WAUSAU – Love Canal has been considered by many to be one of the worst environmental disasters in American history. Now, on June 3, Wausau residents will get to hear from an expert who was actually there.
Toxicologist Stephen Lester will speak at 9 a.m. June 3 at the Jefferson Street Inn, 201 Jefferson St.
“Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Co. stopped using the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, had been percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal,” according to epa.gov.
Lester’s speech, “Truth and Consequences,” will address the importance and role of scientific information in community organizing and will cover such issues as having a plan for how best to use scientific information, the importance of knowing what scientific information can and cannot tell you and what we know about how mixtures of toxic chemicals affect the human body.
Admission is free, but attendees should RSVP online to reserve their seat at:
WausauEnvironmentalSummit.rsvpify.com.
Lester is not unfamiliar with Wausau. In the past, concerned by what they considered an inadequate government response, Wausau residents contacted Lester and asked if he would review environmental data from Riverside Park and part of the former Connor Forest Industries property on Wausau’s southwest side, according to Citizens for a Clean Wausau. He did. Years later, both sites are under Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources oversight and will undergo significant remediation.
“He is not just nationally known, but made a positive impact in our community,” said Randy Radtke, cospokesperson of Citizens for a Clean Wausau. “It is exciting that he will be presenting in town next month.”
