Toxic Time Bomb in Elmira

[danbrotherston]

I am shocked about this. Possibly I had read about it before I moved to the region but I don't remember.
Elmira's Toxic Time Bomb

The link to the video. Toxic Time Bomb by Sheba Films
Free to view for a limited time.

I'd not heard of it before I moved here, but I've heard about it on and off since I moved here.

The scale of the disaster is obviously unique, but the outcome is also a bit unique...I haven't watched the video, but I do know the company (even in it's current form) is actively cleaning up the mess. While I'm sure there is discussion about the effectiveness of their efforts, the very fact that they exist makes them unique from so many other instances of chemical contamination in our community.

I don't know what the difference is that makes it so the company is spending money of some amount on actually correcting their environmental harm. I get the sense that holding companies responsible to any degree whatsoever for the harm they create is fairly rare.

From in town, where there is land so contaminated that even across the street from the central transit station, the land value is negative, to the tar sands, to even Lac-Mégantic, corporations which place the risk of harm on the public and are effectively subsidized are the norm, nor the exception.

To drive a car, I must carry insurance to cover the liability of the more or less worst possible case if I make a mistake.  But MMA...the subsidary which operated the train in the Lac-Mégantic disaster was not required to be bonded or insured for a disaster on the scale of the one that occurred. It is now bankrupt and the losses that occurred...while irreplaceable in many cases, will not be compensated for.  The companies which owned and benefitted from the LLC continue to operate, having successfully divested themselves of the risk of operating freight trains carrying dangerous cargo without proper maintenance.

But I guess stronger regulations would just be "red tape".