To the people of Elyria, Ford Road is a well-known landmark, the bumps and hills and potholes as familiar as their own flaws.
The road, on the outskirts of the city, whisks travelers from I-90 past withered trees crouched like sages, before they reach a steel bridge that spans the Black River. Beyond is a portrait of Elyria past and present. A string of boxy homes, built for ’50s factory workers, gives way to a newly carved subdivision, filled with life-size dollhouses in beiges and pink.
Then comes the field. It’s a strange piece of property — flat and open, like 15 acres of Nebraska. No trees grow here. No buds curiously pop their heads from the ground. The place, by all signs, is a vegetative graveyard.
From time to time, residents have asked about this field. They’ve complained of the acidic stench that rises from the ground on humid days. They’ve wondered why, when the road is eyed so covetously by developers, one vast plot remains empty. Sometimes they ask why strange men in state-issued uniforms walk through it with futuristic radar devices. But mostly they’re content to go about everyday routines, not giving much thought to the space.
They should be asking more questions.
After weeks of dreary spring days, weathermen finally have positive news to relay: Sunshine is headed Elyria’s way. Outside a small farmhouse, Geraldine Shorter reclines on a lounge chair. Her white hair is pulled back with a floppy pink bow, her face tilted intently toward the sun. She looks peaceful, at one with the landscape.
It’s a rare moment when Shorter feels this way.
Forty years ago, she was newly married, ready to start a life far away from her childhood home in West Virginia with her husband, William. He had taken a job at the nearby Ford plant. The couple looked at lots throughout Lorain County. But when a real estate agent delivered them to this tiny farmhouse, Geraldine knew they’d found a home.
The backyard was large enough to host pickup football. And the Black River, flowing yards from their front lawn, would make a picturesque backdrop to their lives.
But the real estate agent failed to mention a few things. Like the fact that the innocent-looking plot across the street once housed a chemical dump. And that cancer-causing toxins were emerging from the ground.
The Shorters’ lives progressed as lives in Elyria tend to do. William went to the Ford factory every day. Geraldine minded their home. Two baby boys would become high-school football players, then roofers.
One day, while she was pruning her shrubs, a neighbor stopped by to chat and mentioned that the field across from Geraldine’s home had once housed a dump. She was disturbed for a moment, but then thought: “Well, it’s just garbage.” She went back to her flowers.
The field had always harbored unpleasantness. On particularly humid nights, dank, pungent odors would drift into their home. Geraldine would shut the windows and spray lilac-scented deodorants, waiting for the heat to pass.
The years progressed quickly. Her boys graduated and found their own homes. All was as it should be.
Then, four years ago, Geraldine was lounging on her living-room couch, watching TV, when she heard a rapping at the door. Her husband opened it to find two young men, as cheery as camp counselors. They said they were from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They wanted to know about the field across the street.
The questions came, rapid-fire: When did you first become aware of contamination at the site? Are you aware of what kinds of chemicals were stored there? Have you experienced any unexplained health problems?
Geraldine, sitting in the living room, was confused. Chemicals? Toxins? Contamination?
“I didn’t know what they were talking about,” she says. “They never let us know about any chemicals or anything.”
After the EPA people left, she sat, digesting the conversation. With time, she was able to push their words out of her mind.
But last year, she began to bleed. At first, she thought it was from menstrual complications. Yet the blood flowed heavy and nonstop for weeks. A gynecologist would deliver an unpromising diagnosis: ovarian cancer.
As she began to talk to neighbors, it seemed as if, almost overnight, Ford Road had become a cancer ward. Next door, Alice Carroll also had ovarian cancer. Across the street, Ruth Menges had breast cancer. Mr. Cumberland had brain cancer. The young neighbor down the street had lymphoma. “It was kind of strange for us all to get it at the same time,” Geraldine says.
That’s when they began to think more about that strange plot across the street.
The Ford Road landfill began operating in the early 20th century. Every day, loud trucks rumbled down the street, carrying steel barrels filled with the remnants of industry — pesticides, paint, lead, and factory runoff. There weren’t many dumping standards then, and the government wasn’t particularly tough about enforcing whatever regulations there were.
Back in 1954, Mrs. Thelma Ryan, a Ford Road resident, shot off aletter to Governor Frank Lausche, complaining about the “stinking, smoldering, rat-infested horror of horrors.” She encouraged other residents to do the same. There’s no record of any government response.
Not that that was surprising. Through the years, the dump had been owned by various powerful business people — the latest being George Brotherton, a well-connected man who was friends with local officials. Brotherton ostensibly kept records of every company that used the landfill. But even in the ’60s, people recalled seeing unfamiliar trucks rumbling down the street at 2 and 3 in the morning, dumping God knows what.
In the mid-’60s, the dump caught fire, sending dark chemical clouds into the air. It burned for three weeks, raining ashy residue onto nearby lawns. News reports describe residents complaining of strange skin ailments and breathing problems. They jammed City Hall, demanding remedy.
Brotherton promised the city that he would stop taking the “type of industrial waste that gives off fumes or starts fire by spontaneous combustion.” You could almost see his fingers crossing behind his back.
The mysterious 2 a.m. dumping continued. And the fires started again.
It would take rats, not fire, to eventually close the place down. The landfill had become a haven for thousands of them. Onlookers would come from miles away to see the massive colony, so thick on the road that they ran over them with their cars. The state eventually quarantined the dump and called exterminators. For a while, things were quiet.
In 1974, Lorain County made a surprise announcement: It had bought the land. The dump would be covered with a dirt cap and converted into a park. But that plan was soon dropped without explanation.
It wasn’t until 1980 that the Ohio EPA began random checks of 100 contaminated sites throughout Northeast Ohio. An investigator charged with examining Ford Road noticed a rainbow of liquids oozing out of the ground, like pus from a wound. And it was leaking into the Black River.
“This is the worst case I’ve seen, in terms of volume, in a year of inspections,” geologist Mark Schmidt said at the time.
Tests of soil samples showed high levels of toxins, including known cancer-causing agents like benzene, dimethylbenzene, and hexanone. The landfill, officials realized, had been bleeding toxins for decades. And Lorain County’s dirt cap was “subpar.”
Officials ordered that a new clay cap be placed over the old one. By the end of 1980, the EPA called the problem “contained.”
It was very wishful thinking.
No one bothered to confirm the thesis for another 13 years. When the EPA finally tried in 1993, it once again found oily chemicals seeping from the ground. The agency petitioned to have the former landfill declared one of the most dangerous sites in America.
The EPA put in monitoring wells to keep track of toxin levels. Then the agency disappeared once more. It wasn’t heard from again for another 10 years, until it was forced into action.
For decades, environmentalists have been concerned about the effects of pollution on the Great Lakes. Terrifying indicators were on the rise — fish with olive-size tumors, birds with reproductive problems, funny-tasting water.
So in 1987, the U.S. and Canada pinpointed 43 pollution sources, pledging rehab efforts. Targets included rivers like the Ashtabula, the Cuyahoga, and the Black — the latter deemed by Ohio State scientists to be the “worst site we’ve got.” Chemicals from Ford Road were making their way to the Black River, then flowing into Lake Erie.
In 1998, Canadian scientists embarked on a study of their sites. They were appalled by what they found.
In 14 of the 17 areas studied, reports showed that residents had higher rates of cancer, reproductive diseases, and birth defects than anywhere in Canada.
The report worried officials in the United States. So in 2001, the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR), in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control, started its own study.
The report, produced last summer, proved similarly terrifying. It showed that the population living near these areas — over 9 million people — had suffered more cases of breast, lung, and colon cancer than expected, as well as a higher-than-normal infant mortality rate.
Yet few people were privy to this information. For more than a year, the ATSDR suppressed the report, claiming the study was “well below expectations” and contained “faulty science.” (The ATSDR did not respond to Scene‘s numerous interview requests.)
David Carpenter, a professor at the State University of New York at Albany, has a somewhat different take: “Officials got embarrassed and tried to hide them.”
Carpenter, who reviewed the study, says the “science was there in spades.” The problem wasn’t scientific; it was political. “The present administration does not want people realizing there are significant health hazards they face with exposure to environmental chemicals.”
After all, acknowledging the health hazards would force the EPA to acknowledge its own liability for decades of inaction.
“Liability, of course, implies damages, legal processes, and costs of remedial action,” Canadian biologist Michael Gilbertson told the Center for Public Integrity. “The governments in both countries are so heavily aligned with, particularly, the chemical industry that the word amongst the bureaucracies is that they really do not want any evidence of effect or injury to be allowed out there.”
Within the ATSDR, however, at least one employee believed that suppressing this information amounted to government-assisted homicide. Toxicologist Chris De Rosa e-mailed the agency’s top brass, assailing them for the “apparent censorship of science and distribution of factual information regarding the health status of vulnerable communities.” (De Rosa didn’t respond to interview requests. Friends say he’s preparing a lawsuit against the agency.)
The ATSDR responded by attacking De Rosa. Despite 15 years of stellar job reviews, he was demoted. Colleagues believe it was retaliatory and called their congressmen.
In February, a trio of senators penned angry letters to the CDC, asking about “disturbing allegations about interference with the work of government scientists.” They expressed concern that “management may have retaliated against” De Rosa for blowing the whistle, and demanded answers.
Late last month, they got one — kind of. Blaming the report’s delay on “scientific issues,” the ATSDR released part of the study — acknowledging that it contained only “selected information on chemical releases.”
The report did allow there were “potential human health impacts” at 86 of the 140 sites studied. It also admitted that a “range of health effects may be associated with these toxic exposures” — including cancer, hormone problems, and reproductive and developmental abnormalities.
The ATSDR didn’t release health information for specific sites. But a leaked study showed Ford Road to be highly dangerous.
Environmentalists were enraged. The feds were purposefully keeping residents in the dark. “These are human lives they’re playing with,” says Kristy Meyer of the Ohio Environmental Council. “People have the right to know what they’re living with.”
In 2004, 10 years after the U.S. EPA identified Ford Road as a “high-priority concern,” dozens of workers from the agency’s Chicago office descended upon Elyria.
They took soil samples, measured methane levels, and went door to door, gathering history about the landfill. For many new residents, this was the first they’d ever heard of the dump. And they were furious.
“I had no idea the thing was across the street,” says Chris Meyers, who moved into her new home six years ago. “Obviously, this is something I would have liked to have known beforehand. Now we’re sort of stuck here.”
Neighbor Sandy Wessel agrees. “I might not have moved here had I known.”
Others, like Dan and Judy Miller, ask why it took 30 years for the EPA to do anything.
It’s a question the EPA doesn’t like answering. “It takes a long time to negotiate with responsible parties,” says Demaree Collier, the agency’s site manager.
The EPA has always been an agency swimming upstream. Congress leaves it chronically underfunded, and presidents like Reagan and the second Bush have nakedly attempted to gut it over the years, believing environmental protection to be a synonym for government intrusion. So the agency must negotiate with polluters to clean up their own messes. Lawyers can drag the process out for years, and the EPA has never been known for its aggressiveness.
In the meantime, toxins continue to gather in the bodies of unsuspecting neighbors. “That’s a concern,” Collier says with government understatement.
The latest studies indicate that the site holds elevated levels of lead, PCBs, arsenic, and benzene — all cancer-causing. But Collier’s still doing her best to downplay the dangers. “There are chemical hazards there for sure,” she says, but emphasizes that the major areas of concern are “small.”
Collier’s assurances provide little solace to Peter and Alice Carroll. Four years ago — around the same time the EPA came to town — Alice was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Once fiercely independent, she was reduced to an invalid, relying on her husband for everything from feeding to baths. For months, “All I could manage was to sit on this couch and watch TV,” she says.
A year ago, Peter dug up a business card an EPA official had given him. He called twice, wanting to know whether there might be any environmental connection to his wife’s disease. “They never called back,” he says.
Peter thought about contacting a lawyer, but “We’re not medical people,” he says. “How can we prove that this is what caused it?”Celesta Menges feels the same way. Her mother-in-law, Ruth, lived on Ford Road for most of her life. She used to walk up and down the road every day. But in 2003, after four years of remission, Ruth learned that her breast cancer had returned. It was spreading to the rest of her body.
At Elyria Memorial Hospital, Ruth shared a room with Geraldine Shorter. The two talked about how strange it was that all the neighbors seemed to be contracting cancer at the same time. Ruth died two years ago. Her children are still asking why.
“My mother-in-law had a beautiful garden right there,” Celesta says, pointing to an overgrown mass of weeds not far from the landfill. “You have to wonder what the exposure might have done to the vegetables — to her. There was no history of breast cancer in our family.”
The Cumberland family is asking similar questions. Father James was a former contractor with the shoulders of a bodybuilder. Six years ago, he was hired to work on the new Ford Road subdivisions, directly across from the landfill. But in 2004, Cumberland, who once lugged concrete blocks around, suddenly found that lifting a coffee cup caused him to shake. Doctors eventually discovered the cause: a massive brain tumor. He died not long after the diagnosis.
It’s not unreasonable to assume a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the landfill and these illnesses. “The chemicals are carcinogens,” says Peter Orris, a professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois. “We know there are exposures going on . . . These things don’t always have immediate health effects.”
Sometimes they take years to rear their heads — a fact that sends new residents into deep worry. “This road’s really peaceful, other than that whole landfill thing,” Sandy Wessel says bitterly.
After four years of negotiations, the EPA and the site’s former owners have finally agreed on a plan to clean up the landfill. The $3.4 million strategy involves extracting the most polluted areas, then strengthening the clay cover. Officials are also debating putting in a water-treatment wall where the landfill leaks into the Black River. The wall would purify groundwater as it flows toward the river.
The cleanup, however, was supposed to begin two years ago — but not a yard of dirt has moved. Collier thinks it will start this summer. Maybe.
Elyria Councilman Mark Craig says he’s heard that residents have complained about the delay. But few city officials seem interested in the problem. Law Director Terry Shilling’s office forwarded Scene to City Engineer Mukund Moghe’s office, who in turn directed us to Mayor William Grace. He didn’t return repeated phone calls.
This spring, a few dozen unknowing kids used the acreage for paintball. Others set up chairs and suntanned. No one knows when — if ever — the ASTDR will fully explain to residents the danger this field presents. Or how many more will die in the meantime.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2008.
Our system is killing us–literally–and our planet, too. We the people must somehow be expendable in these corporations’ and the government’s view. The U.S. government and its corporate partners are the most formidable terrorist state in human history. The current system sickens and kills people in a myriad of ways–toxic foods, drugs and other products; poor quality yet expensive or denied health care; poverty; war; terrorism, torture . . . WE THE PEOPLE are the only ones who can change the travesty that is the U.S. socio-political-economic system on the local, state and federal levels. I hope we the people come together as its citizens to dismantle it–before it’s too late.
Apparently they are now cleaning up & removing the toxic from the Ford Rd site. They are removing 55 gallon drums, allegedly in tact & not rusted thru.
As long as this has been going on, it’s going to take another decade before it’s cleared up. Thats if it doesn’t take longer. And still doesn’t fix those residents who are sick or dead because of this. This is just disgusting and heart breaking to just learn about this after spending a lifetime in this area.
This is insane! Used to ride my bike as a kid down that road and always thought it was a “swamp” smell or something of the like…. Calling my producer friend at msnbc. This will not go unnoticed any longer.
Yeah, I have lived on this road for 24 years ( my entire life) and have even swam in that river as a foolish kid. Great to know years later what the hell I was swimming in. Now I just wonder if any of the health problems I am experiencing now have anything to do with the river water. I still see flames coming from the water pollution control plant across the river from my house late at night… I am just amazed at this. As a resident , growing up here, you can imagine I’ve spent nearly everyday of my life walking the woods and river… I wonder how many times I have held something toxic in my hands… Its had to have been countless.. And I never even knew…Its a shame too becasue my fondest memories happened in my back yard or on the river bank. I was just recently blessed with a little boy and was so excited and felt so blessed to live in the area I live in so that way he too can experince the things that I have in nature… and learn to appreciate it. Now… not so sure…
Ok, I don’t get why this article was written in 2008 and we are all just hearing about it. I have 3 other friends on Facebook that just posted this and that is how I saw it. WTH?
Elyria. Lol
OMG !! Back in the 70’s and 80’s My Grandpa caught Turtles out of that River and We ATE THEM !!!!! I have played in this River !! Could this be Why I have a bad Thyroid ?? Is it the Cause Of the Other Illnesses that I have !! Who the H*LL knows.. Unfortunately I and Many Many Other People will NEVER Know !! Typical Government Cover Up…
And still today we have politician who want to get rid of the E.P.A. and other enviormentalist to save corporations money and to HELL WITH THE PEOPLE AFFECTED!
My grandparents lived on Ford road for many years,my mother grew up on Ford road..My Grandmother passed away unexpectedly at the age of 54,my mother passed away at 64 from many health related issues..could it be? Geez..My sister,brother and I spent every weekend and most of my summers there..scary
We are living in a dieing city! And it all started with the first KEYS! Think about it people!
Politicians are all a bunch of crooks! People were payed to look the other way! Elyria is dieing fast! Unless the people of this city wake up and ACT we will die! Come on people this once was a great city! When i was a kid we came from Cleveland to visit Elyria and all it had to offer! When my Grandmother was a kid in the very early 1900’s she told me her family came from Medina to hang out in Elyria! What happened to OUR city?
I no longer live in Elyria but it was my home for 17 years – and this story gave me COLD CHILLS!!! What I would like to know is what are they doing with the barrels of waste they are currently removing from this area? IT IS EVIDENCE!! It should be tested – every bit of it should be tested – and kept some place safe – I’m guessing there will be lawsuits filed and if the evidence disappears where’s the proof? THIS SHOULD BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF EVERY OHIO NEWSPAPER!
I forwarded this article to both the Journal and the Chronicle… let’s see which one is brave enough to investigate and print something.
I forwarded it to Erin Brockovich. I’d say she has the most experience dealing with these types of cases 🙂
I grew up in Elyria in the 80’s and 90’s and I always new the river was badly polluted. We used to joke about 2 headed carp and fish with 3 eyes like something from the Simpsons. I even had school teachers that said you should never eat anything out of that river. Think about it, storm water run off from the roads gets dumped in the river, that includes salt and anything that leaks from a car. Waste treatment plant over flow gets dumped in the river untreated. Fertilizer run off from farm land goes into the river. Old septic systems leak into the river. It’s the black river, a name more fitting not because of how opaque the water is.
We lived on Nottingham…across the valley from Ford Rd. My mother lived there for atleast 30 years…lost her to Lymphoma in 1993…wonder if this was the reason:(
Do they have warning signs up anywhere? Has EPA been saying anything else? Anyone else seen anything more recent than an article from 2008? I can’t believe we’re all just seeing this. They should close the Metroparks on Ford Rd just in case–I think it’s airborne from what I got out of the article and that it’s affected more people than the residents of Ford Road. Has the mayor returned phone calls?
I personally addressed this issue in 1977…. at the same time we covered the MS in Lorain County especially in Wellington with Sterling Foundry, as the asthma in Avon Lake, Ohio from the power plant. My o my… … my family in avon lake had to take inhalers from the power plant crap…. I am not a ‘tree hugger’ in that plan.. but I addressed this ford road issue years ago; the parks (which is wonderful) made a wonderful walking path, bike trail and such of that land (I would bet that upon the gift of the land) the park system did not know of this ‘scared land’. Again, if something is not know.. it is an accident.. this was a complete cover-up by the Govern. at the expense of those poor people with the cancers that will never heal…This is a movie in the making. As I said yesterday.. anyone that wants to pursue this as investigative journalism—-you may get a Pulitzer… go for it!!!
Has there been any research or investigation on how many people in that area and surrounding areas have been lost to cancer or battling cancer as a result of this contamination of this area? Please keep this thread updated with any information or some one to contact regarding this issue. .
Posted by Your Name Here on April 12, 2012 at 10:44 AM
My heart bleeds today for these victims as I read this. I lived and worked at the hospital in Elyria for 10 years in the OR starting in 1990. I still can remember some of our patients that came through the OR with ca. Don’t know if they were Ford St victims or not and never will. From there I worked in Sandusky. That is where I immediatedly noticed a drastic increase in the number of cancer patients. So many of them still in their prime when diagnosed. I started asking surgeons about it and was told that they noticed it also and one told me that it seemed to him it was the people that were born and raised there. Asking even more questions to anyone that seem to have any knowledge of the subject I started hearing about radiation leaks from a old NASA plant that had cooling lines from Lake Erie. It is beleaved the plant is some kind of a dump now and has been reported that semi trucks go in and never come out. They are left there somewhere, buried maybe? When a newspaper report came out about the lung cancer rate in Erie County and how is was the highest in the country, it was decided by officials that the cause was the farmers eqipment/ tractors and such. No one really believes that. I and many others believe there is a coverup there as well. These 2 counties border each other and are both on Lake Erie. I would have to assume that this kind of pullution is taking place on all 5 of the great lakes. Very sad. This is our nations greatest source of fresh water and it is not protected. The company Pepsi-cola bottles water from the great lakes and sells it to us (aqua-fina). That would make every citizen in this country Ford St victims. Where and when does it end??
Both my family & my wifes moved to Elyria from Cleveland in the early 60’s. We both played on the river,exploring fishing,etc. I fished the area of the river from bridge street all the way back up past the hospital. I remember talking to Captain Penny (Rob Penfound) on East River Rd carrying home big stringers of fish. I know Hawshaw Chemical was one of the gulty parties for years,among others. But I always wondered what they were dumping on Ford Rd that they obnlt covered it with broken concrete,rock,etc. This continued for many years as they made the field deeper & farther back toward the river. They finally covered it with dirt & planted grass. I wondered what they’d build on such a site. Now this. All I can say is WTF? And fishing/swimming in Lake Erie all these years too. Could my Dad’s terminal brain cancer have come from this? Am I having joint/back problems from this exelerating wear & tear? Makes you wonder…
My family lived at 1210 Ford road in the 1980’s for about ten years, there was always a chemical smell coming from that field, I only knew there was a dump site there because my father told me of when he and his brother would go to the dump on Ford road and shoot the rats with .22’s and shot guns, there were just too many to kill. My father died some time after we moved from there of inoperable pancreas cancer that by the time they found the cancer it had already moved into his liver, he died about 3 months after that at home with nothing that could be done for him.
The only way anything is gonna get done is if we all speak up and out about this issue. The dump has been around since the 50’s or 60’s keep bugging the papers call the congressman/ woman and lets see what we can get done. I might just drive by one day and put up a big old sign up.
Geraldine Shorter lived 2 houses down from us on Ford Road when we first moved there, I’m still friends with her 2 son’s Gerome and Walter. The people that lived in the house between us was an old couple named the Fridenstien’s, one day in late summer they had a gas leak in their house and when the old man Fridenstien went into the room with a flashlight it detonated the gas blowing there house to pieces. The old man lived but his wife died from the burns. When this happened it was my father that went in and carried the old woman out from the burning house, I remember this well because when my father layed her down in the front lawn her skin came off on his T-shirt. The explosion was so powerful that Geraldine’s house about 75 yards away was nocked off the foundation and blew out all the windows, The city declared the house unsafe and Geraldine was forced to move, her husband William Harris worked at Ford at the time so he bought another house 3 houses farther up the road, that much closer to where the dump was. She live in that house till her death, Her son Gerome still lives in that house today. Some developer has been building new homes directly across from where the dump was not even 100 feet away, I wonder what’s going to happen to those people in 10 or 20 years. Even if the city attempts to clean up the dump sight, there’s no way they can remove the toxins because after that many years it has had plenty of time to soak in and contaminate the ground water, there are plenty of old wells around there to hold the toxins.
Erin Brockovich!!!!!!
I am curious as to how far the contamination can travel. We have noticed an epidemic of cancer in the neighbor hood about a mile or two from ford rd. An alarming number of cancer being diagnosed all within this past year all of the same types of cancer mentioned of those of ford road. If anyone can offer any insight would appreciate it. I to have contacted Erin Brockovich. Something needs to be done!!!
To: Terri Abner, I’m no expert but that aria on ford road on the midway mall side of the river where the dump is, I have been through every part of those woods and all around the river bank. The river runs parallel to ford road from west river road to the bottom of the hill and under the bridge that was under reconstruction then it curves around to the left creating sort of an island or peninsula of the properties on ford road towards that end. Where I lived at 1210 ford rd we had 3 acres of land, If you went out the back of the property and down the hill there was the river and if you went across ford road and down the hill again you ran into the river, So I would say that would make that end of ford rd like a trap for all the toxins that were dumped there. When we moved into that house there was no city water, the house was supplied with water from a well and a pump in the basement and as far as I know every house on that end was supplied water the same way, it was in the early 1980’s when we had city water connected to the house so before that time everyone that lived there was drinking, cooking and bathing with that well water. Everyone I knew on ford rd had a well somewhere on their property and some people had 2 or 3 wells. There were even wells out in the woods where I’m guessing there were houses before my time. So I would say anyone that lives in and around the black river from that dump site all the way to the lake could be exposed to those same toxins to one degree or the other. I don’t really know what those toxins were but there’s a good chance that anyone that ate fish or other game from that river may have received an extra dose of what ever was dumped there.
The government likes to complain about other countries using chemical warfare, but how does this make them any better. They just cover chemicals up that are killing Americans and that’s supposed to be ok. I fear a revolution is close at hand.
Today is 9/13/2014 What is going on NOW at the site? Why hasn’t anyone stepped up and gone after the facts and brought this to the forefront of this cities news? Wonder if people have been threatened to keep quiet? I can assume some have been paid off because this sounds ridiculous to me. All people care about is the bottom line…big companies…politicians…employees…! Those truck drivers knew what they were hauling and dumping on Ford Road. What a world we live in and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better. Shame to all of it!!!
I grew up on Ford Road, late 50’s , early 6O’s-my family owned a house in a cluster about 1/5th of a mile from the dump site. My mother lived there when she was carrying me; I was born with a cleft palate. There’s no one else in my family that has any birth defects-my mother carried all her prior children elsewhere. I’m it for Ford Road. Really makes me think…….
We just moved to Ford Road. Where exactly on Ford Road is this? Our realtor never mentioned this.
Almost every single person living on the midway mall side of ford road has been diagnosed with some kind of cancer and most all of them are already dead.
I grew up on the East side of Lorain. Ohio street to be exact. There many spring and summer mornings we would wake up covered with black graphite from the steel plant. Cars were washed every day to keep it at bay, Walk outside barefoot and you feet turned black. Swimming pool bottom was covered with it. Thenas kids we used to play at the old Lorain city dump at the end of Root road off Colorado. City own that property. Constantly there was stuff oozing from the ground. In the winter time huge areas of water wiuld never freeze along the river. And the carp we used to catch had tumors growing in them the size of golfballs. Most of the people that grew up in and around that area are either dead or dying. My mother, brother and sister all died of cancer. Father and other both have cancer. I am 53, have degenerative arthritis through my body. There were 8 of us that were thick as theives as kids. Of the 8 3 are dead and the rest have some dibilitating desease. Who wants to do a story about that?? Nobody. Why? We are nobodies. Who can we get to support us and go after these companies? Who wants to take our case and fight for the little people??
Northern end..East side of the road before you get to the bridge. nice flat ope area about 100yards wide and 300 yards long.
Our realtor never mentioned this site to us and we just moved to the Ford and Gulf Road area. No one wants to live next to a former toxic waste dump site. Had we know this we would not have moved here. Now we may be stuck. I wonder if we have any recourse to take now. Of course you can’t trust the government or the EPA and what they say. We can’t help and wonder how much of a health risk this will be for us.
We drove past the site the other day. They have some no trespassing signs but nothing t0 indicate that it was a former toxic waste dump site. Shame on the government for not posting signs that say the truth. Post a sigh that says “This was a toxic waste dump site…..BEWARE. Why do they continue to hide the truth? What ever happened to accountability?
We drove past the site the other day. There are only a few no trespassing signs on property. Why not tell the truth and post signs that say “This area was a former toxic waste dump site……Beware! Why keep hiding the truth. Shame on you!
This is only the tip of the iceburg. Pay attention, The government isn’t going to do it for you. Your health is not in their best interests. Don’t feed the rodents and their contributors.
According to the Chronicle-northcoastnow the site has been cleaned up.
I had an Aunt and 2 Uncles that grew up about 2 blocks from Ford Rd and played in that area as children. They all died of cancer within 4 years of each other. Ages 44 Thru 62. I have to wonder if this dumping site was the trigger to the cancer?
This article is from 2008, yet every now and then it goes around Facebook as if it’s new. I really, really wish Scene would do a follow-up piece about the Superfund cleanup and whether it’s made a difference. Even better, a short update at the beginning of THIS article would be nice.
Yes an update is needed! My heart goes out to all these families..
My kids father and grandmother lived along the river, both have since dies of cancer. What is sad is the fact no one cares and keeps passing the buck, no one wants to take responsibility, no one wants to take responsibility. No one wants to team up and help, especially when people are dying,painfully, what a lack of care and responsibility.
Here it is September of 2016 and nothing has been done. Not one thing.
This was a very well written article.
In response to a couple of comments, here it is September 2016 and something has benn done. There has been a Lot of money spent to contain and clean the site. Notice the roadway going down the one side? That is where they put in a retaining wall to stop the chemicals from leaching into the river. Some of the barrels have been removed, the site has been recapped. It is enough? No- too little too late in my opinion, but it is something, and is is a whole lot better than it was.
The corner of Gulf and Ford, nice little neighborhood, but I think the houses are too close together, and you have city services and don’t have to worry about the toxins from the dump anymore than anyone else in the City.
And the comment about the flame from the wastewater plant – really? Did you ever check it out? It is the torch that burns off the excess (waste) methane, i.e. your farts, as part of the process. Some of the methane is used, they would like to use more, but that would cost a few million in investments to guarantee a better and more consistent supply and pressure, and there would probably still be a bit that would be flamed off. Do your homework before you get too panicky over nothing.
I grew up there. I remember the dump.
There needs to be excavating work done all over Elyria. Lots of tests need done. The Black River is still toxic from Superfund site 666. Then I have heard so many stories growing up in Elyria of toxic waste being illegally dumped in the old dump, that is covered over with dirt and grass now, right near the Superfund site. Then Aztec chemical used to always blow up over there too. I remember my mini blinds going straight horizontal when it blew up when I was about 11 years old.
My playground was Black river reservation which is called something else nowadays. I roamed with rage horses when Mr Chambers owned it. I’ve have a coke bleeding tumors removed feet feet to ovaries. Starting at the age of 34 had my first hysterectomy. My dear friend sent this to me a year ago but who do e contact. I have experienced Steph twice so far.
Thank you and my prayers go out to my neighbors.
I cant believe this… my mom just had surgery to have cancer removed. We lived in elyria most of my life. And unknowingly also spent plenty of time in the Ford road area and even as a kid, like most, played in and at the river… this is horrifying!