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Channel 19 is going to be directing people to our page and people are scared and rightly so. We are creating a fact page because we now have 100s of pages of tests done. We have been reading of people’s concerns and we’re going to try to address these concerns in a down to earth way. The answers to questions will be based on scientific facts with no agenda but to inform.
Before we start we need to send out special thanks to a couple of individuals:
Thank you Erin Brockovitch. You has give us what we have been searching for. This is what will cause Mr Bentley to do the perp walk we all wish to see. This exposes the deep corruption in the entire nasty scheme.
A quote from Erins Facebook page:
“Alabama Governor Robert Bentley… have you ever heard the phrase… “Don’t shit where you eat”? Sir… I think you might just be part of the problem.
Your Administration just permitted, February 22, 2016, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit number AL0048593 allows Decatur Utilities WWTP to discharge 26 pounds per day of “each” of the half dozen chemical combinations of PFOS/PFOA.
Maybe you and Governor “Tricky Dick” Snyder of Michigan can share a glass of each others vintage water… Commiserating on your true misunderstanding of what the Executive Branch of Government is really suppose to act like.” Erin Brockovich
Also to Lawrence County Water Director Don Simms. A Hero. Finally, someone who has the balls to do the right thing instead of the political thing. Let me explain; we met with the Mayor of Decatur, the County Commissioners, Utilities Director, a board room full of people. Although the city’s lawyer gave me short notice, I got the scientist who preformed the tests to come to the meeting at his own expense. He came to explain how the tests were conducted and why that was important. What he would have told them was the testing, to be legal, has to be done in a very specific way. Instead the city lawyer conducted the meeting like a defense lawyer and not allowing the ones invited to even comment.
Our test results were posted in the parts per million, the safe goal is in the trillions. It takes a 1000 millions to make a billion, a 1000 billions to make a trillion. Looking at the numbers, he said these numbers aren’t high enough to make me concerned, so I don’t think the city should alarm the citizens over these findings and would not let anyone explain the findings. These are the ones who were at the news conference Friday, condemning Don for his actions. They absolutely don’t get it or absolutely don’t care about what the toxins are doing. Pick the one you want to believe .
We have not reached out to them yet, but the WCW and a host of scientists and all the test material will be made available and we will testify for them. One other thing: we tested the water right behind the Decatur Utilities pick up, just a few feet from the water pick up. We confirmed not only PFOS and PFOAS but five new PF’s in the water. It’s takes a charcoal activated filter to remove these toxins, Decatur Utilities does not have one, So!!! Who’s telling the truth?? Decatur or East Lawrence Water? Who is concerned about the health of the people,?Seems to be a no brainer!
Thank you, Al Whitaker. When we met he told me he had been waiting on this story for thirty years. The information we have was overwhelming, but he spent countless hours researching facts, that was months ago. Our first news release was just about heavy metals and we were going to do a second one on PFOS and PFOA. I had to have heart surgery so that one got put on hold. When East Lawrence Water came out with the warning, Al had already educated himself on PFOS and PFOA . He and Channel 19 didn’t worry that these were multi billion dollar company’s, they set out to expose the truth. The WCW made the decision to go all in with them. We made available to them all the test results. These tests are irrefutable and the only independent tests ever done. Channel 19 is the only television station that will get these results and facts. They are going to run new information at every news forecast every day.
Now for the FACTS. For a test on PFOS and PFOA to be done lawfully, it has to be from certified bottles from the testing lab. The tests need to be, by a qualified tester like a biologist etc… Next the sample has to be put immediately on ice, the sealed samples have to be overnighted to the lab. There has to be a signed chain of possession even on arrival. The samples have to be signed by a lab technician, who certifies temperature and time. There are only a hand full of labs that can even check for PFOS and PFOA.
Fact 1: PFOS was created by a 3M chemist.
Fact 2: He died of cancer.
Fact 3: A lawsuit was brought against 3M on behalf of the men and women at 3M, who worked on the development and manufacturing of PFOA and PFOS by a law firm in Athens.
Fact 4: The law suit eventually became the one in court now, for the land owners who’s land was declared toxic from the sludge, Decatur Sewage had dumped on their land. WHY??? All the defendants of the previous law suit had died of CANCER, no one left.
Fact 5: While 3M says they are not, manufacturing PFOS and PFOA anymore, there were levels in the water that tested in the 700s per million not trillion right behind the 3M plant. It might be seeping into the water through ground water, maybe from buried barrels, fact is it’s still contaminating the river.
Fact 6: We also found high numbers of 7 more PF’s that were in the water. These high levels were only in the water, not in the soil like the PFOS and PFOA, why?
(THESE PFs ARE NEW!!!! ) What do you think 3M is putting on the back of their tape?
6/11 2016: Sure our waters is safe, no PFs !! Yet the EPA has the whole river as contaminated. We don’t have a filter and it just magically missed our water intake!!
Fact 7: The scientist from the EPA, who did the original test on the land in Lawrence Co. and who discovered the PFOS and PF0A, asked for permission to test the river for the toxins. EPA denied his request saying the city would have to ask for the study; that did not happen.
7/25
Why cancer clusters in Lawrence and Morgan counties.
We know where Decatur sewage dumped hard settlement in farm land that the people all around are suffering horrible health effects, but why are we finding clusters in the county where no sludge was dumped? For years a private contractor did work for many of the plants on the river. One of those employees told us that for a very extended period of time he came to work at midnight to a drive a tanker truck. He was told to “empty it.” He would drive on gravel roads around Hillsboro, Fish Pond, and Mallard Creek. Also Oakville, Danville, Neal, Massy and Faulkville and he also released the contents on the road. People just thought they had done a road wetting to hold down dust. There were thousands of truck loads over a extended period of time. Now we’re getting a handle on why there are cancer clusters in the county.
Fact 8: This deeply upset the scientist who offered his help. He has put his job and career on the line for the health of North Alabama. He did just the PFOS and the PFOA sampling in the EPA lab and he is considered one of the top authorities on PF testing. We all owe him a great deal. He did this without the approval of his superiors. He takes the P very seriously in his job (protection)!
Fact 9: There has been a law suit in Virginia against Dupont, for PFOS and PFOA in pans. They LOST!!!! Now, there is a precedent in court that the chemicals are deadly. That’s why 3M is in litigation to settle instead of letting it be tried in court. This is in Judge Thompson’s court, who is not up for reelection. He can’t be bought and his family drinks the water. What’s more he’s very informed, it couldn’t be in better hands.
Fact 10: There are 27 plants on Wheeler Lake and ADEM has given permits to release known toxins into the river. Their authority comes directly from the governor, who defunded them and took their bank account from them. He’s been caught with his pants down (again) on this. Maybe the Governor of Michigan will let him share a cell with him.
Fact 11: The toxic releases are based on river flow. TVA has cooked these numbers for decades. When they have a dye test they release water at 126 percent of river flow to make flow match up to permits.
Fact 12: This time of the year they reduce the water flow and release at Wheeler Dam and Guntersville Dam to about as much as a man peeing off the dam.
Fact 13: When this happens there is no river, only a lake, the wind then decides which way the water moves. We have scientifically proven this. We have the new PF toxins five miles upstream from the Decatur Water Utilities. At these locations there is no toxins in the sediment; only in the water.
Fact 14: TVA uses an average river flow for their reports, how much they released all day divided by 24. Twenty one years ago I had a meeting with some TVA officials to discuss this with them. Back then, same as now, the plants would dump their toxins late at night because their smell is horrible. Most of these toxins are heaver than water, so they just float as a toxic plume on the bottom of the channel killing everything it comes in contact with. This is not what their release was based on. At the meeting 21 years ago, I told them about the massive fish kills, fish floating in a milk like cloud, on the bottom of the river channel. They have known the truth all this time.
Fact 15: I asked for a constant river flow, a real river flow and permitted releases from plants to coincide with “actual” river flow. I was told that they were allowed to use a average instead of actual. Guess who made that rule? The TVA.
Fact 16: The Mussel Association warned them then that in time they would kill the river. When I asked, “why didn’t I furnish them all the air they could possibly use for 23 hours and 45 minutes yet only for fifteen minutes they would have no air. They ought to be happy with that; those were real good percentages. The reply was, “what we are doing is legal,” still is. They are still doing it, we are all now seeing the results! TERRIBLE RESULTS. Human sickness results.
Fact 17: We’re now under a drought and long term forecast says we will probably be all summer. That will mean less river flow and with TVA stopping the water like they do, toxin levels will skyrocket. Legal toxins.
Fact 18: Why are PFOS and PFOA so dangerous? It has no half life and does not break down. Dioxins have a half life of 2000 years and that was the most feared toxin until recently. PFOS and PFOA are for keeps. A side note, Decatur Utilities don’t have to comply to regulations on dioxins !!!!
Fact 19: This is only the tip of the iceberg! Channel 19 has the test results and they are committed to exposing all of it, but I guarantee they will do it in stages. It’s mind boggling and takes time to digest. When Al Whitaker is looking at charts and test results in meetings, he’ll get up and walk around and say just a minute, “I need a break this is hard to digest” and he gets angry, and then determined to set things right!
Fact:20. PFOA and PFOS though recently made by 3M is found in all mammals world wide; polar bears in the Arctic and whales in the oceans. It is used in clothing, coated pans, carpet and so many other things you would be reading a long time if I listed them. Only recently has it been proven how harmful it really is. We are going to post some texts I sent to the attorney for the city of Decatur. This was before East Lawrence came out with their warning, in these texts I told them I was going to throw East Lawrence under the bus. These texts are important, because you can see Warriors For Clean Water reached out for them to do the right thing. You should also be made aware of why we changed our mind, about legally going after East Lawrence.
A. I first met Barry Stevens at his home when my sons’ company was doing a job for him. When you are around me long enough I’m going to be talking about the river. I found Barry to be informed more than most people. He asked a lot of questions and he made the comment that he learned more from me in twenty minutes, than he had in years. Barry said “Ronnie, I can quite seriously see you on National TV getting help for your river.”
B. I ask Barry if he would like to be on our board of members for Warriors For Clean Water and on our non Indian side (half of our board will be made up of non Indians. ) Barry said it might be a conflict of interest because he was on the water board of East Lawrence. I said “Barry you do realize we are going to expose what’s in the water, right?” his reply was “the quicker the better.” They were greatly concerned and were even doing blood work on people but ADEM says the water is fine and EPA says the water is fine; OUR HANDS ARE TIED. If we cry wolf, they are going to eat us alive.
C. We felt they would be ready to help their customers even at great expense to the company. They also acknowledged they had a serious problem. They did not try to deny it!
D. We decided to work with them, not against them. When we did the tests, we stopped at Fox Creek, not going downstream where their pick-up is.
E. Before going public I notified them saying if you can do damage control now is the time. Their response was to lawyer up and that’s ok with us. (Our article went viral with people commenting from all over the world. Thank you, Human Race!)
F. When I was in Al’s office at the television station, I contacted Barry Stevens to see if they would now go proactive. Their lawyer had advised them not to talk to us and this made me extremely angry. I thought I had judged them wrong. When Al asked me what was wrong? I said, “I’m a very bad judge of people, but I do have the facts to throw them under the bus.”
G. While I was watching the news conferences, Al was interviewing Don Simms. He said their decision was based on the PFOS and PFOA and the substitute toxins, I sat up on the edge of my chair, because very few people know of the new PF’s and we haven’t shared this with them. I then knew I had not judged them wrong.
H. Why that is so important? We know that PFOS and PFOA effects the fertility of fish and reptiles. That’s why fishermen in the lake are not catching small crappie, small catfish or small bass like they used to.
That’s why we don’t see the large willow fly hatch like we used to, where you can’t see to drive through them.
G. In all SERIOUSNESS,before we find out the effects of these new PF’s, all the women in North Alabama could become sterile. Now ask why did the East Lawerence Water board make the decision to make their announcement to stop drinking the water until they could remove it.
Fact 21: These are the texts I sent the city of Decatur lawyer, these texts were before the EPA announcement. They had already made up their mind to deny.
Fact 22: The city of Decatur is in a law suit right now in Judge Thomson’s court being litigated and it has been going on since February.
Fact 23: There are also in other law suits against the City of Decatur for the toxins coming from the land fill. In our opinion they are past guilty.
It needs to be said we missed this. Erin published it on her facebook. This permit was issued in February of this year. They dumped for years with out one , only when East Lawrence west Morgan water law suit did they get s permit, Now this permit was issued before the new May 26 EPA ruling, so it’s probably not legal now. Question is: Are the people going to let the state give Decatur sewage the right to poison their children ?
Unlimited Amounts Of Unlimited PFs EACH Allowed in the Water PER DAY
(Click the images for the larger version)
A. At our public city dump they put pipes every few feet to drain the water from the land fill. This drainage runs into a small holding pond. When the pond runs over, the liquid runs right into the sewage system that only treats for bacteria, not toxins, then right into the river. Now the consequence of this is indescribable. The plants have been dumping in the land fill for years so there is a lot more going to the river than just PFOS and PFOA and recall that just one oil filter contaminates 30,000 gallons of water.
B. The sludge that farmers allowed the sewage department to dump on their land ruined it. You could say it’s the plants fault who dumped it, but the city is still doing it every day. Why is that important?
C. When you dump toxins, you are supposed to have a permit, Decatur is not permitted for any of these toxins, so therefore it is not legal. If you are caught dumping non permitted toxins you are supposed to be shut down, ADEM is responsible for this yet they have not done anything; they answer to the Governor and the City Mayor.
(07/26 Update: Even though the city of Decatur has several lawsuits with more coming for this practice, they are still dumping unrestricted toxins into the river every day. The EPA has given them an unrestricted permit and ADEM has rubber stamped it.)
City Councilmen are all aware of this and responsible for this, yet they are the ones calling out Don for saying, “don’t drink the water until we fix it.” If you trust the EPA, ADEM, or the Decatur City Officials put a yellow idiot feather in your hair, so we can recognize you. By the time the Toxins reach the river they have been diluted. We need samples of what’s in the holding pond. What are all these toxins that the city is dumping into the river? Denying it, won’t fly this time. In the Congress hearings about Flint River in Michigan the congressmen stated they knew that Flint was not a isolated case.
Instead if protecting the residents of the city they have become a major player in poisoning the drinking water in north Alabama. SURE YOU CAN TRUST THEM WHEN THEY SAY THE WATERS SAFE. There needs to be independent tests done with no flushing and at random sites, then you will have the facts.
By stopping both dams, there isn’t a river anymore it’s a impoundment, lake or reservoir. The wind decides which direction the water is pushed. We have proof that the wind pushes the water upstream, we found plant toxins above HWY 65, miles above the Decatur utilities water pick up. Decatur can completely fix their water problems, by a constant river flow from TVA and a permitted release from the chemical plants on a high river flow. In our opinion, there’s something going on here or it would have been already implemented.
What’s going on? The industry on the river has had a law firm taking care of their interests for decades; the same law firm. Now the city of Decatur also uses the same law firm, the one that’s helped industry get permits to dump unlimited amounts of toxins in the river. The city of Decatur is also a major polluter now releasing 10s of thousands of pounds of toxins in the river each year from the land field. They are in litigation now with more law suits to follow. The reason they won’t ask for a constant river flow is that would cramp industries style. Now they can dump what they want when they want to. Your health absolutely does not enter the picture. What do you think the law firm would recommend!! They’re not going to jail. The elected officials will be. They’re exhuming stillborn babies and early infant deaths now. They are going to be facing wrongful death and gross criminal negligence charges. They have allowed the fox to watch the hen house.
By a constant river flow and a legal release permit, the toxins could be diluted even dramatically down stream. They need to be stopped!!! Because the toxins don’t break down EPA can declare ADEM to be ineffective and take over. That’s likely to happen, then we can get these permits stopped. Our river is a federal water way with many restrictions. They have not been enforced for one reason. The TVA. They are a federal agency and they have held EPA at bay. They need to be sold, then they could and would be regulated. We don’t have Government owned oil refineries. Why the heck do we have a Government owned electric company? The government put TVA in place to regulate the river against floods and the hydro electric power would help recoup the cost. Now hydroelectric power only makes up about 5 percent of their total electrical output! Coal electrical power plants are the worst polluters. The EPA did come in on the TVA on Bear Creek making them have timed releases, with the dam on high river flow. That’s where we have to start, here TVA is essentially the law ,the only way that’s going to happen is through public demand. THAT’S YOU!!!
(We were extremely wrong. The governor had given them a permit to dump 1000 pounds an hour of several PFs a day, so they can legally poison people down stream. This is an unlimited permit.)
Fact. 24 When there is no river flow and the plants release their toxins, they just float around on the bottom of the channel like a big cloud of milk killing all it comes in contact with. My first experience with this was 25 years ago ; I was diving in front of Fox Creek early spring, when TVA was just starting to hold water for maximum money that year. All of a sudden dead and dying fish started floating by me. I was close to the channel and could see a cloud going down stream. TVA had just started moving the water. When I eased over to take a look there were thousands of dying and dead fish in that cloud of water moving down stream. I was mesmerized, so I did not see the cloud had come out of the channel banks and had engulfed me. My skin immediately began to burn, I quickly got into my boat ran to Cedar Point, got out of my wet suit and scrubbed for 15 – 20 minutes until I had calmed down enough to get dressed, I developed blisters all over my body.
Fact. 25 I contacted ADEM and reported the kill. He asked if you “could see it from the bank.” I told him no, the fish were in the channel they had not floated, yet were moving down stream. They needed to be told where the kill was. He told me they had no boat or any dive equipment. His job was to go to the bank and see if the fish kill was big enough to cause a health hazard and if so, call the Governor so the National Guard could be called in. My reply was, you don’t mean to tell me you get paid for doing that! In fact he did was paid quite well. Well that’s whats been going on.
Ronnie Abercrombie had a similar experience on flint creek . They have succeeded in polluting our fish, making it where only a yellow feather would get in the water and tried to hide it from us and deny it. People aren’t quite as gullible as a few years ago.
We are getting used to corrupt officials!!
This is a personal note. I am a seriously religious man, I am a bible student, well read and well versed in scripture. I firmly believe that only Divine intervention can stop this type of pollution due to the greed of wicked mankind. Wheeler Lake is just a pin point on the global map, so why all the trouble when Wheeler Lake is just a drop in the bucket ? To explain, the world has many times more water than land, so at any given time someone is drowning. There is nothing we can do about that. However if we came across a drowning man close enough to help, even if it meant putting your self in personal danger, a God fearing man would feel obligated to help. A good man would even feel guilty if he did not jump in and try. All the board members of Warriors For Clean Water have that attitude: others before ourselves. You are our agenda, so we have no reason to falsify anything.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! Testing is very expensive. Our testing is not complete, we only have a preliminary analysis, there are many more sites on the river that have to be tested. A monetary price for the clean up, cannot even be figured until we get all the tests done. If we lawyer up they would pay for the tests, but the tests would belong to them. Usually in a settlement, a condition is that, test results are not released. our goal is not only to clean it up, but to expose what’s been happening. When people are informed, then the likelihood of it happening again is very slim.
Every one has heard of the Indian war path. This was quite literally a path, the Indians met on when the chief and council called them to war, the battle was at the end of the path. As more and more warriors got on the path it was a scary sight, especially if those on the path were after you, To help raise money for the tests, we are going to add red feather items on our shopping cart, small window decals, tee shirts, caps etc . If you are showing a single red feather, every one will know you want your river back. We are also wanting to have a music festival to raise money. Our goal is to have a red feather day then, where there will be tens of thousands of people brandishing red feathers, that will get national attention and help get Congress involved One or two Indians on a war path isn’t very effective when going up against a powerful enemy, we need the path full. Please help. Our website is going viral if everyone had just donated $1.00, it will go a long way, nothing is too small. We are a 501C3 corporation, donations can be taken off your taxes.
Lastly, this is worst than you can imagine, you can read how my family was affected on our web page. I was in a wheel chair for 5 years. It destroyed me financially, and our family is not an isolated case. There are 1000’s of people that have been affected. Most of you had not heard how it affected my family. There are other families out there that no one knows about. When I was in Dr. Jerry Weavers office getting a burn looked at,there was a young man in his waiting room covered in blisters. He said Jerry had been treating him for months and hadn’t found out what the cause was yet. Jerry identified the rash on my son Ross and there are less than a dozen cases in the world, usually he can identify almost anything. When I got to see him, I told him we were working on cleaning up the river. His reply was good luck with that. I ask how do you personally feel about the river? His reply was you couldn’t pay me to stick my toe in it. Ronnie Abercrombie was in Dr. Kurt Jackson’s clinic when he came in to see Ronnie. He said I owe you an apology .He had seen all the news releases and he told Ronnie he had wrote him off as some kind of conspiracy nut. Ronnie Abercrombie asked how do I join the conspiracy? Up until the test results started to come out that’s what a lot of people thought. Find out where your doctor stands, it’s very important.
Please help in any way you can …it’s your river!!!!!!!
Ron Mixon WCW
Things are happening fast here and the site is being updated by the hour or even quicker. Bear with us as we try and keep you completely informed.
Please do not ask the Warriors For Clean Water to support or endorse any candidate for political office. Our only mission is to educate and expose!! – RM
