Mike Sauers
February, 5 2023
The article that recently appeared in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker, (1-16-23) entitled, Report: Cancer cases in region top US rates, was deja vu for those with attentive minds and tenacious memories. It is enraging, horrible and terrifying. It reported that cancer cases and death rates are significantly higher than national rates in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. The list of cancers is truly breathtaking. Cancers of the bronchus and lung, colon and rectum, esophagus, larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, pancreas, breast, prostate, bladder, uterine cervix and uterine corpus are identified.
The quoted experts attribute the above to a wide variety of factors that may impact predispositions to cancer including genetics, low socio-economic status, lack of adequate health care, age, obesity, smoking, drinking, occupational exposures, air pollution and stress. They emphasize the need for health screenings to prevent the growth and encourage the treatment of the cancers. It should be noted that many cancers take considerable time to develop without any noticeable indicators. Nothing is said about actually identifying and eliminating the causes of cancers.
For close to fifty years, courageous citizens, community groups, environmental groups/coalitions have pointed to a rarely mentioned potential cause: enormous quantities of carcinogenic pollutants affecting air, water and soil. Superfund sites in the Greater Hazleton Area and throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania are abundant. Some are still classified as active while some are not. All are still of great concern. Some of these include; McAdoo Associates in Kline Township, TCE in Valmont Industrial Park, Hazleton City Landfill in Hazleton, C&D Recycling in Foster Township, Eastern Diversified Metals in Hometown, Tonolli Corp. in Nesquehoning, Tranguch Gasoline Spill in Hazleton and NJ Zinc in Palmerton. These sites served as facilitators for enormous quantities of toxic, carcinogenic substances to enter the air, water and ground. The responsible parties (if they still existed) and the US government (taxpayers) carried out minimal remediation strategies. All sites are monitored.
After the collapse of the anthracite coal industry, an industry that had brutalized workers and their families, a small group of men with varying business and professional backgrounds began a campaign to reinvent the economy of the Greater Hazleton Area. In essence, CAN-DO was born. According to University of Pennsylvania Professor Dan Rose, CAN-DO pursued a recruitment strategy partially based on polluting industries rejected by other communities. Examples include a lead recycling plant and a hazardous waste recycling plant. In his book (1981) entitled, Energy Transition and the Local Community: A Theory of Society Applied to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Rose explains the above in scholarly detail. It is worth reading. Prior to Rose’s expose there appeared an interesting article in the New Yorker Magazine (1973-4) that adds credibility to Rose’s work. The author, Mr. Bigart, writes about the recruitment of the Beryllium Corporation by Dr. Edgar Dessen, a CAN-DO principal. The article explains the sordid history of the Beryllium Corporation covering its Reading, PA plant and its Hazleton, PA plant. It is worth reading. Subsequently, CAN-DO recruited some very large emitters of carcinogenic wastes. This is evidenced by their TRI reports and the ledgers of dumpers at the Hazleton City Landfill. Research it.
In the 1990’s it was common practice for community/environmental leaders to gleen information from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory Program. There you could learn about the majority of Greater Hazleton’s industrial sites and the enormous quantities of carcinogenic substances being emitted into air, water and soil. TRI information was used to help stop New Jersey Steel from locating a plant in the Humbolt Industrial Park. Leaders were able to point out the already existing high levels of carcinogens and argue that adding New Jersey Steel’s emissions would be tantamount to throwing gasoline on a fire. Add beryllium recycling at the Ashmore plant near Hazleton (berylliosis), a nuclear power plant near Berwick, a co-generation plant near McAdoo and scores of other industrial pollutant emitters and you have a simmering cauldron of carcinogenic substances affecting air, water and soil. A cauldron that has existed for decades. Research it.
Of particular interest is the Hazleton City Landfill. This is a long festering catastrophe with solid evidence of toxic dumping from local and outside sources. The list of local industries dumping toxics is quite impressive and enraging. The list of outside industries is equally troubling. The noted dumped carcinogens are mind boggling. The beauty of this dumping scheme was that the pollutants would go into the abandoned mine holes and tunnels, some of which are flooded. Dumpers theorized that some pollutants would go directly to the Jeddo Mine Tunnel while others would migrate there over time. These pollutants would be carried away to the Susquehanna River and, subsequently, the Chesapeake Bay. Other pollutants would just be buried and left to fate. None of this was done in a vacuum. Lots and lots of people knew but they dummied up for various reasons. They adopted the Koshin faith, three monkey approach. They saw, heard or spoke none of this. Like Sergeant Schultz of Hoban’s Heroes, “They knew nothing.“ A long list of “leaders” including mayors, council men and women, county commissioners, state representatives, state senators, US congressmen and senators were aware. Some of these “leaders” are still in office. Equally aware were local and regional industrial leaders as well as industrial development leaders. The “problem” and those courageous enough to speak about it were marginalized, minimized and ignored. Research it.
As it turned out, the Hazleton City Landfill, a bonafide superfund site, was not finished serving as a facilitator of carcinogenic emissions. Under Mayor “Lou” Barletta a plan was hatched to IMPORT millions of tons of toxic river and harbor sludge into the site (Who does that?). In the early 2000’s this plan came into fruition. Millions of pounds of toxic, carcinogenic wastes have been brought in and placed on top of the existing toxic, carcinogenic wastes. Proponents argue that the initial pollutants have been diluted and washed away into the groundwater/aquifers or into the abandoned mine tunnels or into the Jeddo Mine Tunnel heading eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. They also believe that the contaminated soils are isolated/capped and that any air emissions are negligible. These arguments are all highly debatable. Research it.
The reports of extremely high cancer rates are not new. In almost every decade beginning in the 1960’s up to the present there have been reports issued regarding high cancer rates. These have been issued by local, state and federal authorities. This post is the tip of the iceberg. Research will easily reveal the names of individuals, companies, elected officials and toxic wastes involved. Read the book and article referenced above. Go onto the Toxic Release Inventory site. Go on newspaper.com. Talk to older people in the community. Research it.