amendment aimed at shuttering offshore tax loopholes on the grounds that Jesus saves, and probably in the Caymans. From ThinkProgress:

It might be because it's late and I'm really tired, but I'm going to take this opportunity to share with the body something I have been grappling with over the past several months, and that is, the games that we play here," she began, leaving the tax haven discussion in the dust. "I just want you to know, Representative Thissen and the [Democratic] caucusI forgive you, it is okay, because I have an eternal perspective about this ...There is actual joy to be found in Jesus Christ, Jesus loves you all. If you would like to get to know him, you're listening at home, here in this room, please email, call me, would love to talk to you about Jesus, he is the hope of this state and this country.

I'm not entirely sure about parliamentary procedure here, but I don't think this motion is in order.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Blog Official Sagebrush Topiary Sculptor Friedman of the Plains brings us a nifty bit of legislative legerdemain. From NewsOK:

State lawmakers have been talking for months about levying a $1.50 per pack tax on cigarette sales, but have been unable to gather enough votes to pass the measure in the House. By making the revenue-generating measure a fee rather than a tax, legislative leaders believe only a majority vote would be needed for passage rather than a three-fourths supermajority. Efforts to avoid the three-fourths majority vote requirement also are behind the decision to turn to a 1.25 percent state sales tax on motor vehicle sales.

If you call a tax a fee, then you can run on not raising taxes. And, if you call it an clair, you can have it for dessert. The English language was not designed for politics.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

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Jesus Saves, and Probably in the Cayman Islands - Esquire.com