Wednesday, November 14, 2007
By LAWRENCE AARON
RECORD COLUMNIST
CLAPPING with the enemy. An Environmental Protection Agency facilitator orchestrated applause from a large audience at a recent meeting called to review progress of the cleanup at the Ringwood Superfund site.
The clapping scene seemed so unreal. Tensions still linger between the Ramapough Mountain Indians and the federal agency they blame for bungling the toxic waste cleanup. With sinkholes and unresolved health problems, they fret constantly about their homes and their future.
The EPA hired a facilitator to cope with Upper Ringwood's understandable anger and to neutralize the atmosphere when both sides sat down to talk. The agency wanted the community to see that friction caused by residents themselves is holding up progress.
Facilitator Michael Lythcott's strategy at a recent meeting was to get Ringwood residents applauding the EPA, symbolically recognizing they're all in this together. Halting the meeting several times to get some clapping action going, Lythcott stopped short of making everyone stand for a chorus of "Kumbaya."
"Missteps that the government made with the people of Upper Ringwood go back many years," Lythcott acknowledged. He's worked with both sides since the summer. "Where we are in the process now is that the community and the EPA have established a different kind of dialogue."
Ringwood residents living with the effects of a contaminated environment should keep the pressure up. The growing Ramapough community's assertiveness, along with the push from other Ringwood residents and elected officials, pressured the EPA to restore the site to Superfund status.
Given the fact that the government enjoyed -- and betrayed -- the community's trust for decades, it would be a mistake to neutralize the voice of outrage before the EPA and Ford have finished the job.
As Frederick Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
The Ramapoughs, Ringwood area residents and representatives from the EPA and other state and federal agencies assembled last week for a progress report, and to discuss contamination levels in local game and plants.
The meeting was potentially volatile. For one thing, the EPA screwed up again. A health warning last year advising against eating squirrel was a false alarm. Nearly a year later, the EPA admits that elevated lead levels detected in small game were due to mishandled samples.
It was a defective piece of lab equipment -- an ordinary blender used to prepare the specimens -- and not lead paint and other toxic material in the environment that caused the tissue samples to show excessively high lead levels.
An honest mistake perhaps, but how can Ringwood believe the relationship has turned a corner if the EPA needlessly raised fear that food gathered from the site was extremely contaminated? EPA workers should understand by now how heavily residents rely on local game and gardens.
I was stunned at the facilitator's audacity, asking the audience to applaud state and federal officials while bad health reports and other problems loom.
With a genial demeanor -- talk show host mixed with camp director-- Lythcott deftly softened the mood by deflecting anger and urgency away from the panel of environmental and health experts. But clapping for the enemy can't erase decades of dismissive treatment or ensure a thorough cleanup.
The sight of the normally stoic Ramapoughs and the Ringwood community standing to applaud the EPA at the encouragement of the facilitator (who's on the EPA's payroll) was surreal, especially with many major issues unresolved.
One member of the community told me casually about surgeons cutting out multiple flesh abnormalities to bring a worsening skin condition under control. What's to applaud?
I wanted to tell the residents: Don't stand up and clap like trained seals when the EPA facilitator gives the signal. Don't let them think that you accept half-baked cleanup efforts, or that past transgressions are forgiven.
As the meeting closed, Lythcott again solicited applause. This time he had the agency reps stand and give a round of applause for the audience. Then he encouraged the dwindling audience to again applaud the EPA.
It looked like the theater of the absurd.
There's no way to get around the fact that the EPA bears much responsibility for Upper Ringwood's woes. No amount of applause is going to clap away the tons of toxic waste still waiting to be removed.
Lawrence Aaron is a Record columnist. Contact him at aaron@northjersey.com. Send comments about this column to letterstotheeditor@northjersey.com.
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