Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

At the meeting held by the EPA last Thursday, November 15, Remedial Project Manager Young Chang behaved disrespectfully and made what was a gesture of indifference obvious to anyone present. I am referring to her hand motions to David Kluesner in an effort to hurry along people exercising their given right to comment on the proposed remediation strategy. Chang’s impatience was seething, as well as the nature in which she delivered her portion of the presentation. I know because I sat next to her between the rest of the EPA contingent and the Alcoa contingent. It would not be farfetched to gather from her behavior that she was uninterested to be there, and was even less interested in what we had to say during the comment period. Perhaps it’s just a formality, and they are going to select the least financially impactful solution for Alcoa, anyway.

If this behavior is indicative of the EPA’s attitude towards the people of Akwesasne and the impact that generations of pollution have had on us, than it is clear that the EPA needs to reassess their commitment to both the project and to the people of Akwesasne, rather than its commitment to the large corporations who have created the situation. Deal with those responsible by doing the will of the people, the actual stewards of the environment here, and make those responsible completely remediate the problem.

In short, the EPA owes us nothing less. People are worried Alcoa will leave if they are forced to face the full reality of the problem they created. However, it was said by multiple people that Alcoa is ‘gonna’ do what it’s going to do. Alcoa won’t leave because the cleanup is too expensive, but because they can make more money elsewhere. At one point it felt as though Chang was dangling potential work and training opportunities as part of the cleanup as well, and I know for me that didn’t sit well at all.

There was no mention of other alternatives like bioremediation. One such example is Bacterial Dechlorination, a tested technology backed by years of research, from multiple sources. One such study was conducted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and was over 20 years and identified many species of bacteria as well as various means of delivery. These are not new sciences and have been done all over the world; Finland and the UK are other notable examples where these methods are being tested.

Compared to the growing list of alternatives, the options offered by the EPA look like the least they could get away with and have appeared to have done something. We as a community should familiarize ourselves with the issues present, and be sure to head over to the EPA website, call, or even write to be sure that we are heard.

Written comments should be mailed to:

Young S. Chang,

Remedial Project Manager

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

290 Broadway, 20th Floor,

New York, NY 10007-1866

Comments can be emailed to:

chang.young@epa.gov.

Fax: (212) 637-3966

Phone calls should be directed to:

Larisa Romanowski

518-747-4389

romanowski.larisa@epa.gov

We need to show them we WILL NOT accept anything less than what we deserve.

Niawen Kowa

Ian Oakes