Oak Ridge (Knoxville, Jackson, Alcoa: hotel, houses, neighborhood)

[TROSE]

Please Tell Me About Oak Ridge.i've Heard About Run Off.is The Soil And Water Safe?is There A High Incendents Of Cancer?we Fell In Love With The Town,however Then Heard Things About It,good And Bad.confused However Still In Love With The Area.

[hiknapster]

I've read a lot of info on Oak Ridge, so I'll take this one.

Oak Ridge has two sides to the story. You're going have to consider everything and decide for yourself.

Bear with me if you already know some of this. Maybe somebody else doesn't and will benefit.

Oak Ridge was a secret town created by the federal government during World War II. It did not appear on any map and wasn't even named until about 1949.

Oak Ridge separated and produced uranium and plutonium for use in developing a nuclear weapon. Most of the people that lived and worked there did not know exactly what they were doing. They did not know the danger that was involved. Their work was instrumental in dropping one of the bombs in Japan, and ending the war.

At the time, not much was known about plutonium and uranium. There were also experiments conducted in the area, including releases of plutonium into the air as late as 1952.

Having said that, as far as I know, the people that worked there did not necessarily experience unusual cancer rates. Of course, it is hard to tell. The people that worked there were sworn to secrecy. Even the state of Tennessee was in the dark regarding Oak Ridge.

I can't imangine that the public water supply would be bad and would be highly regulated.

I have not heard of unusually high cancer rates in the town. I have heard of high cancer rates in Alcoa, but have since not been able to find the article that I first read.

As far as the bodies of water in Oak Ridge, there are some advisories not to eat the catfish. Personally, I wouldn't eat any of the fish in that water. There is a river, I believe it is Poplar, where not only are you not allowed to fish but you are not allowed to TOUCH the water.

There are controlled deer hunts conducted by the goverment every year. Some years, there are no radiation detected. Some years, there are lots of deer found with radiation. Those deer are taken away.

They are working to get rid of the nuclear waste that is still in many of the government buildings. Of course, this poses even more hazards.

I like old houses, so Oak Ridge doen't really appeal to me. It was literally slapped together in 1942. However, there are some beautiful goverment buildings, schools and parks and Oak Ridge. The public schools are some of the best in the country.

Do know that Oak Ridge National Laboratory is still operational. It is integral in homeland security. During 9/11, I remember Katie Couric on NBC mentioning within an hour of the attacks that Oak Ridge had been secured.

Now, that can either make you feel good or bad. Do know that Oak Ridge surely must be on the top of the list of places that could be targets. Our enemies would love to blow up Oak Ridge. On the other hand, Oak Ridge surely has better security than most other locations across our country.

Take this information for what it is worth. I live due northeast of Oak Ridge. I am not very far from there. I live well north of the aquifer. However, if we were attacked, my family and me will surely be dust.

[JMT]

Yeah I agree, I don't think there's any danger to living in Oak Ridge and drinking the water there. I lived there for quite a while and worked for a company that's got the government contract to clean up the hazardous waste, and I think they're doing a pretty good job with it.

The only disadvantages I can think about Oak Ridge are: there's very little available housing in the city, and the property taxes are high. The federal government owns 80% of the land in the city of Oak Ridge, and it's not available for development. So what housing is in Oak Ridge is the cheap stuff slapped together in 1942, or it's more expensive stuff built in the last 10 years on some of the precious few acres the feds have given up for development.

Oak Ridge has astronomically high property taxes, at least by Tennessee standards. I'm sure part of it is to pay for their exceptional public schools, which really are among the best in the country.

I also don't like the fact that there's not a "downtown" Oak Ridge. It's just a bunch of strip malls around two major thoroughfares. But the people who live in Oak Ridge love it, and they rarely leave--hence the lack of available housing.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by TROSE

Please Tell Me About Oak Ridge.i've Heard About Run Off.is The Soil And Water Safe?is There A High Incendents Of Cancer?we Fell In Love With The Town,however Then Heard Things About It,good And Bad.confused However Still In Love With The Area.

I cut and pasted this from an e-mail I sent to a friend so references are geared to what she might relate to up north. It's not meant to be all inclusive. I'll post the nuke stuff separately.

Oak Ridge has 1,282 acres of parkland or 46 acres per 1,000 people. In addition, the city has more than 1,300 acres of greenbelt.

Oak Ridge has more than 70 restaurants and 700 hotel rooms.

There's a Belk's, JC Penney, Sears, Wal-Mart Supercenter, K-Mart, Outback, Ruby Tuesday, Panera Bread, Books-A-Million, Stagecoach Steakhouse, Staples, Home Depot, Baskin Robbins, multiplex movie theater as well as every fast food place imaginable. Major shopping can be done in adjacent Knoxville. Grocery stores include Food Lion, Food City and Kroger.

There is an annual Secret City Festival with World War II reenactments, a robot, foot races, food, entertainment, etc. The have 4th of July fireworks at the lake and a Christmas parade. They have cardboard boat races, a street painting fair, a film festival and a turbo turtle race to raise money for charity. There are a slew of churches in the town.

The school for retirees is in the Community College building. It offers classes like quantum mechanics, global economics, forensic anthropology, Great Decisions, Critical Issues and Choices, History of Britain, Oak Ridge’s Mouse House (where they do genetic experiments), History of the TVA, etc. and the classes change every semester. There are music, language and art classes, too, and they have both a non-fiction and fiction book group. They go on day trips and overnight trips every semester. They have a group that walks together by the marina.

Oak Ridge was built in secrecy during World War II as a major site of the "Manhattan Project."

Oak Ridge has an orchestra, symphony, children's show choir, community band, chorus, ballet, playhouse, junior playhouse. Every Saturday night in July and August, there are outdoor concerts. The orchestra also does a special holiday concert with the chorus. The Oak Ridge Community Playhouse is the longest continuously running theater in the Southeast.

The Museum of Appalachia (same county) has Tennessee Fall Homecoming (old-time mountain, folk, traditional, gospel, and bluegrass music, pioneer skills and competitions and handicrafts) and Christmas In Old Appalachia (old-time carols, wagon rides, pioneer demonstrations. Cabins are decorated in traditional Appalachian style, and there are demonstrations of woodcarving, spinning, open-hearth cooking, sawmilling, buck dancing, and sheep herding.

The University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge is an official wildlife observation area. The Arboretum (it’s free) has 2,500 species of plants.

The American Museum of Science and Energy opened in 1949. They have an art center and a civic center.

Jackson Square Historic Park was the original town site of Oak Ridge built during the Manhattan Project.

The Oak Ridge outdoor swimming pool is one of the largest outdoor spring-fed pools in the nation. There is an indoor pool, as well.

Methodist Medical Center, a major regional medical facility, serves five counties.

Oak Ridge has 23 tennis courts, 14 athletic fields, nine neighborhood playgrounds, and three golf courses.

Workforce includes more than 2,300 PhDs.

Oak Ridge has dedicated 11 greenways with more planned for the future.

Haw Ridge Park has more than 20 miles of mountain biking and horseback riding trails.

The state record striped bass was caught in Melton Hill Lake. There is a public fishing pier. The Oak Ridge Rowing Course on Melton Hill Lake is one of the top three courses in the USs.

More than 1,500 of the best archers in the nation visit Oak Ridge annually to compete for $80,000 in the Realtree Tennessee Pro/Am tournament.

The Children's Museum of Oak Ridge is located in an original Manhattan Project schoolhouse.

Offspring Magazine honored the Oak Ridge Public School system as one of the top 100 school districts in the United States. Additionally, the system was rated number 2 in the Southeast. Approximately 80% of Oak Ridge High School graduates are college bound. Three kids from the high school this year won a national prestigious science award and scholarship.

The Oak Ridge Public Library contains more than 10,000 volumes and is home to the Oak Ridge Story Room, which holds documents and photographs from the city's history.

Property Tax (note: a small part of Oak Ridge is in Roane County):

General Property
City: $2.55 per $100
Anderson - $2.68 per $100
Roane - $2.02 per $100

[LauraC]

In December 2006, The U.S. Department of Energy removed 118 million pounds of uranium hexafluoride from its reservation in Oak Ridge 3 years ahead of schedule. The site is currently being cleaned up to be an industrial park. According to the state's environment oversight chief, the cylinders posed the highest radiation threat to visitors at the site. The uranium hexaflouride went to Ohio, Nevada and Utah.

You may want to read this website of the Environmental Justice Committee on "Is Oak Ridge A Safe Place To Live?" on air and water issues:

http://home.comcast.net/~brooks50/or_envir.html

And, as long as I can remember when I lived on Long Island (NY) we had warnings about limiting the eating of fish and PCBs. I like to fish but I don't eat it, ever. You might want to read this:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/NEWS/oakridgetn120406.html (broken link)