I have been bothered for sometime by the site of the ugly fence, and to be honest the ugly building located on Hwy 2494, near the intersection of Hwy 31, for sometime now. It is the location of the old Curtis Mathis building and what became known as Harvey Industries later and then Lorax took over it, and God knows who else is in there now. I guess what disturbs me the most is the fence around the end closest to Hwy 31, that is posted to "Keep Out". Why does it disturb me, because sometime back about 7 years ago, I recall seeing this site listed on the EPA's Super Cleanup Fund. It is no longer there, nor can I find it there in the database. Perhaps, I was only imagining it. Though with some research, I did find it is still listed on the Texas Department of Waste and Water Treatment web site as a still listed Super Cleanup Fund site. To get a little history here, let me pass on the word for word information I found on their Texas government web site:
Harvey Industries, Inc. (a.k.a. Harvey Joint Venture)and Curtis Mathes Manufacturing Company operated a manufacturing facility on 87.779 acres, located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Farm Road 2495 and Texas 31 (One Curtis Mathes Drive) in Athens. The facility, known as Harvey Industries, Inc., was used to manufacture television cabinets and circuit boards on site. Large amounts of paint sludge accumulated on site in 55-gallon drums. In 1972, Curtis Mathes began the process of converting a clay pit on the west side of the site into a landfill, which went into operation in 1973, and was reported to have received office wastes, plant cafeteria wastes, cardboard, particle board, vinyl, wood, sawdust, metal cans, dried paint wastes, and incinerator ash. In December 1981 and January 1982, Curtis Mathes conducted a fire training school at the site to dispose of the backlog of chemical wastes accumulated over a 20-year period. In July 1985, Harvey Industries, Inc., entered into a a compliance agreement with the Texas Department of Water Resources (TDWR), requiring Harvey to submit a closure plan for cleanup of the fire training pit. In November, Harvey Industries completed drilling 19 soil borings around the fire training pit to investigate subsurface conditions. According to an April 1986 report, Harvey Industries said analysis of samples collected from the wells indicated the presence of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), isobutyl alcohol and toluene in the groundwater beneath the former fire training pit. Harvey installed a groundwater recovery and treatment system for the fire training pit in 1989. The treated water was discharged to the City of Athens wastewater treatment plant. The company filed for Chapter 7 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1992 and the water treatment plant was abandoned. In November 1993, the state entered into an agreeement with a third party, Lorax Corp., which allowed Lorax Corp. to clean up the on-site warehouse in exchange for leasing the warehouse.
My question is, if a site is cleaned up, isn't that suppose to imply that it is cleaned up and made safe again. If so, why is it still there?
Groundwater, is nothing to play around with.
Here is a definition as offered by Scientist at the University of New Mexico.
Groundwater
Groundwater begins with rain and snowmelt that seeps or infiltrates into the ground. The amount of water that seeps into the ground varies widely from place to place according to the type of land surface that is present. In porous surface material that water readily seeps through, such as sand or gravel, 40 to 50 percent of the rain and snowmelt may seep into the ground. Seepage into less porous surface material may range from 5 to 20 percent . The remainder of the rain and snowmelt runs off the land surface into streams or returns to the atmosphere by evaporation.
Seepage into the ground is also strongly influenced by the season of the year. Evaporation is greater during the warm months, including evaporation through plant leaves, known as transpiration. During the cold months, the ground may be frozen, hindering water seepage, and evaporation is less.
So here we have some very polluted groundwater, that seeps downward and upward depending upon the season. if one peeps through the fence they will see the highly polluted groundwater. I have yet to see the fence come down, clean up taking place except what may be defined as cleanup by the authorities. My point is, cleanup cannot be cleanup as naturally defined by the word itself. How can it be called this, when yet the mess remains?
This water can run of into streams, the watertable if close enough to the surface, and even evaporate into the air. How much of this are the citizens of Athens being subjected to in breathing, the air, and drinking the water, or even swimming and boating in Lake Athens?
I don't have the answer. The question still remains why isn't this cleaned up?
The building is being used, that is plain to see, but is there any clean up going on, or is that all just an illusion to make us feel safer about the pollution that took place there.
All I can say for a small city, we sure have a lot of cancer death here. What is the origin of all this cancer?
In the book of Genesis 1:31 - God saw all that he had made and it was very good.
I have heard it said, that the Global Warming, and other things that have become news worthy items these days, are liberal bunk, and money driven, and political rhetoric, but is it?
Many people believe because of what God said to Noah in Genesis 8:21-22, specifically "that as long as the earth endures (the approriate Hebrew interpretation of the English translation "remains"),seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease, that all of this about climate changing and etc. is a bunch of bunk.
Let's look for a moment, at this passage again, it says as long as the earth "endures" or let's even take it to some of the translations rendering of this word as "remains".
Now the leading into this is this statement in the thought of God (for He said in His heart), he says as long as the earth remains. Somewhere in His thinking to my opinion, he wasn't saying it will endure, he is saying as long as it does. Now, you ask yourself, why would God knowing all things start His thought with a possibility that it may not?
Now, once again, following my thought about this. He knew man. He was saying until such time that He God decides to destroy it "or man destroys it, there would be the promise of these things.
I know most people have read little about Global Warming or even studied pollution. I have written for materials from leading scientific government studies, outside sources and more. There is a very real global warming taking place, more drought, hotter days. Matter of fact we have raised our temperatures on earth about 1 degree recently and within in the next few years - true projections are 2 degrees. That doesnt sound like a lot. However it is. Now as to all the projections that we are facing an immediate end as the human race because of this, I doubt it. However, because of these factors, pollution both air, water and our food, we are killing the earth which God gave us, and told us to care for and to have dominion over it. Specifically, Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livesock, over all the earth, and over all creatures that move along the ground.
Just as God intended us to be made into His image, which is the restoration of all things by Christ to the believer. To be made in that image once again, this lays even a greater responsibility upon us who call ourselves Christian to speak out about pollution, of the air, the water and our food.
We cannot excuse the abuse of those, "blinded by the god of this world" in destroying our earth for greed and money.
Yes, I believe Christians should be concious of the ecology even more so than some of those who claim to be. We cannot change the abuse of this ecology, through political actions, or political marches. Concern for the creation of God, will only come when a man is changed in His heart, and is restored to the image of God, by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Then, when this action takes place, concern for all of creation will become a concern, as God cares, he cared so much to have the thought, that " as long as the earth endures".
What does the earth have to endure but the abuse of mankind.
If you are a Christian, then you above all people should be concerned with saving planet earth from the destruction of evil men and companies who care less for it's ability to provide us with the things we need, clean air, water and food.
When will clean up really mean clean up.
When man listens to truth, and recalls, that He was created in the image of God, and with that the Lord gave us a mighty responsibility to be fruitful and multiply, not destroy and kill. To care for this planet that grows ever smaller and ever polluted because of our greed and disregard for the creation and the creatures he gave us dominion over.
I close with this.
Be concious of the ecological practices of our community, your state, your country and the world. The earth can only endure so much of man's abuse. Remember, scripture says that all creation groans inwardly awaiting the revelation of the sons (plural) of God. Guess who they are - Christian - you and I. When the resurrected Jesus Christ begins to reveal himself through those He paid the price for and He has come to live in them through the indwelling Holy Spirit, there will be a concern for all of creation and all men,women and children. There will be a concern over the greed and money that drives the pollution, the genetic tampering of our foods, the waste of good energy, the production of energy from polluting sources. The oil mania that drives our wars, the cars we drive that create awful air pollution, etc. The destruction and pollution of our water resources, the destroying of natural habitat for animals just to build more buildings and super highways. If these things don't concern you as a Christian, then why do they concern God so,that He makes a promise "if" only the earth endures?
BTW(by the way), what is the story on cleaning up the mess down there by Highway 31, can anybody tell me?
Dr. J.
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