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Cleanup set for polluted Rhode Island neighborhood

Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:36 AM EDT
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Associated Press
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TIVERTON — The cleanup is scheduled to start in a Rhode Island neighborhood so polluted with arsenic, cyanide, lead and other contaminants that its soil turned blue.

Lawyers for about 150 plaintiffs said work to clean the contaminated soil in Tiverton should begin Monday.

It's funded by an $11.5 million settlement with Houston-based Southern Union that ended a lawsuit.

The pollution was uncovered in 2002, when a sewer line was dug. A state investigation found the pollution was a byproduct created decades ago when the Fall River Gas Co., now owned by Southern Union, turned coal into gas.

Once the work is complete and approved by the state, residents will once more be allowed to dig in their backyards or build on their property.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Not the same contaminates but reminds me of when the residents of Times Beach (which started as a small thing) were ALL evacuated (except an elderly couple who refused to go)(which reminds me of Katrina and folks who would NOW refuse to leave even if they were told they should)(which reminds me of those that during Katrina just couldn't).

The question IS (please tell me) Tiverton is not going to end up like Times Beach right? How many more cities are contaminated and we just don't know (or some know but just aren't saying)?

    Reply#1 - Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:37 PM EDT
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