Word: towns
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Because Casmalia is unincorporated, the school is the only government outpost in town, which is one reason it has become the rallying point for antidump % activity. Another reason is Kenneth McCalip, the school's principal, who has become the town's toxic-waste spokesman and organizer. Last fall, says McCalip, "it would get really yucky in the lunchroom." Nauseated children were being sent home early. One day in November he evacuated the whole school, all 21 students. "The wind died down, and the odors got so darn bad. The fumes started rolling into our classrooms, more than we'd ever...
...teed off all the county officials. He said, 'Hey, Ken, this isn't the way we do it in Santa Barbara County.' " There was little sympathy from county officials who investigated. "The wind kicks up," McCalip explains, "and the fumes are gone. They think you're crazy." Out-of-town acquaintances were dubious...
Tests to reckon whether the people of Casmalia are endangered have proved inconclusive. In 1984 a county consultant found some chemical pollutants in water from Casmalia's town well, and concentrations of arsenic and lead were detected in a sample of private well water taken in town last spring. Traces of benzene, 1,4-dioxane and other chemicals were found in air samples taken around Casmalia last December, but all were at levels below those the EPA considers dangerous...
...does not mind so much if property values get depressed. "We intend to live here until we die," Tompkins says. "But the poor people in town, all they have are their homes." Rather, his fear is that waste chemicals might percolate through the ground into his cattle's drinking water. "If that stuff ever gets into the water, we're through." As for the odor, it burns his sinuses and gives him headaches. "If you see a lot of trucks come in," says Tompkins, who lives close to the dump entrance, "you can pretty well bet there...
...contras, however, appear to have been caught off guard by the relative speed and efficiency with which Nicaragua's Sandinista People's Army (EPS) responded to the insurgents' rainy-season offensive. On Aug. 7, about 1,500 rebels swarmed into La Trinidad, a town in the department of Esteli, about 60 miles from the Honduran border. Comandante (Colonel) Javier Carrion, 31, the commander of the northern military zone, rushed one counterinsurgency battalion, or BLI, plus local troops to the town and called in air support from three Soviet-built Mi-24 Hind helicopters, the gunships equipped with machine guns...