Hope for a Treece rescue

treeceGood for Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., for coaxing the Environmental Protection Agency to send three top officials to Treece, the southeast Kansas community hopelessly contaminated by waste from lead and zinc mining. Their plan to visit Thursday doesn’t guarantee a federal rescue for the 100 remaining residents. But it seems likely that seeing the devastation will lead the EPA officials to believe, as Roberts and others do, that a $3 million buyout would be stimulus money well-spent.

7 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 6:30 am | Permalink

    Treece sounds like a good place to build a new manufacturing plant to produce chewing tobacco.

    “Treece chaw is better chaw. And it comes packaged in a little round lead/zinc lined container to maintain its freshness. Buy some today!”

  2. Daniel
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 7:16 am | Permalink

    First, stimulus money is evil so there stimulus money spent can’t possibly be money well spent.

    Second, why aren’t the companies who contaminated this small town and rendered it uninhabitable financially responsible for the consequences of their actions?

    Why is this a Federal concern?

    Why aren’t there free-market remedies available to make all injured parties whole?

  3. Daniel
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 7:23 am | Permalink

    ‘there’ should be ‘any.’

    I need a faster coffee pot.

  4. Political_mama
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 9:42 am | Permalink

    Roberts is a hypocrite, he doesn’t care that these people are out of their lifelong family homes because big businesses want no regulations. Pat is for the same policies that caused this to happen in the first place.

  5. TomPaine
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 10:24 am | Permalink

    No environmental regulations, little government, sounds like a right wing paradise

  6. totoinks
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 11:18 am | Permalink

    Why don’t we make Pat Roberts and his fellow Republcicans live in Treece just for 6 months!

    These are the ones who think that no regulations, runaway greed and Big Business can never do any wrong.

    Just put up a few of those FEMA trailers left over from Hurricane Katrina – then we’ll see how fast their fat butts will move to ‘reform’ things.

    Also, – don’t give them any access to health care or pay for their medications.

    Now, that would be KARMA..

  7. totoinks
    Posted August 16, 2009 at 11:19 am | Permalink

    Just to make things even more interesting – put a few of those GITMO detainees in the trailer next to Pat’s.

    After all, GITMO was created by the Republicans – let them be the ones to clean up that mess too!