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Hidden Costs of Pollution:
The Costs of Not Preventing Pollution and Disease Are Astronomical
1. Great personal costs are involved for individuals forced to live in a dump town. While your air, water, and soil are being polluted by everyone else’s garbage and hazardous waste (waste is accepted in Pottstown from at least 17 other states and Canada), your property value goes down.
Those closest can not sell their homes. Loss on personal property creates a severe economic hardship on people with limited resources. People not living in dump towns enjoy the full, unimpaired use of their unpolluted property, while people in the vicinity of a dump are deprived of those rights, and yet taxed at the same rates. People in dump towns have their entire lives diminished.
2. Then there is the ultimate cost in the associated health impacts and consequences. People overexposed to pollution develop numerous environmental illnesses including asthma, allergies, reproductive problems, central nervous system disorders, as well as cancer.
These illnesses cause loss of workdays. Sick people are forced to go on welfare and disability. People are forced to go on Medicare. People are also forced to take exotic drugs that they cannot afford.
3. These increased environmental illnesses inevitably result in higher insurance premiums.
4. Polluting big businesses and industries get tax breaks.
5. When waste companies leave the community, taxpayers are inevitably left with the responsibilities.
6. Local, state, and federal taxes are forced to pay tremendous clean-up costs. The companies who made a fortune making the mess manage to shirk responsibility.
7. Loopholes and permits allow polluting big business and industry to transfer their liabilities. (i.e. landfill gas pipeline)
8. Paying for associated problems and clean-up costs causes increased public taxes.
9. There are tremendous public costs in doing research and studies on pollution.
10. Monitoring must be essential for safety’s sake, but it costs a great deal.
11. There are tremendous public costs in lawsuits for DEP to fight against polluting big business and industry. Polluters have endless resources to hire all the high price lawyers, experts, and PR firms they need to win regardless of the truth. Therefore DEP decisions are being made to avoid these lawsuits.
DEP decisions are NOT being made in accordance with their mission statement, to PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH and SAFETY. Private citizens are denied their day in court against DEP because of lack of money to hire ‘lawyers’ and ‘experts’.
ACE
P.O. Box 3063
Stowe, PA 19464
ace@acereport.org
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