Word: toxically
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meanwhile, fears about toxic wastes continue to grow. Each day more and more communities discover that they are living near dumps or atop ground that has been contaminated by chemicals whose once strange names and initials--dioxin, vinyl chloride, PBB and PCB, as well as such familiar toxins as lead, mercury and arsenic--have become household synonyms for mysterious and deadly poisons. "The problem is worse than it was five years ago," contends New Jersey Democrat James Florio, who as a Congressman from one of the most seriously contaminated states became the key author of the 1980 Superfund...
...growing awareness of the vast scope of the toxic-waste problem has bred much public anguish but precious little remedial action. The Office of Technology Assessment, a research arm of Congress, contends that there may be at least 10,000 hazardous-waste sites in the U.S. that pose a serious threat to public health and that should be given priority in any national cleanup. The cost, OTA estimates, could easily reach $100 billion, or more than $1,000 per U.S. household. Eventually, predicts the General Acccounting Office, which also does studies for Congress, more than 378,000 waste sites...
...poll taken last month for TIME by Yankelovich, Skelly & White, Inc., shows that 79% of Americans say that "not enough" has been done to clean up toxic-waste sites. More surprising, when asked, "Would you be willing to pay higher state and local taxes to fund cleanup programs in your area," 64% answered yes (34% said no, 2% were unsure...
Some critics contend that putting off the admittedly expensive cleanup effort will mean greater expense in the future. "Delay not only prolongs the time that people are exposed to toxic hazards," says Michael Podhorzer, director of the National Campaign Against Toxic Hazards. "But every day it means that more toxic chemicals are released into the soil, air and water. The longer we wait, the greater the damage will be and the higher the final cleanup cost will...
Consider the meager six sites deemed to have been cleaned through the Superfund. After a nine-month-long spill of chemicals into the Susquehanna River starting in 1979, it was found that a small Pennsylvania company had / been systematically, and illegally, dumping toxic wastes into shafts that fed into the Butler Tunnel, an outlet for waste water from abandoned coal mines near Pittston, Pa. Three men were convicted of violating the state's Clean Streams Act, and one was sent to prison. The three and their company were fined $750,000. EPA supervised the cleanup of the river pollution...