Fruitvale 10 - Fruitvale Roles

Resident of Buena Vista

       You are retired, on a fixed income, and live close to the A-1 Hazardous Waste Disposal site.  You are very concerned about the problem even though you do not live in the Fruitvale area and have driven more than 200 miles to appear at the meeting.  You don’t think it is right for people to remove hazardous wastes from their area and transport it to your area, taking it from their backyards to put it in yours.

            You feel that the right thing to do is to devise a plan that will provide for disposal of wastes in a safe place but nearer to the area in which it was created.  You are tired of worrying about the danger of accidents from trucks carrying contaminated soil or water passing near your home and possible leaks from the waste disposal site.  You point out that contaminated soil or water cannot be distinguished from normal soil or water except by experts.  You think that the citizens of Fruitvale should apply for some state or federal assistance to deal with the problem, not just pass it along to someone else. 

Mayor of Fruitvale

                     You are running for re-election in November and you want to have a clean up plan by then.  You ran your election last time on the platform of finding out if there were problems with Fruitvale’s water.  A good deal of your town budget went into finding out where the source of contamination is located.  You are concerned that your limited budget may not entirely cover the cost of cleaning up this incident, let alone stretch to other problems that may arise in the future.  You would like to recommend a plan that provides for the health and safety of the area residents but keeps the clean up costs to a minimum so that funds will be available for other uses.  Possible other uses include monitoring the water supply to detect future contamination, and hiring consultants to advise farmers, industry personnel, and members of the public about how to protect the water supply from future harm.

You want to run on a ticket of Found the Problem and on the Way to Solving It!!  However, you are not sure which method would satisfy the most voters.

Engineer, Excavation Specialist, Inc.

         You think the best plan is to excavate the contaminated soil and transport it to a hazardous waste facility, located 200 miles away (near Buena Vista).  This procedure is very expensive but in the long term could save money for the taxpayers of the area because the cost of obtaining another water supply will be avoided. Since most of the contaminated soil will be removed, long term pumping to remove the groundwater that may contain pesticide will be necessary.  The procedure would be reliable and safe, but a thorough preliminary report would be needed to assess the environmental impact of the plan.

            Although your company has a good reputation for careful excavation in the area, you have not handled the clean up of many hazardous waste sites and none as large as this.  Your workers have been trained in procedures for handling hazardous wastes, and you will work with a team of geologists, geochemists, and other soil experts to make sure the soil removal is efficient and effective. 

Vice-President, Eden Agriculture Chemical Company

You are very concerned about public opinion over this incident.  You realize that even though No-Bug pesticide is no longer produced by your company, the public is very sensitive to issues involving safe drinking water.  You are concerned with the dangers and high cost involved in excavation and transportation of the soil.  An incident involving accidental exposure to workers or residents might damage both their health and personal safety, and the reputation of your company.  You support the construction of a treatment facility to remove the contamination from the water.  These compounds would then be disposed of at the A-1 Hazardous Waste Disposal facility.

President of Wetter Water Works Company

         You are president of a well drilling and water treatment company in Aqua Fresca, a town to the south of Fruitvale.  It was your company that drilled the test wells in Fruitvale.  You are here representing the on demand water treatment.  Your company has recently developed a new and cheaper way of eliminating pesticides from water.  You feel that it is important to treat the contaminated water at source. 

            Although, as a citizen of Agua Fresca a neighboring community to Fruitvale, you are somewhat worried about leaving the contaminated soil, you feel that treating the water will solve the immediate problem, and allow the community to pay for the clean-up over a longer period of time.  You are also interested in the profit your company would make if this method were chosen.

Doctor at Wellness Hospital

         You are sent as a representative of your hospital.  You have been monitoring the cancer rates in your community and have found that certain types of cancers have dramatically increased in the last 5 years.  You are part of a team that is researching this increase.  You feel that the contamination of the groundwater may be the cause.   You are afraid that the cases you have already seen may be only the tip of the iceberg.  You want the problem dealt with in the quickest and most thorough manner possible.  Your hospital is prepared to call for federal resources and is hosting an investigative team from the Center for Disease Control next week.  You are to report back to the CDC on what you think of the clean-up methods. 

Parent

You live close to Fruitvale School, which your children attend.   Although you are concerned about possible damage to the environment, you worry primarily about the danger of children playing in the contaminated area.  You think that even if fences surrounding the contaminated area are erected, they will not cover enough of the area, and you doubt they will be monitored or maintained.  Children will not heed warning signs and will climb fences to play on the other side, especially along the creek where the contamination is worst.

You want the contaminated soil removed from the area, regardless of the cost.  You are somewhat suspicious of the other methods, and would like to see proof that they are effective and safe.  You want the contaminated soil removed quickly because of the danger posed to children playing in the area, especially since the pesticide is likely to be more concentrated in the soil near the contamination site. 

Inventor, New Technologies, Inc.

         Your have devised a new method to treat the water that does not require the removal of any water or soil.  The groundwater can therefore be treated as it rests directly in the ground.  In this method, developed in your laboratory by an expert group of scientists you inject microbes designed to break down No-Bug pesticide.  There have been no reported side effects from the use of these microbes. 

            Using your method, any risks to workers or residents by any method or combination of methods will be eliminated.  It will not be necessary to remove the pesticide source, except for the drums that are near the surface.  Because this process is so new, you will provide it to the Fruitvale area residents for the costs of the materials.  The total cost will be even less than the Leading-edge Water Treatment.  You hope that a documented, successful use of your process will create future demand and profits for your company.

President, Coalition for Environmental Safety

         You and your organization have played an active role in educating the public about the dangers of toxic materials both at home and in the workplace.  You have sponsored many educational meetings to help inform the public about the dangers of chemicals.  You advocate a simple approach with a non-polluting solution.  As long as any pesticide can be detected at any level, there is a slight risk that someone might develop serious health problems, such as cancer, from drinking the water.  You prefer no risk as the best solution.  Therefore, you believe, all of the pesticide should be removed as quickly and completely as possible without regard to cost.

Environmental Manager, Sunshine Water Technologies

Sunshine Water Technologies drills more water wells and pumps out more septic tanks than any other company in the state.  Your company has been hired by many other cities to remove contaminated groundwater.  You propose to pump out the contaminated water and truck it to the treatment center you use to clean the wastewater removed from septic tanks.  You guarantee that the water leaving the treatment plant will be as pure as that currently being pumped from Fruitvale Municipal Water Well.  This clean water would be brought directly back and either injected down the wells to resupply the Fruitvale aquifer or made directly available for immediate use.  With your experience as the biggest water well driller and septic tank pumper in the state, you feel very qualified to complete any of the options that involve pumping. 

Legal Advisor, Fruitvale Municipal Water District

You are here to represent the board of directors of the Fruitvale Municipal Water District.  You want to make sure that no group files suit against the water supply, or for anything resulting from the actions proposed to clean up the contamination.  You want to convince everyone that the pesticide does not pose a threat to the water supplied by the Fruitvale Municipal Water Well.  A major piece of evidence you will present is the geologic cross section that shows the private wells pump from a different aquifer than the much deeper municipal well, and the two aquifers are separated by an aquitard. 

Chairperson, Fruitvale County Taxpayer’s Association

You think the best plan is simply to prohibit pumping from private wells.  This will cost the taxpayer nothing, and because there are very few people who use water from these wells, it won’t cost those people much either.  Too much of the average citizen’s hard-earned paycheck is already wasted by useless government projects that always cost more and take longer than expected and then still don’t solve the problem!  It has most likely been several years since the spill occurred and there have been no reported health problems, so what is all the fuss about?  In fact, there is no convincing evidence that the Fruitvale Municipal Water Well will ever be contaminated.  Odds are that nature will take its course and contamination will eventually go away without anyone getting sick.