The Cabot-Koppers Superfund site is at the corner of Northwest Sixth Street and Northwest 23rd Avenue. For those of you who don’t know about this, let me enlighten you. This property has been used since 1916 for wood treatment. Chemicals from this site have been found seeping into the groundwater and surface water, including arsenic, copper and nine other chemicals found to cause cancers and other health problems. According to EPA testing in 2006, harmful chemicals have already started reaching the upper portion of the aquifer (not good, considering nearly 100 percent of the drinking water in Florida comes from the Floridan aquifer). As bad as all this sounds, it might surprise you that nearly 19 years after a cleanup approach was signed, no action has been taken besides a few trenches being dug.
As an environmental engineering student, it is discouraging to see that people don’t take an active interest in issues like this, but when they are diagnosed with cancer they go complain to public works. I don’t know why I am wasting my time doing water treatment research if the citizens will ignore what is seeping into the water around them.
All I know is that the longer the issue is left unresolved, the larger it becomes.
Joseph Delfino of the UF Environmental Engineering Department labels this as “an uncivil inaction,” commenting that “this has been a disgrace from the local, state and national politics and agencies. No one wanted to take leadership. Only now are the residents feeling more empowered [to act], but they cannot get it done without political strength and the politicians’ willingness to act rather than preserve their reputations.”
