The TCE Blog » Administrative notes

Merry and Happy!

Neil Fischbein — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:16:09 +0000

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We’ll be focused on blog maintenance for the next week or so (mostly getting things back in working order since the migration). Then we plan to resume a regular posting schedule beginning just after the New Year. Thanks for your continued interest and support.

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Live on new host, pls pardon our dust…

Neil Fischbein — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:45:50 +0000

We’re now officially live on our new blog host. Thanks to Annette and her team for tremendous help with the migration. Since we’re also on a new platform, we’ve temporarily lost some of the old features and links, but will add them back asap. Before we’re back to 100%, if you need anything in a pinch and can’t find it, feel free to drop us a note at tceblog[at]gmail.com. Thanks.

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Back late this week

Neil Fischbein — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:50:56 +0000

For those of you who keep track of ongoing TCE news, we’re sorry to be slacking. We have a bunch of new stories to post (including new legislation) but won’t be able to do so until late this week.

In the meantime, we may try a live-blogging experiment from a conference we’re attending on Wed/Thurs (more on this to come), but who knows for sure?

Regardless, we hope to be caught up and back on track with regular posts by/after this weekend.

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Thanks and Happy Holidays from the TCE Blog

Neil Fischbein — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:04:33 +0000

Happy Holidays and thank you all for reading the TCE Blog. We greatly appreciate your visits, your emails, and your support.

As many have noticed, this has been a tough year for maintaining a schedule of regular/active updates. Without getting into the gory details, we have been unable to post regular updates throughout the year due to limited staff and unavoidable conflicts for our time. Hence the many starts and stops… Having recently made a few slight changes to free up more time, we hope to resume our regular schedule of updates within the very near future.

In the meantime, we hope you and yours have a safe, happy, healthy New Year.

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TCE Blog store?

Neil Fischbein — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:21:27 +0000

Yes, you read those words right. We are considering launching an online store. Though we don’t expect to get rich going this route, we like the idea for several reasons:

It may help us defray some of the monthly costs we incur;
It may help us raise money for donation to needy TCE exposed-communities;
It could give community groups a vehicle to raise money/promote themselves (we can sell VOTE T-shirts or THE STAND mugs or other items on behalf of specific communities that may so desire);
Where else can we buy a “Stop vapor intrusion” T-shirt or a “TCE kills, thank god it’s no longer in my coffee” mug?
It should allow us to creep one-step closer to our new goal of ditching our day job(s) to enable full-time blogging about TCE issues and more active lobbying for action and change.

So here’s the burning question: If we sell T-shirts, mugs, and other items bearing a graphic and/or message, what should they say? We have several ideas, but we’d love reader input. Put another way, what would you or others be likely to purchase if made available in our store?

Please reply using comments…or contact us directly if you prefer. Thanks.

P.S. If any community group leaders like the idea of selling merchandise through our store to raise money, please contact us…

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Is the TCE Blog dead?

Neil Fischbein — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:41:29 +0000

Folks have been writing us for some time, but we’ve been unable to respond. An update here is long overdue.

Is the TCE Blog dead?

No.

Our day job has had us swamped and intensely-focused for months and we have been (temporarily) unable to devote any quality time to updates or emails. However, we have every intention of continuing to maintain this blog as the largest single dedicated source of TCE news and information on the web.

For readers who visit us regularly and look forward to our updates, and for those who have emailed and not received a prompt reply, please accept my apology. Please know that we appreciate our growing readership’s continued support and will return to regular posts as soon as we are able.

best, neil

P.S. There has been quite a bit of recent interest in TCE problems in Pennsylvania. For updates on some of the latest concerns and happenings, check out investigative reporter Jon Goodman’s blog, Talk of the Town.

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On break

Neil Fischbein — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:09:59 +0000

While we’ve got lots to catch up on already, it’s going to have to wait 2 weeks. This blog will officially be on break until September 1. When we return, be on the lookout for:

- Excerpts and noteworthy details from the bowels of the National Academies’ TCE report

- State-by-state lists of TCE contaminated sites in the Superfund and RCRA programs (to our knowledge, not available in list form elsewhere on the web)

- Special guest co-bloggers

- Continuing coverage of important legal news and issues

- Ongoing highlights of breaking news and media reports from TCE-impacted communities across the country

- You tell us. Email us and let us know what kind of news/info you need and/or would like. As always, we’ll do all we can to respond to requests.

Until then…

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Lots of catching up to do

Neil Fischbein — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 04:49:03 +0000

Sorry we’ve been away from national news for a few days folks. We’ve got lots of catching up to do. Commentary will be light as we get you up to speed.

To readers who have written us recently, thank you for writing and apologies for the sluggish response. We’ll be in touch by the weekend.

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Cheshire still contaminated, local leaders refuse to act (CT)

Neil Fischbein — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 06:26:38 +0000

Often I’m asked why I started the TCE Blog in the first place.

Part of the reason is that my former hometown had a TCE-contaminated public water supply. Since 80% of the town was served water from the TCE-contaminated public supply wells, tens of thousands of Cheshire citizens were exposed to dangerous levels of TCE via public water for decades. Residents and workers weren’t warned at the time except for a handful of families who were given bottled water to drink because of contaminated private water supply wells. To this day, polluters have never been held accountable.

When a public health assessment in 2004 finally revealed the truth about contamination and cancer, officials not only tried to stifle more inquiry, they refused to share with residents what was known about TCE and cancer. They also didn’t bother to mention the other VOC’s (PCE, Benzene, TCA) still migrating under the town.

Without help from the town or the state, citizens like me were left to find information on our own. Though there was plenty to be found on the web, three things became abundantly clear after months of additional, independent research:

1. There appeared to be no central place for finding information about TCE, its health affects, and the impact it has on communities. Information was/is scattered about.

2. Other communities across the country were struggling to find the same information and answer the very same questions as Cheshire…also without help from their local and state officials. Very few of these communities knew about one another.

3. We were amassing so much information about TCE and its impact on communities nationwide, this information just had to be consolidated, preserved, and shared.

From this, the TCE Blog was born.

–

Now, evidence suggests there is still significant VOC contamination underground in Cheshire. Astonishingly, state and local leaders/officials have refused to act.

See, I don’t just write about contaminated communities. I’m from one:

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: neil fischbein [fischbein@...]

Date: May 31, 2006 9:36 PM

Subject: When are we going to meet?

To*: [Town Manager, Town Council member, State representative]

cc*: [Senator Dodd's office, Senator Lieberman's office, Governor Rell's office, Representative Amann's office, local press, etc.]

D, M, A -

For the past several years, and after having reviewed ~16,000 pages of
Cheshire documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act request to
the EPA, I have shared with town officials evidence of multiple plumes
of cancer-causing toxins under Cheshire and the current risks they may
pose to workers and residents. As you know, these cancer-causing
toxins emanate from some of the 16 EPA-identified hazardous waste
sites in Cheshire that have NEVER been fully cleaned-up. Some of
these toxic underground plumes are over 25 years old and have been
migrating all this time. As we’ve discussed many times, [state] officials
have lost track of (or simply failed to map) these toxic plumes and
have admitted to us they can’t rule out the newly understood risks
these toxins pose to human health. Now, as documented by state and
federal officials in 2004, Cheshire suffers from nation-leading cancer
rates.

These cancer-causing plumes must be found. Risks from them must be ruled out.

Do we need help from state representatives/legislators to move on this?

Do we need help from attorneys?

When are we going to finally meet to do something about this?

thanks, neil

* Actual names and email addresses have been removed to protect the innocent guilty innocent.

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New post category: Contamination Maps

Neil Fischbein — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:25:17 +0000

We’ve noticed over the past year that many people arrive at this blog while looking for maps of contamination areas and underground plumes within various TCE-contaminated communities. As such, we’ve added Maps as a topic category (see list of categories in LEFT-hand sidebar).

If you have any plume maps you’d like to make available, know where we can link to current contamination maps, or are looking for a specific map that you can’t find, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

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