Smell Of Money Sometimes A Warning

“Just two things of which you must beware: Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air.” - Tom Lehrer That’s the smell of money,” was what I was told in my youth when a bad odor met my nose, whether when we traveled through various paper mill towns or passed near huge feed lots of confi ned animals or rushed past fl aring gas wells in south Arkansas.

Visiting the steel mill town of Birmingham, Ala., I remember actually seeing the odor I was smelling from its eerie orange sky.

Here in Fayetteville those of us on the east side of town spent more than 15 years unsure when the next blast of stench would rise from the valley where the sewer plant sits. That sewer odor has, thankfully, nowbeen reined under control.

In severe air pollution circumstances, it is probably a survival instinct that shouts into our stupefi ed brains, “This is bad for you - get out!”

Recently I spent the day with several people whose common sense was telling them the same thing. Since this latest major Exxon oil spill, from a 22-foot crack in the 65-year-old Pegasus pipeline, the lives and lungs of many people in Mayflower have been changed forever. Some do not want to return to their homes or even to many of their possessions because the smell of diluted (with chemicals) bitumen (extracted from Canadian tar sands crude)has permeated not only the bricks and mortar of the homes, but their carpets, furniture and clothes. Their common sense is telling them if they can still smell something, then something is still there. And why wouldn’t it be?

How can mere humans really clean up thousands of gallons of slippery slimy toxic substances that have soaked into dirt and washed into water courses? How do you contain something people walk and drive in and animals unfortunately come into contact with unless extreme measures are followed to prevent contamination from leaving a site? From the observations of residents of the Mayfl ower area, workers are not practicing strict decontamination procedures before entering stores, restaurants, etc.

Some nearby neighbors alsofeel they, and children at a school several blocks away, have been put in harm’s way by the oily airborne vapors from the spill and should have been evacuated as well.

My reason for attending this particular meeting in Conway was to hear what 11 knowledgeable speakers had to say about spilled oil and oil companies. Among them was Dr. Riki Ott, a trained marine toxicologist, who spoke about her experiences with Exxon and the Valdez oil tanker disaster that dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska’s Prince William Sound 24 years ago, contaminating 1,300 miles of shoreline. Oil can still be found on parts of Alaska’s coast and in the subsurface.

Dr. Wilma Subra, a physiological biochemist from Louisiana who has worked with citizen groups on numerous contamination and health issues, spokeabout chemical samples being tested from Lake Conway, those not being tested and health impacts from exposures. Her background includes technical advising after the catastrophic BP Gulf of Mexico leak from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in 2010. In its subsequent response to that spill, the oil industry rushed to spread about 2 million gallons of Corexit, a dangerous toxic chemical dispersant, across the slicks to break up and sink the oil out of sight, which was probably the worst possible solution they could have picked.

One can’t help but wonder what Exxon could possibly have been thinking in Mayflower, too, when instead of trying at all costs to contain the oil in as tight a known area as possible, they hosed the oiled yards with water, which helpedscatter it, hastening its travels into a wetland and cove of Lake Conway. Was this yet another example of a cosmetic out-of-sight answer when dealing with disaster? Dilution is not the solution to pollution, but the exact opposite, a concept not grasped in countless “cleanup” eff orts.

What’s at stake? Beyond the affected cove of Lake Conway lies the watershed of the Arkansas River and Lake Maumelle, Little Rock’s drinking water source.

That’s just the beginning of this water’s journey to the sea. When will we ever comprehend we live in one world where there is only one water and one air and no boundaries ?

FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.