Oak Ridge Scary stuff (Jackson, Farragut: to buy, schools, restaurants)

[Bones]

What about "what you don't know won't hurt you" ¿
Sure.....

[TXboomerang]

I think its a case of pick your poison. There are wonderful places to live all over the United States. There is not a single one that doesn't have its risks either from natural or man made issues. While I don't like the idea of living so close to where all of our enriched uranium is being stored, I think the odds of a terrorist attack on Oak Ridge is pretty low. Keep in mind that while we have the raw stuff in Oak Ridge, the LOADED warheads are not. It would not hurt the US militarily to attack Oak Ridge. We have enough loaded and active nuclear warheads located outside of Oak Ridge to send every planet in our solar system into a nuclear winter.

I'm a little disturbed by the mercury and PCB issues, but those problems are rampant throughout many parts of this region, not just Oak Ridge and Knoxville. Rivers in the northeast can also be pretty full of contaminants.

So all in all, I guess I would suggest not moving here if it really freaks you out that bad. But if you stop and think about how many people have lived here for long periods of time with happy, healthy lives, I think you'll realize that the area is really nice overall.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by tnbound2day

I think its a case of pick your poison. There are wonderful places to live all over the United States. There is not a single one that doesn't have its risks either from natural or man made issues. While I don't like the idea of living so close to where all of our enriched uranium is being stored, I think the odds of a terrorist attack on Oak Ridge is pretty low. Keep in mind that while we have the raw stuff in Oak Ridge, the LOADED warheads are not. It would not hurt the US militarily to attack Oak Ridge. We have enough loaded and active nuclear warheads located outside of Oak Ridge to send every planet in our solar system into a nuclear winter.

I'm a little disturbed by the mercury and PCB issues, but those problems are rampant throughout many parts of this region, not just Oak Ridge and Knoxville. Rivers in the northeast can also be pretty full of contaminants.

So all in all, I guess I would suggest not moving here if it really freaks you out that bad. But if you stop and think about how many people have lived here for long periods of time with happy, healthy lives, I think you'll realize that the area is really nice overall.

I have met more active intelligent seniors here than I have anyplace else in my life. My current photojournalism instructor, a former photojournalist, is in his 80s and still teaches at the college in addition to my retiree class. He recently applied to be an imbedded photojournalist in Iraq. Yes, you read that correctly. I'd say he was an exception but I have met many long-time Oak Ridge seniors just like him. If long-time exposure to something is making them the physically active, brainiac retirees they are, then I'll have what they're having.

[TXboomerang]

I worked a sales job when I first got to Knoxville. We had an outside sales rep who worked part time. He is 70. He worked at ORNL for 30 years before he started selling fitness equipment for a semi-retired job. He started selling equipment because he was very active in the community and very involved with school sports programs because his kids and grandkids were involved. So basically he knew most of the coaches in Knox, Loudon, and Anderson counties. He had acted as a middle man unpaid just helping a couple of coaches equip their facility because he was friends with them and wanted to help, which is when the company I worked for recruited him to do it for them regularly. He worked 4 days a week and then tried to retire but all the coaches had his home number and would always calling asking for recommendations and help, so ended up staying with it 2 days per week for 6 hours. He still lifts weights 5 days a week.

I'd say overall he's in pretty good shape for a 70 y/o that worked in Oak Ridge for 3 decades. I was worried about all the stuff I had heard until I met him and realized there was nothing more to worry about here than anywhere else.

[hiknapster]

I don't think people really understand the extent of the problem at Oak Ridge or its surrounding towns.

Excerpts from an article that ran in The Tennessean in 1997.


Scientists say they don't yet know the full extent of the contamination here. That, they say, will take years more to discover.

But they do know the reservation is among the most contaminated places in the country.


State officials, and some Oak Ridge scientists, fear that failure to adequately clean or contain the reservation's poisons could pose a significant health threat to the people living nearby.

Some reservation workers and nearby residents fear this scenario already is unfolding.

"My life is over -- I'm dying," says Stella Lee, 57, one of more than 200 reservation workers and nearby residents interviewed by The Tennessean who believe they have already been harmed by reservation poisons.

"They could have warned us," says Lee, an Oak Ridge reservation worker for 17 years whose body is wracked by tremors, memory loss and degenerating bones. "They could have said, 'If you work here or live around here be careful -- there's lots of poisons that could hurt you.' But they didn't do that. We had no way to know any better."


These contaminated sites have made the Oak Ridge reservation a toxic tapestry of some of the worst, longest-lasting poisons known to man.


White Oak Creek, once called the most radioactively contaminated waterway in the free world, flows along the southern edge of the reservation. The creek collects and carries radioactive strontium and tritium into the Clinch River. The Clinch flows into Watts Bar Lake, a popular swimming, boating and fishing spot. Watts Bar is part of the Tennessee River, a source of drinking water for several communities downstream.

18 buildings, including several the government wants to lease to private industry, have a risk of a spontaneous nuclear reaction from leftover nuclear fuel.

These streams carry toxic metals and chemicals from waste burial grounds and holding ponds into the Clinch.

Rain water -- an average 55 inches a year -- also leaks into buildings contaminated with toxic metals like beryllium, lead and mercury and washes them onto the ground.

This runoff water flows into creeks, then into the Clinch, then into Watts Bar Lake and the Tennessee River. Contaminants from the reservation have been found in the Tennessee River as far away as Chattanooga, more than 95 miles downstream.

The rain that does not run off into streams goes into the ground, creating still other problems. Underground water rises in burial pits, then falls, sweeping contaminants away toward creeks and eventually the Clinch River.

Additionally, pockets of poisons that are heavier than water spread contamination to the moving, underground water supply. But scientists don't know how to remove or contain these poisons. Whenever they try, they risk disturbing the pockets and sending the poisons deeper into the ground.

So, around the clock, a series of pumps, ditches and diverters is constantly at work to keep as many of the contaminants from seeping off the reservation as possible.



Others are directly in the poisons' pathways: 30,000 people live in the city of Oak Ridge, home of East Fork Poplar Creek, which brings surface runoff from one part of the reservation through the middle of town.

Four towns downstream of the Oak Ridge reservation -- Kingston, Harriman, Rockwood and Spring City -- get their municipal water from the Tennessee River.


Oak Ridge contamination eve worse than feared

[JMT]

My grandfather smoked until the day he died. He was 91 when he died. His brother (my great uncle) smokes and is now 90 and is still very active.

I could look at those two and say, "hey, smoking must not be that bad." And obviously for them, it isn't/wasn't. But the rest of the world still insists that smoking is dangerous for our health.

There are plenty of risks we take in life, some are necessary (taking the elevator up 20 flights), some aren't (eating that extra brownie).

Oak Ridge is a fine town. It's got a lot of really smart people there who have been paid a lot of money and can afford the very high property taxes there. They apparently understand the risks involved in living in Oak Ridge. Or maybe they don't. Or maybe they choose not to know.

Regardless, living in an area with documented radioactive contaminants is not a risk I need to take, nor do I want to. If others are willing to do it, then more power to them. We should all have that freedom. But for me, I don't want to add any more risks to what I already have in life, so that means not living in Oak Ridge ever again.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I don't think people really understand the extent of the problem at Oak Ridge or its surrounding towns.

Excerpts from an article that ran in The Tennessean in 1997.


Scientists say they don't yet know the full extent of the contamination here. That, they say, will take years more to discover.

But they do know the reservation is among the most contaminated places in the country.


State officials, and some Oak Ridge scientists, fear that failure to adequately clean or contain the reservation's poisons could pose a significant health threat to the people living nearby.

Some reservation workers and nearby residents fear this scenario already is unfolding.

"My life is over -- I'm dying," says Stella Lee, 57, one of more than 200 reservation workers and nearby residents interviewed by The Tennessean who believe they have already been harmed by reservation poisons.

"They could have warned us," says Lee, an Oak Ridge reservation worker for 17 years whose body is wracked by tremors, memory loss and degenerating bones. "They could have said, 'If you work here or live around here be careful -- there's lots of poisons that could hurt you.' But they didn't do that. We had no way to know any better."


These contaminated sites have made the Oak Ridge reservation a toxic tapestry of some of the worst, longest-lasting poisons known to man.


White Oak Creek, once called the most radioactively contaminated waterway in the free world, flows along the southern edge of the reservation. The creek collects and carries radioactive strontium and tritium into the Clinch River. The Clinch flows into Watts Bar Lake, a popular swimming, boating and fishing spot. Watts Bar is part of the Tennessee River, a source of drinking water for several communities downstream.

18 buildings, including several the government wants to lease to private industry, have a risk of a spontaneous nuclear reaction from leftover nuclear fuel.

These streams carry toxic metals and chemicals from waste burial grounds and holding ponds into the Clinch.

Rain water -- an average 55 inches a year -- also leaks into buildings contaminated with toxic metals like beryllium, lead and mercury and washes them onto the ground.

This runoff water flows into creeks, then into the Clinch, then into Watts Bar Lake and the Tennessee River. Contaminants from the reservation have been found in the Tennessee River as far away as Chattanooga, more than 95 miles downstream.

The rain that does not run off into streams goes into the ground, creating still other problems. Underground water rises in burial pits, then falls, sweeping contaminants away toward creeks and eventually the Clinch River.

Additionally, pockets of poisons that are heavier than water spread contamination to the moving, underground water supply. But scientists don't know how to remove or contain these poisons. Whenever they try, they risk disturbing the pockets and sending the poisons deeper into the ground.

So, around the clock, a series of pumps, ditches and diverters is constantly at work to keep as many of the contaminants from seeping off the reservation as possible.



Others are directly in the poisons' pathways: 30,000 people live in the city of Oak Ridge, home of East Fork Poplar Creek, which brings surface runoff from one part of the reservation through the middle of town.

Four towns downstream of the Oak Ridge reservation -- Kingston, Harriman, Rockwood and Spring City -- get their municipal water from the Tennessee River.


Oak Ridge contamination eve worse than feared

I'm more worried about those pork chops I had last night and the 5 cookies I just ate.

[bbkaren]

I'd be more worried about the stress of worrying!

I still say look at the obits. How old are people dying? Is there an unusual number dying under 70?

[Godsdove]

I don't think people realize how many dangers there are everywhere. I'm not saying all people.....but a lot of people. The town I'm from originally had a cyclotron facility under it with high levels of radioactivity. No one seemed concerned. There was also a high level of PCBs in the area. I was born and raised there....as were many generations before me....and nothing bad ever happened. So I guess I just figure that anything can happen to anyone anytime. We are not promised tomorrow anyway....sooooo.....I'm going to live each day to the fullest and not give myself an ulcer in the meantime caused by worrying about stuff that might or might not happen. Anyway....my opinion. If people don't want to live in Oak Ridge....that is fine....but we love it here and so...it just takes all kinds I guess.

[inave]

If you don't mind my asking, Godsdove, why do you "love it" in OR? I really am trying to change my attitude about it since it seems we'll be here longer than I had hoped.

JMT, if I remember, you grew up in OR. What DON'T you like about it?

Any other comments welcomed.