| Cross-posted on Daily Kos
Back in May, I discussed meeting the Ramapough Mountain Indians. The Ramapough must live with the legacy of two decades of toxic waste dumped on their land, and meeting them strengthened my desire to run for Congress in a profound way. That's why I'm running for Congress to represent the people of North Jersey who currently do not have a voice in Washington.
Now, I'm posting today because the Ramapough Indians and their neighbors in Ringwood face yet more environmental challenges. Near the Ford Superfund site, the source of the toxic waste dumps, are neighborhoods build on a network of abandoned mines. And those neighborhoods are sinking.
Explains the Bergen Record: "In recent years, two homes have been evacuated, one huge sinkhole has opened in a back yard of a house that is still occupied, and part of a street was lost to a sinkhole."
Although these sinkholes began appearing three years ago, little has been done about them. The street site was repaired, but the other sites cannot get money from the state because they are on private property. Moreover, two evacuated families still have no permanent homes. And although the sinkholes first appeared while Ford was excavating "tons of toxic waste sludge," the company refuses to accept any responsibility for them. |
| When the first sinkhole appeared, Scott Garrett went to view the site with Frank Pallone, Frank Lautenberg, and Bob Menendez. As a result of what they saw, three of those four public officials worked together in 2007 to ensure that the EPA was appropriately testing the Ford Superfund site and to ensure that the excavations would not be harmful to Ringwood residents. Garrett, however, decided to sit this one out, despite the fact that this problem affected his constituents most directly.
Garrett was absent from all discussion, and has since remained silent on the environmental problems Ringwood residents are facing. To judge by his record, which includes voting against providing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina, it seems fair to assume that Garrett would continue to deny aid to residents of Ringwood, who fear that the ground will open under them.
When I replace Scott Garrett in Congress, I will work every day to protect the people of the district, the state, and indeed the country, from environmental hazard, and I will work to ensure that victims of environmental disaster, both natural and man-made, will be given the help they need.
The people of Ringwood are afraid that "the only thing that will light a fire under all the bureaucrats will be the sudden appearance of another sinkhole, [or] until a sinkhole causes harm to a person and not just to the land." Nobody should have to worry that they won't be helped until the ground opens up under them- or that they won't even be helped at all. Unlike Scott Garrett, I won't wait for our homes to sink before our eyes.
My whole life has been about problem-solving, and I'm looking forward to solving problems on behalf of my neighbors in the Fifth District when I represent them in Congress next year.
Thanks for your support. |
