The Honeywell complex in Kansas City owned by the General Service Administration (GSA) and regulated by the NNSA is a toxic waste dump. Instead of holding the corporations liable for the mess they have created the EPA has created a program referred to as a Superfund. The EPA states: Superfund is the federal government’s program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. We’re committed to ensuring that remaining National Priorities List hazardous waste sites are cleaned up to protect the environment and the health of all Americans.
The Missouri chapter of the Sierra Club states on their website: It has been well known since 2001 that the Bannister Federal Complex is a festering hellhole of dangerous leaching toxins, sitting smack dab in the middle of a predominantly poor African-American neighborhood in Kansas City. Among several federal facilities onsite is the Kansas City Plant (KCP) – the source of the problems – that makes triggers for nuclear weapons, under current contract by Honeywell for the US Dept of Energy. – source
In the case of the Kansas City Bannister site which I wrote about previously, the site has been divided up into 15 mini sites within one area. What should be in reality one large superfund site is hidden by writing it off as separate mini sites. Ann Suellentrop, her assistant Alicia with head of Missouri sierra club Claus Wawrzinek & Patty Brown visited Representative (D) Emanuel Cleaver’s office to inquire about the complex. Ann said they wrote a letter to EPA wanting to know why they put in 15 separate sites and not one.
The EPA said to get on the priority list it needs 28.5 points. The EPA grades this and monitors this. Not until 2010 after a records request from The Kansas City Star was this revealed to the public.
Was this to keep it from being on the national priorities list where you get a better chance of getting cleaned? Cleaver was not present when they visited, however they did speak to the Congressman’s head aid Jeff Jolley, who said you wouldn’t want it on the national priorities list because it would be harder to sell. It would have a bad reputation. People would not want to touch it. The federal government seems to be bending its own rules in favor of the corporations it is footing the bill for. The workers, people in daycare, mayor or local gov did not know about this until the Star’s revelation.
Ann Suellentrop stated “You wouldn’t want people to use it if they get sick. Labeling it as a superfund site gives it a better chance of getting it cleaned up.”
It seems that the interest in keeping the site profitable is so the U.S. government can continue to mass produce it’s weapons of mass destruction at the cost of citizens health and lives. So, the corporations profit by tax dollars and then they walk away leaving the Tax Payer with the clean up bill, or even worse a toxic waste dump. I would much rather the corporation be held accountable, but I don’t make ‘laws,’ I just complain about them.