Ohio Train Derailment Gets Immediate Attention–South Oxnard and Halaco, Still Waiting

Opinion by Eric Beck, February 28, 202341

Why is it that when a train derails in East Palestine, Ohio, the US government and its “Agencies“ come running to the rescue? They claim they will spare no amount to get this corridor cleaned up, and continue testing the air, water and soil samples to ensure the safety of the surrounding population.

There, in East Palestine, Ohio, the population is less than 5,000 people, mostly white, few Blacks, even fewer Asian and no listings of any Hispanics from the 2020 census.

Here, in Oxnard, California, we have a known issue that’s been declared a “Superfund Site” (Halaco) in an area of town with well over the 5,000 inhabitants of East Palestine, mostly Hispanics, and we can’t even get the government’s attention to the environmental issues that will plague this area for generations to come, with the metals and radioactive materials that are known to be in the pile. Nor have we not had continuous monitoring of the air, water and soil in this area.

While other places have complained about having to take the contaminated soil from Ohio, they will be forced to take it, as they supposedly have the facilities to clean it up.

Here we have been told that all’s well because, after all, we covered the toxic pile with Coco Coir, ONCE.

Coir is an organic biodegradable material with a useful life span of 3 to 5 years and is used to allow vegetation to take root in an area that was burned out or suffered a landslide,

Our site will likely never see any vegetation, as nothing has grown there since the metal smelting facility closed up shop, ran away and filed bankruptcy, thus, leaving the material to turn to dust and blow away, leach into our water table, and/or erode into the ocean.

Just an observation from someone who knows nothing!!

Eric Beck has been a resident of Oxnard since 1959. He is an engineer who’s worked in commercial fishing, automotive, bomb, missiles, aircraft parts design, building and construction.