Cabot Koppers is actually two separate contamination sites, the Koppers site (90 acres) on the west, and the Cabot carbon site (50 acres) on the east (see map below). The Koppers side of the site is still active, with a wood treatment operation that has been active since 1916.  The Cabot side of the site is no longer active, it has been redeveloped and currently contains a commercial shopping mall among other things.

The controversy with Cabot Koppers surrounds poor waste handling and the leaching of carcinogens including arsenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, and creosote compounds into ground water, soil, and off-site surface water. This has been of particular concern to residents of the Stephen Foster neighborhood, located just to the west of the Superfund site.

While the EPA and the two potentially responsible parties (Beazer East Inc. and Cabot Corporation) have been taking steps since 1990 to clean up the site, many residents argue that it isn’t enough. In particular, the feeling is that the site isn’t being cleaned quickly enough. Especially as recent testing has suggested a higher level of contamination than previously thought. You can see more details about this aspect of the debate in this article from the Gainesville Sun (Oct. 25, 2009).

Recently, the EPA issued a preliminary “Feasibility Study” outlining the level of cleanup it plans to direct Beazer Co. to implement. Several local meetings are being held to facilitate communication between the Gainesville community, the county of Alachua, and the EPA. However, this level of remediation is inadequate according to Gainesville city, Alachua County and GRU experts. They argue that the proposed plan will not permanently contain the polluted groundwater.

The controversy surrounding the remediation of the site has been featured in a number of recent media segments, including a radio bit on WUFT (Oct. 19th, 2009) and a number of articles in the Gainesville Sun.

There has also been quite a bit of activism surrounding the clean up of the site, including a painting on the 34th street wall in Gainesville that states,”Cancer no! Koppers must go!” A public rally was also held on Saturday October 24th, 9am-1 pm in front of the Cabot Kopper site.

On Thursday, Oct. 29th, another rally will be held outside the Alachua County Administration Building from 4 pm until the end of the joint meeting. An organizational meeting for this rally will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 27th, at Parkview Baptist Church (3403 NW 13th St). For more information, contact Susan Fairforest at 384-0111, or Ronald Hodill at begweather55@hotmail.com. More information is also available at the Cabot Koppers Superfund Information web page.

Finally, several groups have set up Facebook pages: Clean Up the Gainesville Superfund Site, and Students for Clean Water in Gainesville. These sites have links to videos of town meetings as well as lists of other activities.

An electronic copy of the EPA Feasibility Report can be found here. Written comments can be directed to:

EPA Remedial Project
Manager, Scott Miller
(404) 562-9120, miller
scot@epa.gov

Or: Scott Miller,
U.S. EPA Region 4
61 Forsyth St., SW
Mail code 9T25
Atlanta, GA., 30303-8960

Fred Murry,
Assistant City Manager,
City of Gainesville,
P.O. Box 490
Station No. 6,
Gainesville, FL., 32602
murryfj@cityofgainesville.org.

Letter deadline is Nov. 10, 2009.

“Zoonotic diseases are like wildfires, which flare up unexpectedly and can take a significant toll on human and animal health, and damage household livelihoods as well as national economies,” report committee co-chair Marguerite Pappaioanou, executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, said in a National Research Council news release.

You can read the whole article here.

The World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change, released in advance of this December’s global talks in Copenhagen, estimates poor nations will bear between 75 and 80 per cent of the cost of floods, increased desertification and other disasters with countries in Africa and South Asia expected to lose up to 5 per cent of GDP. By 2020, between 75 and 250 million people will be exposed to increased water stress. Consider the impact in Africa alone, where rain-fed agriculture employs 70 per cent of the population.

You can read the whole article here.

I am a biocultural medical anthropologist interested in the anthropology of child heath and survival, social inequality, and the long-term consequences of structural violence among African pastoral populations. My research relies on the mother-infant dyad as an integrative framework for exploring resilience (in both a social and biological context) and the interactions between harm reduction strategies, individual biology, and human adaptability.

My current work focuses on pastoral Datoga households in northern Tanzania and uses changes in household production demands and variations in patterns of infant vulnerability as a framework for examining the practical and evolutionary implications of caregiver-infant interactions and investment decisions. It utilizes a biocultural model of risk for illness that incorporates the dynamic effects of infant biological vulnerability, caregiver investment strategies, and individual patterns of infant maturation.  In this research I examine questions about Datoga caregivers’ perception and understanding of changes in infant vulnerability over time and the synchrony between maternal perceptions of infant health and the actual biological vulnerabilities of the child. The project also considers how women use information about infant state to buffer infants and balance allocation of resources between caregiving and household production.

My work in the near future involves seeking funding for a long-term biocultural project on waterborne illness and preventative care among semi-nomadic Datoga households in northern Tanzania based on pilot studies during 2004 and 2005. This project is an exploration of how the interaction between individual strategies for harm reduction and water security within Datoga households influences patterns of diarrheal illness due to waterborne parasite transmission (Giardia, Entamoeba, and Crypotosporidia). The study builds on my previous work on human adaptability, infant vulnerability, and harm reduction among Datoga mothers by focusing on the specificity of Datoga knowledge about waterborne and zoonotic disease transmission, including cultural concepts of water quality and “risky” and “appropriate” behaviors associated with reducing risk for illness. The health impacts of disparities between knowledge and practice are then examined by exploring how household/community sociopolitical and economic variables interact with individual concepts of water quality to shape decisions about preventative care, and ultimately patterns of health and human adaptability.

All items on this site copyright © Alyson G. Young, 2008

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