DEPUE, Ill. — Mayor Eric Bryant was leading his usual tour the other day, driving visitors past the poisoned lake, around the abandoned bungalows, and over dusty ball fields until he reached a glittering metal mountain known here as the “Pile of Black Death.”
The 750,000-ton stack is a mix of lead, arsenic, and other toxic metals, blended with sand and abandoned by the businesses that once employed most of the town, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago, in the Illinois River Valley.
A sad but familiar story. The last Administration quashed a long-awaited FDA patient safety warning on mercury’s health impacts from dental amalgam for susceptible populations. The story was reported in McClatchy DC. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article28017817.html
Another great tribute to Tom Brokaw’s GREATEST GENERATION, love ya!