Love Canal redux

George Santayana, philosopher, coined the oft-repeated phrase,
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

It has now been over 50 years since the infamous Love Canal occurance. Briefly, a land site in Niagara Falls (a canal project that wasn't completed) had been used as a waste dump for some 30 years, first by the city for chemical waste, then by the U.S. Army. In 1947, Hooker Chemical bought the site and used it for their own waste until it was filled in 1952, when they closed the site and backfilled the canal. The local school board tried to buy part of the site from Hooker, on which they wanted to build an elementary school. Hooker refused to sell, and went to extreme lengths to convince city officials that the site was unsafe for public use.

Eventually, with the threat of eminent domain, the city forced Hooker into selling the property for a dollar. Hooker complied, only with their thorough explanation of why it was a disastrous idea. Hooker had sealed the area carefully, but the city forced their way through the seal, built the school, dug sewers, and approved construction of homes... with no warnings to the homebuyers.

By the 70's, it had become obvious that people in the area were suffering serious medical ailments from the chemical pollution, but only a bitter struggle by residents resulted in President Carter declaring a state of emergency. Eventually, the government relocated more than 800 families and reimbursed them for their homes. Occidental (parent company of Hooker) spent more than $200 million to clean up the site, and Congress passed the Superfund law holding polluters accountable.

Love Canal is a classic example of a private company trying it's best to be responsible, being overruled by government, yet being punished for the results of the government action.

Amazingly, St. Paul has a similar situation occurring , as reported in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

The Minnesota Supreme Court won't hear a case over a disputed and polluted tract of land near West Seventh Street, clearing the way for one of the biggest neighborhood developments in St. Paul history.

The decision signals the end of high-stakes litigation between St. Paul and ExxonMobil, which owns the former tank farm and fought the city's efforts to acquire it through eminent domain.

Although the company offered to give the land to the city free of charge, it does not want homes built there because of concerns about pollution.

The city, however, has grand designs for a new upscale neighborhood perched on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. City officials have said the site can be cleaned up safely for housing.

The Minnesota legislature recently passed an eminent domain reform law that would have prevented St. Paul's coercion of ExxonMobil, but the legislation "grandfathered" projects already underway. ExxonMobil was willing to sell the land with prohibitions on residential development.

St. Paul council member Dave Thune, whose ward includes the project, known as Victoria Park, said: "Finally we can get past the polluters of the world and get on to building a community." Yes, this is the same Dave Thune who led the prohibition of smoking in bars and restaurants. Seems that "pollution" is merely in the eye of the beholder.

So, ExxonMobil, like Occidental 50 years earlier, is being forced, through eminent domain, to sell land they are positive should not be used for residential purposes. Why would they lie? Who knows more about the pollution in place there? Who knows more about pollution clean-up?

Obviously (like the school board of Niagara Falls did) Dave Thune believes he does. As an example of how erudite and responsiveThune is, here is his response , two years ago, to a long, impassioned appeal from bar-owner Sue Jeffers about the then-pending St. Paul smoking ban (which passed):

I think you've been breathing too much frenchfry [sic] grease. We'll just ignore your bizzare [sic] and addled ideas.

dave

Elected officials are ordinary citizens, and are bound to be out of their depth on many issues. Can't blame them for that. We can, however, blame them for assuming and exercising powers that take them far beyond their competence, and using their position to inflict their incompetence on the rest of us. THAT is inexcusable, and it's precisely what is happening all over our nation, as local elected officials come to believe that their rights are unlimited, even by common sense. Thune's, and the city council's, determined ignorance is criminal in this case, and many innocent people are likely to suffer untold grief because of it.