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.

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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.