For the past two years, I have been working with a remarkable team of researchers at Barnard College and Lamont Doherty's Earth Observatory, research institution of Columbia University, to enhance the mobilization of arsenic from sediments at the highly contaminated Vineland Chemical Company Superfund site in southern New Jersey. The Vineland Chemical Company manufactured arsenic-based herbicides from 1950 to 1994 on a 54-acre site in a residential and industrial area of the City of Vineland. Prior to 1977, the company stored byproduct arsenic salts in chicken coops and open piles. Its environmentally negligent behavior led to the contamination of an adjacent wetland, surface and subsurface soils, groundwater, the nearby Maurice River and downstream Union Lake. Decades later, the 57,000 people who depend on the groundwater system in the area for drinking water, nearby residents and workers are still facing the repercussions of the company's reckless acts. The EPA has invested millions of dollars to clean the region and many research institutions have devoted time and resources to enhance the efficiency of clean-up methods. Most recently, on April 15th, 2009, the EPA allocated $25 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to the Vineland Superfund Site. This Recovery Act funding is part of the $600 million that Congress appropriated to aid cleanup efforts at 50 of the nation's most polluted superfund sites.

Vineland is a victim of negligence, laxity and disrespect. On the other side of the globe, the Ganges is also a victim of similar crimes. Hindus believe that immersion in the Ganges offers complete purification and absolution from sins. The river may be holy, but it certainly is not pure in a chemical and physical sense. Tons of toxic chemicals from industries, notably tanneries at Kanpur, are discharged into the river. Untreated sewage makes the Ganges its home. Partially cremated remains, whole corpses and carcasses of thousands of cattle are dumped into the river each year. The horrific level of pollution has promoted the transmission of water-borne diseases including cholera, hepatitis, typhoid and amoebic dysentery among the 350 million people who live along its shores or avail themselves of its water. These crimes must be stopped and criminals must be punished, here in the Unites States, in India, Egypt, Europe and everywhere else in the world where our precious water flows. 

                  Dredging and Soil Washing at the Vineland Superfund Site

                                        A corpse floats in the Ganges

The Importance of Dialogue

Hindu priest and civil engineer, Veer Bhadra Mishra, who founded The Sankat Mochan Foundation, has utilized science as well as spirituality to educate citizens and propose clean-up methods. Mishra has realized the importance of dialogue and sensitivity when dealing with India locals. According to Mishra's view, to tell a Hindu that Ganga, Governess of the waters, is "polluted" or "dirty" is blasphemous. How could the sacred mother be dirty? Thus, the approach must recognize that humans are responsible for polluting the river not the Goddess: "We are allowing our mother to be defiled." In this manner, we stimulate local cooperation while promoting cultural/religious preservation along with environmental protection.

If you want to save water anywhere, follow Mishra's lead. After identifying the victims of careless acts and deleterious habits, do something about it. Educate, inform, enlighten, clean, work...change. Alter practices that are ecologically destructive and speak out against ignorance. A sense of responsibility, liability and genuine concern for the environment could have saved Vineland and the Ganges before they became severely polluted. We must work together to save water, our most essential resource, locally and globally.  

Please look forward to my upcoming posts where I will show you a video of a group of people paying homage to the Goddess of the Sacred Rivers on the banks of the Ganges, led by a Priest from Queens, NY. We will then discuss the state of the Ganges, the consecration of specific items in rivers and the classification of biodegradability among ritual items.