In the search to find a good location for a new Allen County Hospital, trustees learned a valuable lesson. What goes around, comes around. And some mistakes have greater consequences than others.
Hospital trustees thought East Street could be a workable site — with a little elbow grease.
Instead, the most ideal spot on the site turned out to be a disaster because of years of misuse by former zinc smelter operators in the early 1900s. Samplings of the soil revealed all kinds of contaminants, an unstable core because of it also being used as a former dump, and intermittent seepage that caused further concern.
THE NEWS that Iola likely will be designated as a Superfund site — among the nation’s worst for toxic waste — again hearkens to actions of more than 100 years ago.
Hundreds more inspections will be necessary than those conducted in 2006. The threshold for contaminants will be lower, meaning more homes and lives will be disrupted.
On the bright side, the designation could mean a tidy sum of federal funds coming our way to carry out the extensive work. Hopefully, merchants and retailers will benefit.
But, oh my, that’s the slimmest of silver linings in the designation.
Think Love Canal, where buried toxic waste and later a dump site caused a public health emergency where citizens developed mysterious illnesses, women suffered a high rate of miscarriages and children were born with birth defects.
An extreme case, for sure, but real, nonetheless, and one that tainted the New York community for the next 25 years.
THE BEST-CASE scenario is for Iolans to comply with the EPA rules so we can get this public relations disaster behind us as quickly as possible.
And though the remediation is to be for residences only, perhaps we can sweet talk the professionals into cleaning up the East Street parcels so some day they can be a safe and attractive entrance to town.
Now that would be turning lemons into lemonade.
— Susan Lynn
